dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dale Larson) (03/29/90)
I am still (for more than a year) looking for a way to really network several
amigas and only amigas together. I know of serial solutions which are too
slow. I know of an ethernet board that requires a unix box as a fileserver.
I have heard rumors of another ethernet board which has software for an
amiga only network. I've heard rumors that the companies formed after CMI's
demise might release networking software for their AppleTalk cards. I
currently share a harddrive between several machines on a scsi bus, but
there are no facilities for more than one machine having write access to
the same files, and there are no facilities for interprocess communications
between processes running on different machines.
I _really_ need to have a network soon, and to be able to write software
which utilizes the network. Unfortunately I can't program any of the real
systems which I've seen, nor can I program rumors. Is there any hope for
me? Please reply by email, I will post a summary if there is anything
worth summarizing.--
There are two ways to improve on human factors in computing:
Make the programmers less stupid and/or make the users less stupid.
Both are necessary, neither are likely.
-Digital Teddy Bear (dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu)daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (03/30/90)
In article <6431@blake.acs.washington.edu> dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dale Larson) writes: >I have heard rumors of another ethernet board which has software for an >amiga only network. This is from a British company called Hydra Systems. They make a Zorro II Ethernet card, and software called "AmigaNet" which implements an Amiga peer-peer networked filesystem. The software protocols aren't any standard, far as I can tell, but if you're just interested in connecting Amigas, this shouldn't be a problem. I don't know if Hydra has a US distributer, but if you can't find anything more on them, I'll certainly go and look up their UK address for you. -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy Too much of everything is just enough
cmcmanis@stpeter.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (03/30/90)
In article <6431@blake.acs.washington.edu> (Dale Larson) writes: >I am still (for more than a year) looking for a way to really network several >amigas and only amigas together. What do you mean when you say "network several amigas ... together" ? There are currently three common uses for network "media". The first is to allow one system to act as a virtual terminal to another system. Applications that support this in UNIX are rlogin, telnet, and rsh. The second is to share resources such as file systems and printers. Again applications that can do this are NFS and lpd. Thirdly, networks are used to distribute computing (which is actually finer grained resource sharing). Available ways to do this are through remote procedure calls and network based interprocess communication. On the Amiga there are different levels of networking solutions available for different reasons. o In area "1", remote logins. The Amiga doesn't have a concept of "remote" users or even users in general. So it is pretty much impossible to exactly mimic what multiuser systems do in this area. You can use any of the existing network solutions (serial, ethernet) to essentially allow remote shell operations. "NewCli < NET:hostname" or something. There is no security here and so only a very limited number of people would "buy" this. Your best bet is to either write it yourself or convince someone like Matt dillon to write it. (Which in fact he has to some extent with dnet/fterm) o In the area of file sharing. Well, your right the NFS stuff from Ameristar only works with an NFS server and there isn't an NFS server for the Amiga yet. o IPC using networks. Well this has been around for a while. The socket library code that you can get for the Ameristar board will let you write programs that need to communicate over the network and in fact this is what Dale's X11 does. >I _really_ need to have a network soon, and to be able to write software >which utilizes the network. Unfortunately I can't program any of the real >systems which I've seen, nor can I program rumors. *How* do you plan to utilize the network. If you just want to send data back and forth between processes get the socket library for the Ameristar board. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: <none> Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "If it didn't have bones in it, it wouldn't be crunchy now would it?!"
aaron@madnix.UUCP (Aaron Avery) (04/06/90)
In article <10434@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie) writes: >In article <6431@blake.acs.washington.edu> dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dale Larson) writes: >>I have heard rumors of another ethernet board which has software for an >>amiga only network. > >This is from a British company called Hydra Systems. They make a Zorro II >Ethernet card, and software called "AmigaNet" which implements an Amiga >peer-peer networked filesystem. The software protocols aren't any >standard, far as I can tell, but if you're just interested in connecting There's also TSSNet from Syndesis. Their software is an implementation of the DECNet protocol with comprehensive Amiga support. It can be used for peer-to-peer applications or interfaced with existing DECNet systems. Dale's XWindows is fully compatible with it, and all software and hardware is being supported by companies in the US, with no middleman. This one is well worth looking into. - Aaron -- Aaron Avery, ASDG Inc. "A mime is a terrible thing to waste." -- Robin Williams ARPA: madnix!aaron@cs.wisc.edu {uunet|ncoast}!marque! UUCP: {harvard|rutgers|ucbvax}!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!aaron
exedre@pisaug.UUCP (Emmanuele 'Exedre' Somma) (04/07/90)
>In article <6431@blake.acs.washington.edu> (Dale Larson) writes: >>I am still (for more than a year) looking for a way to really network several >>amigas and only amigas together. >What do you mean when you say "network several amigas ... together" ? There >are currently three common uses for network "media". The first is to allow >one system to act as a virtual terminal to another system. Applications >that support this in UNIX are rlogin, telnet, and rsh. The second is to >share resources such as file systems and printers. Again applications that >can do this are NFS and lpd. Thirdly, networks are used to distribute >computing (which is actually finer grained resource sharing). Available >ways to do this are through remote procedure calls and network based >interprocess communication. On the Amiga there are different levels of >networking solutions available for different reasons. >..... >..... >>I _really_ need to have a network soon, and to be able to write software >>which utilizes the network. Unfortunately I can't program any of the real >>systems which I've seen, nor can I program rumors. >..... We are a group of italian developers and we have build an Amiga Local Area Network. Our net supports task comunication between different machines, by now we made also a software for file system sharing and a mailing application, but you can do distribute processing as well using our network. If you want more information please call us. P.I.S.A. Amiga User Group c/o Emmanuele 'Exedre' Somma, via S. Marta 57, 56127 PISA UUCP: ...!cbmvax!cbmehq!cbmita!pisaug!exedre
cmcmanis@stpeter.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (04/10/90)
In article <6546@blake.acs.washington.edu> (Dale Larson) writes: > I plan to use the network in a small law office which already has three > amigas sharing a harddrive ... it would be nice [to] add UNIX boxes > in the future. Ok, this says you probably want your networking software to support NFS which the existing Ameristar product does. What is currently unavailable is an NFS server for the Amiga. Writing one is fairly straightforward (I did a test one using the RAM disk.) if you know networking code. The amiga file system makes it a bit difficult to write stateless file systems but the Commodore folks are aware of this and may make changes. (basically all that is needed is a "reuse" count that lets you know when the lock you are holding is now invalid.) > It would be asking too much for the networking hard/software to > consider remote access via modem, but there will soon be at least > one machine off site which would like to share files and I guess > we'll use dnet for that. If you use something like SLIP or another TCP/IP type product this stuff can be made to work over modems. You just have to be aware of what can happen when a crackers modem finds your modem. > Having a shared electronic calendar is wonderful, but even with mere file > sharing collitions result since people leave their calendars open all day > and it is asking too much for them to keep track of wether the file has > been updated since they opened it. We would also like a fairly simple, > but none-the-less shared, special purpose database. Since I have > several years of experience programming the amiga and am about to > get a degree in cs, I am going to do a six month internship to write > these programs. Hence, the network needs IPC using the net. You can port the freely available Sun RPC sources to the Ameristar sockets library and use that for IPC. I caution you though that writing distributed databases is something that is fraught with pitfalls. Look up the available literature on name services for some ideas. You might even be able to use a name service as the basis for the calendar program. > The attorney is hoping to market these programs, but I have made clear > to him that my intent is to give his office a solution to >their problems, and that even if there are other people interested in the >software, they are probably not running networked Amigas (in other words, >the market would probably be to small to bother with). Let him decide, and remember to make sure you get a piece of the action if he does. >Because I'd like to leave open the possiblity of adding networks in the >future, and because I'd prefer not to learn a non-standard ipc protocol, >I'd love to use a socket library. Since I need file sharing without >a UNIX server, the Ameristar is, unfortunately, not an option. You don't understand, the Ameristar board doesn't *require* a UNIX server it can use an _NFS_ server. The protocol for which is distributed with the Sun RPC package. (You can ftp it from titan.rice.edu, look for RPCSRC 4.0) If you want to write an NFS server that runs on the Amiga that is an excellent start. Many people have done so. You might also ask Ameristar if they have one and if so if you could use it. Anyway, the sockets and stuff are completely usable with no UNIX boxes anywhere in sight. --Chuck McManis Sun Microsystems uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: <none> Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "I tell you this parrot is bleeding deceased!"
velasco@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Gabriel Velasco) (04/10/90)
mks@cbmvax (Michael Sinz - CATS) writes: >ARCnet and Ethernet are both HARDWARE standards. The actual "Ethernet" hardware standard is called 802.3. Ethernet is a specific implementation of that standard that has become "standard" and is licensed out to various manufacturers. ________________________________________________ <>___, / / | ... and he called out and said, "Gabriel, give | /___/ __ / _ __ ' _ / | this man an understanding of the vision." | /\__/\(_/\/__)\/ (_/_(/_/|_ |_______________________________________Dan_8:16_|
grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) (04/10/90)
In article <8133@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu> velasco@beowulf.UUCP (Gabriel Velasco) writes: > mks@cbmvax (Michael Sinz - CATS) writes: > > >ARCnet and Ethernet are both HARDWARE standards. > > The actual "Ethernet" hardware standard is called 802.3. Ethernet is a > specific implementation of that standard that has become "standard" and is > licensed out to various manufacturers. Please avoid posting nonsense with such great assurance. 8-) There are three distinct "Ethernet" standards that predate 802.3. Much of the "Ethernet" installed base is still based on these standards. 802.3 is the 4th incremental redefinition of "Ethernet" and some of it's features have eventually gained acceptance. Note that "Ethernet" isn't strictly a hardware standard in the sense of specifying cables and connectors, it also specifies details of the lowest level protocols. You may consider these either hardware or software as suits your preferences. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing: domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com Commodore, Engineering Department phone: 215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)