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Document Amiga Networking FAQ AMIGA NETWORKING FAQ Current version 1.5 Date 9/06/94 The primary purpose of a FAQ is to preserve network bandwidth by answering Frequently Asked Questions. A FAQ's second purpose is to provide an altruistic public service to users and vendors. 0. Copyrightless & Disclaimer ======================= 0.1. Lack of Copyright Notice ----------------------------- With the exception of Trademarks which are the property of their respective owners, the material contained in this FAQ is PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE, and therefore is NOT copyrightable. Richard Norman is merely serving as moderator and maintainer. Anyone has permission to copy any or all of this FAQ, but you do not have the right to copyright it. In the event of my demise :-( or if this FAQ should become dormant for a period of 4 (four) months, someone else is free to assume the role of moderator and update the FAQ. I'd prefer someone who was willing to distribute it in as many formats as possible. Current distribution includes ASCII, and Amiga guide. They should also distribute it as wide as possible. News.answers and the Amiga home page on WWW or their predecessors as a minimum. 0.2. Distribution policy --------------------------------- The FAQ may be freely distributed. Portions can be included in derived works, but may not be exclusively copyrighted (see ` Lack of Copyright Notice' ) (i.e. You cannot prevent others from using this information in their derived works.) The FAQ is a compilation of a number of people's work, and answers provided by users and vendors. Therefore it belongs to no one and to every one (i.e. Public Knowledge). 0.3. Disclaimer ------------------------ The information contained in this FAQ is supplied "as is" without express or implied warranty. I make no representations about the suitability or accuracy of this document for any purpose. If you have better information, then please share it. Altruistic submissions are welcome. `Feedback' If someone sees errors, let the moderator know, `feedback' and it will be corrected as time permits. All information provided here is meant for informational purposes and is not to be taken as an endorsement for any particular product. (Note: in most cases only one company provides any given service anyway). If anyone knows of additional relevant products, let the moderator know, `feedback' and they'll be added to the list as time permits. 1. Acknowledgments and Revisions --------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Richard Gerber for being the original moderator. Richard A. Gerber email: gerber@zwicky.arc.nasa.gov Thanks to everyone who posts answers not flames. Contributions by: Alan BERNEY, Kai Bolay, Jim Dutton, Juha Koivisto, Dale Larson, Jukka Marin, Neil McRae, Michael Smith and many others. Special thanks to the vendors who took time to support this effort. And last but not least, Thanks to Stephan Surken for the text2guide utility which got me started. Date: 4/29/92 -- Original release V 1.0 -- Richard Gerber Date: 3/02/94 to 4/18/94 -- Update effort -- Richard Norman Date: 4/18/94 to 4/28/94 -- 1st review cycle -- Richard Norman Date: 4/29/94 -- news.answers Draft release V1.1 -- Richard Norman Date: 5/01/94 to 5/12/94 -- added info on X11, GG2, and TorqueWare for V1.2 -- Richard Norman Date: 5/31/94 -- added info on UUCP,GRn, etc. -- Richard Norman Date: 6/02/94 -- released V1.4 official news version -- Richard Norman Date: 7/26/94 -- began V1.5 -- Richard Norman Date: 8/26/94 -- began V1.5 again --Richard Norman Date: 9/06/94 -- Finished V1.5 -- Richard Norman 2. The FAQ ============= The Amiga Guide version of this FAQ is available on `Aminet' in the /pub/aminet/docs/help directory. Due to the method I'm using to write the FAQ, marking the margins to indicate new material is not feasible. Look for new questions towards the end of each list. 2.1. Product Availability (A) ---------------------------------------- ` A01' What do I need to hook up my Amiga 2,3, 4000 to ethernet? ` A02' Can I hook up an Amiga 500, 1000, or 1200 to ethernet? ` A03' Is X Windows available for the Amiga? ` A04' Is DECnet available? ` A05' Is AppleTalk available? ` A06' Is Novel Netware available? ` A07' Are there any peer-peer network packages for the Amiga? ` A08' Is TCP/IP available? ` A09' Is Mosaic available? ` A10' Is Gopher available? ` A11' Is electronic mail available? ` A12' Is OSI or GOSIP available? ` A13' Is network multimedia available? ` A14' Is UUCP available? ` A15' Is SLIP or PPP available? ` A16' Is network parallel programming available? -------------v NEW STUFF V---------------------------- ` A17' Is Arcnet available? ` A18' What is TIA, and is it useful to an Amiga user? 2.1.1. answers ============ 2.1.1.1. A01 ------------------ What do I need to hook up my Amiga 2,3, or 4000 to ethernet? If the following sounds like geek 8-) then try the `Generic (G)' section. You basically have two choices: a direct connection which requires a ethernet card or a much slower remote connection via the serial port. An ethernet card is also referred to as an ethernet adapter, an ethernet controller, or as a network interface card. One reason it is called a network interface card is that there are other types of networks out there besides ethernet ( ARCNET for example). Ethernet is just extremely popular. There are several cards to choose from and they support different ethernet cable types. See the generic section for a description of cable types. See the product specs section to see which cards support which cables. In addition to the card you will need a protocol to communicate to other hosts or nodes. See a description of protocols in the generic section. The protocols all require configuration such as an address which you should get from your network administrator or service provider. Ethernet cards: The `A2065' Ethernet Network Interface Adapter is by `Commodore Business Machines' . The `A4066' `Ameristar' ethernet card supersedes the A2065 card. `LAN Rover' is by `ASDG' and is now called the EB920. Also there is a card called the `Hydra' . All of these cards are full size and most are `SANA II' compatible. Cheap PC ethernet cards can be used in conjunction withe the `GG2 bus+' card from `Software Results Enterprises'. These cards can be used with protocol software such as Commodore `AS225' TCP/IP Networking Software, TSSnet `DECnet' software by `Thunder Ridge, Inc.' , and Netware by `Oxxi' . Also `ENLAN-DFS', and `Envoy' provide Amiga to Amiga networking using these cards. Serial port: If you have a high speed modem and somewhere to dial into for ethernet access, then you can use either `SLIP' or `PPP' with `TCP-IP' or one of the `AmigaNOS Flavors' to become a full fledged TCP/IP node on the network. It won't be as fast as a direct ethernet connection, but you can still do a lot. Also, `DECnet' will work with the serial port. Again the speed being the big trade-off. No place to dial into? You can usually find a book on the Internet at a bookstore that lists the major providers, but your local user groups and BBS users can provide good insight into which are the best or cheapest. Or if you have email look at the `WAN providers' section. Although it is feasible to use SLIP & TCP/IP over a modem to connect to a friend's modem and machine, it is not necessary, and is much more difficult to setup than modem software. Although there are a few more things you can do with this type of connection, it is not for the novice at this time. 2.1.1.2. A02 ----------------- Can I hook up an Amiga 500,1000, 1200 to ethernet? Yes, Almost all Amiga models can be hooked to the ethernet. Using the serial port is the cheapest, but the fastest is a direct connect using an ethernet adapter card. For the 1200 `Interworks' has an ethernet card called `ICard' that will support the major protocols. They also have some Amiga peer to peer software products for the ICard. For the 500 and 1000: The `A2065' has reportedly been used successfully with third-party expansion boxes, such as Bodega Bay. It has also been reported that the A2065 card can be used with the Slingshot expansion device used with an Amiga 500 and a SupraDrive 500XP's pass-through. The A2065 has been superseded by the `Ameristar' `A4066' . Don't know if it works with the A500 or A1000. The serial port approach for TCP/IP is supported by several `AmigaNOS Flavors' or `AmiTCP' or `AS225r2' all of which require `SLIP' or `PPP' to use the serial port. `DECnet' can be also be used with the serial port. 2.1.1.3. A03 ---------------- Is X Windows available for the Amiga? `X11R4' full color for the Amiga is available from `GfxBase, Inc.'. Also available are XView, OpenLook, Motif, programmers toolkits, and Berkeley sockets library. X Windows supports Commodore TCP/IP and TSSnet `DECnet' for ethernet and serial connections, SANA for local. A demo version is available on `Aminet' in /pub/aminet/gfx/X11 In the same directory you can find DaggeX. More info on this later. Also check out the `X11 FAQ' for help with X specific questions. 2.1.1.4. A04 ---------------- Is DECnet available? TSSnet `DECnet' from `Thunder Ridge, Inc.' allows your Amiga to be a phase IV end node in a DECnet network. TSSnet supports `X11R4' from `GfxBase, Inc.' which provides DECWindows support for applications running on a VAX system. TSSnet DECnet can communicate over ethernet as well as the Amiga serial port. 2.1.1.5. A05 ---------------- Is AppleTalk available? There are a few implementations of AppleTalk software and LocalTalk hardware available for the Amiga. For Amiga 2,3, and 4000's the AMAX board and the Emplant board offer Localtalk and Appletalk options. 2.1.1.6. A06 ---------------- Is Novel Netware available? A Novel Netware client package is available from `Oxxi' Several people have posted that the client is not `SANA II' compatible yet. If you need this, then please contact Oxxi for the latest info. I hope to post more info in a future version of the FAQ. 2.1.1.7. A07 ---------------- Are there any peer-peer network packages for the Amiga? Yes, several. `ENLAN-DFS' from `Interworks' provides peer to peer networking and Distributed File System over `SANA II' compatible hardware. `Envoy' from `IAM' provides peer to peer networking for Amigas that is tied very close to the operating system. It too is SANA II compatible. ALAN-FS is a peer-to-peer network package that allows full transparent file-sharing, device sharing over ethernet. It requires WB2.0 and the Commodore AS225 package. It is available from `GfxBase, Inc', or `Canadian Prototype Replicas'. NOTE: Current Product status unknown. `FEEDBACK' appreciated. Dnet --- Dnet has client/server software for both Amiga-Amiga and Amiga-UNIX networking over a serial line. Among other things Dnet supports shells, file transfer, IRC, and something like NFS. Dnet is available on `Aminet'. Don't have any more info at this time `FeedBack' appreciated. PARnet/PARbench --- PARbench is a workbench installable version of PARnet which allows two Amigas to be networked using a parallel port and cable. It is basically file sharing. 2.1.1.8. A08 ---------------- Is TCP/IP available? Yes, three public domain versions, and a commercial version. `AS225' by `Commodore Business Machines' is a commercial version which supports NFS. `AmiTCP' is a gnu public license version of TCP/IP ( see the `AmiTCP FAQ' for more details). AmiTCP is available from `Aminet' AmigaNOS and AmigaNOSGW are two `AmigaNOS Flavors' which provide TCP/IP over the serial port and modem. Also AmigaNOS supports a HAM radio/X.25 interface. 2.1.1.9. A09 ---------------- Is Mosaic available? Yes, a public domain version called `Amosaic' is available using FTP from max.physics.sunysb.edu Or on `Aminet' under comm/net. Updates are available by accessing the Amiga home page using Amosaic. It requires AmigaDos 3.x and TCP/IP to access remote hosts. See the product specific section `AMosaic (AM)' for more hints. Also see the generic section for a description of Mosaic. ` G08' 2.1.1.10. A10 ---------------- Is Gopher available? Yes, Graham Walter has written a Gopher client for `AmiTCP' and AmigaNOSGW (not to be confused with John Heaton's AmigaNOS) see `AmigaNOS Flavors' There is an `AmigaNOS FAQ' available as well. The AmiTCP gopher client is available on `Aminet' 2.1.1.11. A11 ---------------- Is electronic mail available? Yes, the `DECnet' package from `Thunder Ridge, Inc.' supports VMSmail. `AmigaELM' supports UUCP mail. Both packages require a mail utility on a remote host. You should also pick up a copy of InetUtils from Aminet. It has a SMTP client which is suppose to work with AmigaELM. SMTP is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or the Send Mail To People protocol as my friend calls it. SMTP is a defined standard for email over the TCP/IP protocol and therefore is widely used on the Internet. This SMTP client is not suppose to require a remote mailbox. Graham Walter has uploaded a SMTP daemon for AmiTCP to `Aminet' Also available for both `AmigaNOS flavors' is a mail agent called BM, B-Dale's Messy-Dos Mailer. It doesn't have as nice an interface as Elm, but is easy to use and can build RFC822 formatted files. There are probably others which I've missed `Feedback' 2.1.1.12. A12 ---------------- Is OSI or GOSIP available? To Be Determined `FEEDBACK' appreciated. 2.1.1.13. A13 ---------------- Is network based multimedia available? InfoChannel is a `SCALA, Inc.' product that can run over LAN's or modems. It allows remote Amiga multimedia stations to be controlled from a central Amiga host. Data can also be stored centrally and supplied upon demand. InfoChannel also comes with tools and graphics for creating a multimedia service such as a kiosk. Also `Amosaic' can be used as a multimedia hypertext user interface for both local and remote data. 2.1.1.14. A14 ---------------- Is UUCP available? Yes, Matt Dillon ported `UUCP' to the Amiga. It is currently maintained by Michael Smith. It is available on `Fred Fish' and `Aminet' as AmigaUUCP. It has it's own FAQ. See `UUCP FAQ' There are also generic UUCP FAQ's available in the `FAQ archive'. 2.1.1.15. A15 ---------------- Is SLIP or PPP available? `SLIP' is available as part of AmiTCP. You can check the `AmiTCP FAQ' for more info. AmiTCP can be found on `Aminet'. More details on SLIP will be added to this FAQ as they become known `Feedback' hint, hint. ;-) Several versions of `PPP' are under development. A shareware version was recently released. I believe it is called PPP.device. You can look for it on `Aminet' or watch the comp.sys.amiga.announce and comp.sys.amiga.datacomm newsgroups for updates. 2.1.1.16. A16 --------------------- Is network parallel programming available? `TorqueWare (TM)' is by `AugmenTek' and allows parallel programming between several Amigas. Also an Amiga running AugmenTek's TorqueWare can act as a client to a SGI or Mac running TorqueWare by Torque Systems. 2.1.1.17. A17 ------------------ Is Arcnet available? Although I don't like to deal with vaporware, I have an official announcement from `CSA' that they intend to release some very interesting Arcnet products around the first of the year. So stay tuned. Arcnet runs at about 2.5 Mbits/sec which is a lot faster than parnet or Appletalk, but not as fast as ethernet. Arcnet hardware is cheaper than ethernet, however, so for a small shop may be a better deal. 2.1.1.18. A18 ------------------- What is TIA, and is it useful to an Amiga User? TIA <==> The Internet Adapter (TM) by Cyberspace Development, Inc. (CSD). marketplace.com It is a commercial software product that enables shell account users to have partial SLIP access to the Internet without paying the extra monthly surcharge, and without having to have an Internet address. Since TIA runs on the service providers host, Amiga users can take advantage of it too. Although the service provider misses out on some revenue, they also miss out on a lot of management headaches from SLIP. Check with your service provider to see if TIA is endorsed. The drawback to TIA is that you don't have your own internet address, and therefore no one can telnet or FTP to your machine. This does not stop you from running Mosaic or FTP *OUT*. Just the incoming is unavailable. In other words you can act only as a client not a server. Another drawback is that you still have to have SLIP on the Amiga side. TIA basically sets up a unidirectional software gateway that speaks SLIP to your Amiga over the serial port of the host, and TCP/IP over the host's ethernet card. TIA doesn't allow the AmiTCP packets to pass directly to the Internet therefore your machine has no address as far as the Internet is concerned. The Internet only sees the service host. TIA merely forwards the packets. |====< AMIGA >================================| | AMosaic---AmiTCP---SLIP---Amiga serial port-|--> |=============================================| modem<-----serial line----->modem |====< Service Host >======| <--|---host serial port--- | | ---your Shell Account--- | | ---*_TIA_*---TCP/IP--- | | ---host ethernet port----|--> |==========================| <---INTERNET---> WWW http server There are well written docs available on line from CSD that explain TIA much better. You can FTP them from marketplace.com. You can also use gopher and Mosaic to the same site. 2.2. Product Specific ================ Amosaic section is NEW! 2.2.1. Commodore TCPIP (B) --------------------------------------- Questions about Commodore's TCPIP software `B01' I can't login to my Amiga over the network. Why? `B02' When I FTP to some hosts, I get part of an introductory message and then either the network hangs up or the connection gets closed. Why? `B03' Is Domain Name Resolution available with the AS225 software? `B04' Can I use NFS to mount a partition on my Amiga from a remote machine? `B05' I can't use FTP, rsh or rcp into my Amiga. Why? `B06' FTP into my Amiga works, but rsh and rcp into my Amiga don't. `B07' I can communicate with machines on my network/floor/building, but I can't communicate with other machines even though they are in my inet:db/hosts file. 2.2.1.1. answers for CBM TCP-IP ------------------------------------------- 2.2.1.1.1. B01 -------------------- I can't login to my Amiga over the network. Why? The AS225 software does not support interactive remote logins to the Amiga. It does have servers for rsh (remote shell), rcp (remote copy) and does support remote FTP logins. rsh allows you to execute commands on the Amiga, but does not allow an interactive shell. Late breaking news which I haven't had time to research: For `AmiTCP' there are supposedly two utilities on `Aminet' called tnserv.lha and FtpDaemon.lha that provide remote telnet and FTP to an Amiga. Don't know how well they work or if they will work with `AS225r2'.. You can consult the `AmiTCP FAQ' or stay tuned for future releases of this FAQ. Or better yet, download them and see for yourself ;-) 2.2.1.1.2. B02 ------------------- When I FTP to some hosts, I get part of an introductory message and then either the network hangs up or the connection gets closed. Why? There apparently is a bug in the AS225 software that causes trouble when ftp'ing to a system that has a long login message. You can suppress this login message on some systems by typing a hyphen ('-') as the first character in your password. 2.2.1.1.3. B03 ------------------- Is Domain Name Resolution available with the AS225 software? No. You must have an entry in the host table for each machine you wish to reference by name (as opposed to IP address). And no, the gateways file is not currently used. 2.2.1.1.4. B04 -------------------- Can I use NFS to mount a partition on my Amiga from a remote machine? No. Currently, the AS225 software only supports NFS as a client. An NFS server is not included. 2.2.1.1.5. B05 ------------------ I can't use FTP, rsh or rcp into my Amiga. Why? Make sure that you are running inet:s/start-inet with the servers keyword (i.e., "execute inet:s/start-inet servers"). 2.2.1.1.6. B06 -------------------- FTP into my Amiga works, but rsh and rcp into my Amiga don't. Make sure that you have an entry in inet:db/passwd for the user who is rshing into the Amiga (you can use the -l option to change the user trying to do the remote access.) Make sure that you have an entry in inet:db/hosts.equiv for the machine being rsh'd from. 2.2.1.1.7. B07 ------------------- I can communicate with machines on my network/floor/building, but I can't communicate with other machines even though they are in my inet:db/hosts file. Make sure that you have routes set up to other networks. Many networks have one primary gateway which you should make your default route for reaching all other networks. See the commented-out "route add default" line in inet:s/start-inet. 2.2.2. Envoy (E) --------------------------------------- Questions about Envoy `E1' How do I configure a machine which has both an Amiga Link and an ethernet connection so that machines on either network can see each other? 2.2.2.1. Answers to Envoy ---------------------------------- 2.2.2.1.1. E1 ----------------- How do I configure a machine which has both an Amiga Link and an ethernet connection so that machines on either network can see each other? Given machines A, B, and C with node B having both Amiga Link and Ethernet card (Quicknet) as shown below, and all running Envoy. A <=== Alink ===> B <=== Ethernet ===> C In order for node A to access node C or vice versa use the following configuration scheme: (IP addresses for example only!) node A node B node C IP-Address: 244.1.a.a 244.1.b1.b1 244.1.c.c 244.2.b2.b2 Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0 255.255.0.0 255.255.0.0 255.255.0.0 Use Realm: yes yes yes Realm-Server: NO yes yes Realm-Name: NET NET NET Server-Address 244.1.b1.b1 244.1.b1.b1 244.2.b2.b2 Default gateway: 244.1.b1.b1 ------ 244.2.b2.b2 Local Realms: ------ NET 244.1.0.0 ------- Local Realms: NET 244.2.0.0 Remote Realms: ------ ------ ------ where b1.b1, and a.a are the AmigaLink hardware addresses. i.e. the last two bytes of the IP address MUST match the hardware address on the AmigaLink interfaces. On the ethernet interfaces, however, b2.b2 and c.c can be anything since Envoy supports ARP on ethernet. NOTE: the IP addresses are for example ONLY! Unless you manage all the nodes concerned you must coordinate the IP addresses with your network administrator or provider. This example basically creates two TCP/IP domains: 244.1 and 244.2 Each domain can have multiple nodes. Node B serves as the gateway between the two domains. If you were to set up additional gateways to other domains, you would use the route command on each node that you wished to enable communications to the new domain. The route command merely tells TCP/IP which gateway or router to use for data that is to be sent to a particular domain thus providing a more direct path, and avoiding sending unnecessary traffic to other parts of the network. The gateway provides access to other parts of a network that would not otherwise be directly accessible. A router is dedicated to keeping track of routes to various domains. On large networks your default gateway will often point to a router thus negating the need to maintain route commands on each node. For further discussion of domains and beginner info on the Internet you should refer to `ZEN' 2.2.3. AMosaic (AM) --------------------------------------- Questions about AMosaic `AM1' What do I need to run AMosaic? `AM2' Is there a way to print from AMosaic using arexx? `AM3' Having problems with "service looping" with http? `AM4' How do I connect to a news server with AMosaic? `AM5' How do I access docs in AMosaic NoNet mode? `AM6' How do I make AMosaic appear on a custom screen? 2.2.3.1. Answers to AMosaic ---------------------------------- 2.2.3.1.1. AM1 ------------------- What do I need to run AMosaic? *A link to the Internet *Any Amiga running AmigaDos 3.0 or higher. ( Show your support for the Amiga... Buy 3.1! ) `Aminet' is the place to go for all the rest of this stuff! * Amosaic V1.2 (latest is available on max.physics.sunysb.edu) * MUI 2.0 or higher * `AmiTCP' 3.0b2 or DNET * SLIP (included with AmiTCP) or PPP * `INetUtils' (optional adds SMTP, etc.) * FTPd (optional allows inbound FTP) *The following utilities are used by default by Amosaic, but you can use others: amisox, edplay, zgif, ams They are available via Amosaic once you get it up and going. AmiTCP can be a bear to install, but if you read ALL of the docs it should go easier. Also they have real nice postscript docs available via anonymous FTP. Read the AmiTCP FAQ for the location. DNET may be more useful if you are connecting to a UNIX host, but I have no direct experience with DNET. I'm still looking for someone to contribute some info on DNET! `feedback' 2.2.3.1.2. AM2 -------------------- Is there a way to print from AMosaic using arexx? Thanks to a Quick and Dirty Hack by Mike Meyer there is! Although I tried to type it in correctly, I cannot guarantee that it will work since I have no way to test it. / * * A QAD hack to print from Mosaic via the Rexx interface */ arg style if ~show('Libraries', 'rexxarplib.library') then if ~addlib('rexxarplib.library', 0, -30) then do say "No rexxarplib, so no posting!" exit end options results select when style = "TEXT" then 'get text' when style = "FORMATTED" then 'get formatted' when style = "POSTSCRIPT" then do call request 0, 0, "Postscript doesn't work yet!" exit end otherwise call request 0, 0, "Invalid argument" style end if ~open(printer, "prt:", "Write") then do call request 0, 0, "Can't open printer!" exit end call writech printer, result exit 2.2.3.1.3. AM3 ------------------- Having problems with "service looping" with http? There is a version of the AmiTCP 3.0 Beta 2 inetd which is better behaved. It is available via anonymous FTP at remarque.berkeley.edu as /pub/mwm/inetd_for_httpd 2.2.3.1.4. AM4 -------------------- How do I connect to a news server with AMosaic? You specify the NNTPSERVER environment variable. This can be done at user-startup or from a shell. Use the setenv command. SETENV NNTPSERVER a.news.server.youre.allowed.on 2.2.3.1.5. AM5 ------------------- How do I access docs in AMosaic NoNet mode? The Amosaic NoNet version can run in stand alone mode ( i.e. NO NETwork). This is for testing purposes before you get your network connection. In v1.2 or earlier you are greeted with an error message instead of a document in this NoNet mode. To see the local html files you must use the Open Local menu item and then choose volumes. You must go all the way to the list of volumes because this allows you to build the file pointer from scratch. Choose the volume where Amosaic is stored and then work your way down to the docs/html directory. There should be a file called index.html. Choose it and it should open. There is a way to make this your default home page, but I'm not sure how. At any rate, you should be able to access any of the LOCAL html files in this manner. Once you open the index.html file it has hypertext links to many of the other local html documents. It also has remote links which obviously won't work in NoNet mode. 2.2.3.1.6. AM6 ------------------- How do I make AMosaic appear on a custom screen? You can make AMosaic appear on a custom screen by using the MUI Prefs, BUT don't do it while Amosaic is running!!! If AMosaic is running when you change the MUI prefs to a custom screen, it will crash your machine. Simple fix: Run MUI prefs and change the screen, and THEN run AMosaic. As the good Doc says, "If it hurts when you do that, then don't do that." 2.2.4. AmiTCP (AT) -------------------------- Questions about AmiTCP `AT01' Telnet in 3.0b2 locks up my shell when I exit. Is this a bug? `AT02' Startnet in 3.0b2 says there is "no such interface" why? `AT03' My provider assigns SLIP addresses dynamically. Now What? 2.2.4.1. Answers to AmiTCP -------------------------------------- 2.2.4.1.1. AT01 -------------------- Telnet in 3.0b2 locks up my shell when I exit. Is this a bug? Yes, and is quite typical of BETA software. Remember beta software is still under construction and has not been extensively tested. Bug reports and patches can be found on kampi.hut.fi Amitcp 3.0b2 telnet when used with AmigaDOS 3.0 or 3.1 uncovered a bug in the console software. Solution is to either A) use the telnet from 2.3 of AmiTCP or B) use a console handler like KingCON which is available on `Aminet' C) get a "fixed" version of telnet from kampi.hut.fi 2.2.4.1.2. AT02 -------------------- Startnet in 3.0b2 says there is "no such interface" why? Because you failed to read the NOTE to BETA testers. This is BETA software so you ARE a Beta tester. BETA software is still under construction and therefore so are the manuals and the install script. There are some OUTSTANDING postscript manuals available for AmiTCP 2.x The 3.0 stuff hasn't been added to the postscript manuals yet so the postscript docs aren't in the 3.0 archive, but they are available online at kampi.hut.fi and other places. To fix the "no such interface" problem you must edit two files: amitcp:db/interfaces and amitcp:bin/startnet. In amitcp:bin/startnet you must change the ifconfig commands so that instead of file name/interface number devs:network/a2065.device/0 you have alias0 where alias is defined by you in the interfaces file. Some predefined aliases are already in the interfaces file. In fact the a2065.device is defined as ether. Therefore you could have changed the above to ether0 in startnet and not had to change the interface file. Also, you must change the lo/0 to lo0 in the startnet file because the slash between the name and the unit number has been dropped and will generate an error if you include it. 2.2.4.1.3. AT03 -------------------- My provider assigns SLIP addresses dynamically. Now What? Now you have an excuse to learn arexx or shell scripts. ;-) Actually some have already been written and posted. Here is one way to do it. (NOTE: I HAVE NO WAY TO TEST THIS PROGRAM SO USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK ) In fact, it WILL have to modified for your system. /*REXX*/ /* go slip! a program to create slip scritps with dynamic address */ /* usage rx goslip.rexx <dynamic ip address> */ option results trace off If = '0a'x address REQUESTSTRING 'rtitle="GoSlip" text="Please enter your IP address." ' direccion = result /* changed from 19200 */ outdriver = 'baudbandit.device 0 57600 ' || direccion ' CD 7WIRE' say outdriver foo = open('outfile','ENV:sana2/rhslip0.config','Write') foo = writeln('outfile',outdriver) call close 'outfile' address REQUESTSTRING 'rtitle="GoSlip" text="Please enter your host name.(slip#, w/ out amiga.com)" ' trob = result gene = 'HOST 128.200.142.228 ' || trob || lf || 'DOMAIN amiga.com' || lf ||'NAMESERVER 128.200.192.202' || lf || 'NAMESERVER128.200.1.201' foo = open('outfile','amitcp:db/netdb-myhost','Write') foo = writeln('outfile',gene) call close 'outfile' address command 'run >NIL: AmiTCP:AmiTCP' WaitForPort AMITCP 'AmiTCP:bin/ifconfig lo0 localhost' 'AmiTCP:bin/ifconfig slip0' direccion '128.200.1.201' 'AmiTCP:bin/route add' direccion 'localhost' 'AmiTCP:bin/route add default 128.200.1.201' 'Assign TCP: Exists > NIL:' /* 'if warn' */ 'Mount TCP: from AmiTCP:devs/inet-mountlist' /* 'endif' */ 'run >NIL: amitcp:bin/inetd' 2.3. General (C) ------------------------ `C01' What terminal emulations are available over ethernet? `C02' Can I use multiple protocol stacks on my Amiga at the same time? `C03' I only have two machines, an Amiga and __________. How can I exchange data without a net? `C04' How can I uudecode messages from binary newsgroups? 2.3.1. Answers to General Questions ======================== 2.3.1.1. C01 ----------------- What terminal emulations are available over ethernet? The `AS225' package allows rlogin using the Amiga console (a termcap is supplied) only. A separate rloginVT program is supplied for VT100 emulation. Under X Windows, xterm provides terminal emulation that typically works with all software available on the host. TSSnet `DECnet' provides VT100 terminal emulation using the DECnet CTERM facility or use your favorite VT compatible Amiga terminal program including VLT. `VLT' works with TSSnet DECnet, Enlan, and with tn3270.device for `AS225r2'. VLT provides Tektronix and DEC terminal emulation. 2.3.1.2. C02 ------------------ Can I use multiple protocol stacks on my Amiga at the same time? If all desired protocol stacks support the `SANA II' standard, several protocols can be run simultaneously on the same A2065 card. Some commercially available versions of the network protocol stacks support the SANA II specification now. But if they don't, you can have multiple hardware interfaces to run different protocols on the same machine simultaneously (i.e. one A2065 used for TCP/IP and one used for Netware). 2.3.1.3. C03 ---------------- I only have two machines, an Amiga and __________. How can I exchange data without a net? Four solutions come to mind. From least to most expensive: 1) Floppies If the data will fit on a 720k floppy( or 1.4M floppy if you have the High density drive) then you have it made. see below. 2) NULL Modem cable If the two machines are in the same room a null modem cable is useful for moving larger amounts of data. You will need software in addition to the cable. You can write your own or use something like TwinExpress which is on `Aminet' . In addition to moving files TwinExpress will also allow you to print remotely. For example, If you have a postscript printer hooked to the PC's LPT2 port, then copy hd0:psfiles/mydoc.ps ~LPT2 will send the postscript file over the nullmodem cable to the PC printer. 3) External SCSI The next cheapest solution is to get a SCSI external drive with removable media such as a Syquest or Bernoulli. 4) Ethernet Of course there is nothing wrong with setting up an ethernet LAN between just two machines other than cost. PC clone to/from Amiga -------------------------------- Floppies and removable media can be formatted in MSDOS format. The Amiga can then read and write to them using CrossDos which is included in AmigaDOS 2.x and higher. CrossDos can also format a MSDOS disk, but it takes a while. Mac to/from Amiga -------------------------- The Mac can also read and write MSDOS format floppies using the Apple File Exchange utility which comes with the Mac operating system. AFE is not automatically installed so you may have to get off the master diskettes if you cannot find it on your Mac. AFE can also format a disk as MSDOS. AFE MUST BE RUNNING BEFORE you insert the MSDOS disk or it won't recognize it!! 2.3.1.4. C04 -------------- How can I uudecode messages from binary newsgroups? MASSDECODE is an ARexx script by Gregg Giles which will scan all newsgroups for uuencoded binaries, joins the parts of a single binary, and decodes the binary. Ideal for those who want to have binary newsgroups decoded automatically and have the resulting binaries put online for their users to download and/or access. It is available from `Aminet' as comm/news/MassDecode1.1.lha 2.4. Generic (G) ============ Help with basic terminology, not complete answers. ` G01' What is a network? ` G01a' Hardware ` G01b' Protocols ` G01c' Applications ` G02' What is the Internet and Usenet? ` G03' How do I connect? ` G03a' modem to modem ` G03b' modem to commercial services ` G03c' direct to WAN provider ` G04' What is a server? ` G05' What is an archive? ` G06' What is a mirror? ` G07' What are Gopher, WWW, and WAIS? ` G08' What are Mosaic and Cello? ` G09' What are Veronica and Archie? ` G10' What is news? ` G11' What is a Set top? 2.4.1. answers for Generic (G) ======================== 2.4.1.1. G01 -------------------- What is a network? short answer: Interconnected computers. A network is two or more computers that can interconnect in a peer to peer or client to server fashion most often over a shared and often virtual connection. This is in direct contrast to the old terminal to host hard wired connection. A network can still support terminal to host connections via terminal emulators or terminal servers, but provides much greater flexibility in switching connections. A network is accomplished using three basic components. Hardware, protocols (software), and Applications (useful software ;-) Each of these is actually comprised of several layers, but we won't worry with the details. There are many books on the subject as well as technical specs for the standards. But you will need some knowledge of the lingo in order to configure your networking software correctly. Consulting with your LAN administrator or WAN service provider is also highly advisable for checking your network software configuration. The concept of layers is very important to networking and computer designs as well. Each layer "protects" the layer above from the layer below so that one layer can change with minimum impact on the upper layers. In some cases this protection is so good that an application may not know that it is running on different hardware. The OSI network model defines seven layers, but we are going to reduce it to three broad categories. a => hardware b => protocols c => applications 2.4.1.1.1. G01a ------------------------ Hardware At the heart of a network is a shared cable often called a Backbone. In the simple case this is a PARnet cable to connect two Amigas via the parallel port. Both machines share the cable. A more complex example is an `ethernet cable' which without special equipment can be 1000ft in length or more with a hundred or so computers attached all interconnecting at once. This is known as a LAN or Local Area Network. A cheaper but far more limited LAN Backbone is Localtalk which Apple unleashed upon the world. bridges, routers, and gateways Oh my! To overcome the distance and node limitation of ethernet wiring you need at least a bridge which basically acts as a repeater. A bridge can also do a limited amount of filtering so that traffic between the LAN segments is more efficient. There are also distance limitations with bridges, so a more complex piece of equipment is needed called a router. A router provides many more tools for controlling the flow of information between segments, and can even provide some level of security. Special security configurations of routers are know as firewalls. For really long distances leased lines or satellite links are used between the routers thus forming a Wide Area Network or WAN. These links are usually provided by common carriers or some `WAN providers'. This all works great as long as the two machines are the same brand, but since there is more than one vendor there is more than one "language" called a protocol for communicating. A gateway must be used to translate between the protocols. As an alternative to a gateway, some routers are able to handle multiple protocols at the same time. Thus a ROUTER is often referred to and used as your _DEFAULT GATEWAY_. Gateways are also used most heavily for converting between electronic mail formats. Gateways are also used to go between two different physical media such as ethernet and Localtalk or ethernet and SLIP. See the Envoy specific question section for an example. The gateway provides access to other parts of a network that would not otherwise be directly accessible. A router is dedicated to keeping track of routes through gateways and other routers to various domains. On large networks your default gateway will often point to a router. The distinction between gateways, routers, and bridges is not absolute since many of the functions of each can be included in a single product. In fact some companies call their product a brouter because it performs both as a bridge and a router. Another device that is used on large networks is called a __NAMESERVER__. A nameserver maintains a database of machine names and their numeric addresses. Computers use numbers, but humans use names. The nameserver allows the computer to look up the numeric address when you use a name. In addition to the nameserver you can maintain a HOSTS file locally which is used first by your computer when trying to translate a name into a number. 2.4.1.1.1.1. ethernet cable ------------------------------------ While looking through the What's New page of Mosaic, I stumbled across the Ethernet Web Page. It references an ethernet FAQ from the comp.dcom.lans.ethernet news group. So if you don't find your answer in this crude introduction then try their FAQ. the URL for the web page is: http://wwwhost.ots.utexas.edu/ethernet/ethernet-home.html the gopher URL for the FAQ is: gopher://mojo.ots.utexas.edu/11/netinfo/ethernet/ethernet-faq An ethernet cable comes in several flavors. The maximum length of your LAN segment is determined by which flavor you choose or which flavors you intermix. There is twisted pair, thin coax and thick coax ethernet cables. Each of these are rated at 10Mbit per second. Note that this is the TOTAL capacity (bandwidth) of the cable NOT the speed between any two nodes. The speed between nodes is determined by how many nodes are trying to communicate at any given time. Even with only two nodes communicating you will NOT get the entire bandwidth of the cable. The maximum is usually only around 3Mbit per second. The thick coax was the first used. It ran as a backbone through a building with taps and drop cables for each node (computer). Thin coax came into favor because of lower cost and ease of installation. Thus thin coax is often called cheaper net. It has a shorter overall maximum length than thick. It is routed in a daisy chain style using tee connectors at each node. There are adapters to go between thick and thin, but your overall length can be reduced to that of thin. There are devices called hubs which may not reduce the limit and can provide conversion between one cable type to another. Twisted pair is the current rage because it can be used for other things as well, such as voice. You can wire an entire building with twisted pair and decide at the wiring closet what service will be provided. Ethernet over twisted pair is called 10BaseT and is most often configured as a star with an ethernet concentrator at the center usually in a wiring closet. The concentrator allows for the longer length required for a star configuration. Using a concentrator provides the LAN administrator a lot of other benefits and options such as diagnostic tools and functions for monitoring the health of the LAN segment. Several grades of twisted pair wire exist. The best class can also carry FDDI which is a fairly new high speed token-ring style network architecture. FDDI can handle speeds of 100Mbit per second. FDDI is usually carried over fiber optic cable for long distances. There are also Gigabit per second network architectures for short distance applications such as a cluster of compute servers. As far as I know there are NO FDDI or faster adapters for the Amiga at this time. So the same wire can carry either FDDI or Ethernet so how do they differ? Good question. It is obviously NOT just the wire. Ethernet and FDDI are also specifications for how the electrical signals will be transmitted and interpreted over the wire. The Ethernet spec was originally developed by Xerox and DEC, and is now defined by the IEEE standards committee. IEEE 802.3 is one of the main ethernet standards in use. One reason FDDI came into being is that ethernet performance degrades rapidly as you approach the capacity of the bandwidth. This means you are limited in the number of nodes that a LAN segment can support. Depending on the activity level of the nodes you may be able to support as many as 100 nodes on a LAN segment. Beyond that and you should consider subdividing into multiple LAN segments with bridges and routers. 2.4.1.1.2. G01b ------------------------ Protocols A protocol is software that is required to use the physical connection. It is responsible for establishing the connection and sending and receiving the data in packets. Modem software is a crude example. The software is called a protocol because there must be cooperating software on each end, but they don't have to written by the same vendor. Instead a "protocol" for the proper exchange of data is defined and released as a standard (such as `TCP-IP') or licensed as proprietary (such as ` DECnet'). As long as the vendor on each end adheres to the protocol a connection can be sustained which will support an application. TCP/IP is in the broadest use for several reasons, but mostly because vendors could get and use the standard for basically free. DECnet was very popular because of its robustness and the quality of the VAX systems. The low cost, graphics power, and lure of a standard operating system drew users to UNIX systems which used TCP/IP because of the cost and availability. This has resulted in DECnet falling way behind in numbers. A distant third is Appletalk or Ethertalk as it is called when it is run over Ethernet. This protocol is best used for LAN's, and it also suffers from being proprietary. Due to the constant growing of the size of the wide area networks (WAN), a more robust protocol is required which will support a large number of addresses which is the numeric value assigned to each computer on a network. Two approaches are being worked currently. One is to revamp and extend TCP/IP while maintaining backwards compatibility. The other is an international standards effort called OSI Open Systems Interconnect. OSI is moving very slowly which is making it difficult to gain vendor support. TCP/IP will almost certainly be enhanced regardless if OSI is successful or not. In addition to these major protocols there are numerous other proprietary protocols such as SNA by IBM or IPX by Novell. Some fill special niche requirements, and some of them don't scale well to the WAN environment. Some are so proprietary they will not run on but a single vendor's hardware. The latest wrinkle in the protocol world are `SLIP' and `PPP' which allow the TCP/IP protocol to be used over a modem connection. Typically a remote machine such as a laptop is hooked by modem to a new generation of terminal servers which can convert between SLIP or PPP and regular TCP/IP. The terminal server is connected to the LAN and therefore the remote user has full (although slower) TCP/IP access to the LAN. DECnet can also be configured to use a serial connection. 2.4.1.1.2.1. TCP-IP ------------------------ TCP-IP is a protocol that has been released as a standard which means that vendors can implement it independently and freely and yet it still works. The standard is defined and described in `RFC' documents which are available electronically. It has been implemented by a large number of different vendors and therefore is popular on the Internet. For more information on the Internet and TCP-IP concepts see `ZEN' TCP/IP as the name implies is more than one layer. The IP layer takes care of the lowest layers of the protocol and is responsible for talking to the device drivers (data link layers). The TCP is one of two "transport" layer protocols which handles the packetizing of the data. TCP is a reliable service because it insures that the packets are put back into the right order and that they are all received. If you send packets "a", "b", "c", then TCP will make sure they are received as "abc" and not "bca". UDP is the other transport protocol and it is unreliable, but has less overhead. The applications ride on these lower protocol layers. There are a number of applications defined in the TCP/IP standards, but vendors are only required to supply the lower layers. See the applications section for a partial list of TCP/IP applications. For instructions on using the FTP application see the `FTP FAQ' `AS225' and `AmiTCP' are Amiga implementations of TCP/IP. 2.4.1.1.2.2. DECnet -------------------------- DECnet is a proprietary standard belonging to DEC which is also made up layers in a similar manner to TCP/IP. They break up the job quite a bit differently. For instance with DECnet there is no need for a separate NFS application. You can see a remote nodes disk drives by simply including the DECnet node name in the directory command. DECnet has two ways of handling terminal traffic. For the WAN you use the SET host function of DECnet, but it is more efficient for local traffic to use the LAT protocol. The older model DEC terminal servers only supported LAT or asynchronous DECnet. Newer models also support `SLIP' and `PPP' (check the manuals) since DEC now makes computers that use TCP/IP as well. TSSnet `DECnet' is an Amiga implementation of DECnet. 2.4.1.1.2.3. SLIP ----------------------- SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol See `RFC' 1055 for details. CSLIP adds a compression technique. See RFC 1144. SLIP allows your computer to run TCP/IP over the serial port. This allows your computer to have a TCP/IP address. TCP/IP applications such as FTP can now use TCP/IP to deliver packets directly to your address. An analogy would be instead of having to go to the post office to get your mail, you now have a mailbox to which the postman can deliver your mail. In more technical terms you are no longer a terminal; you have become a node. SLIP is a "data link" protocol. It sits between the serial port and the IP stack. It pretty much takes the packets from IP, adds a wrapper to them, and sends them out the serial port. It also takes packets from the serial port, unwraps them, and passes them up to IP. SLIP has several problems, including the fact that it is designed entirely for TCP-IP, and is therefore of limited use for other protocols. Too many people ask for "SLIP" when they really want "TCP/IP" with a SLIP driver. You have to have both. Just like a terminal program is of little use without a serial.device driver. SLIP is not a full protocol it fits in one of the layers between hardware and the protocol. It acts more like a device driver. application (AMosaic, telnet, ftp, etc.) -------------- protocol (TCP/IP) -------------- SLIP or PPP -------------- hardware (serial port) 2.4.1.1.2.4. PPP ----------------------- PPP Point to Point Protocol For more info see: `RFC' 1332, 1333, 1334, 1376, 1377, 1548, 1549,1552, and 1570. PPP allows your computer to run TCP/IP over the serial port. This allows your computer to have a TCP/IP address. TCP/IP applications such as FTP can now use TCP/IP to deliver packets directly to your address. An analogy would be instead of having to go to the post office to get your mail, you now have a mailbox to which the postman can deliver your mail. In more technical terms you are no longer a terminal; you have become a node. PPP is the committee-designed protocol which is supposed to be a sort of "universal" SLIP. It is intended to replace SLIP, while providing for all sorts of conditions, including the ability of use over non TCP/IP protocols. The two state machines in PPP are a real pain to implement. UNIX folks love it because a PPP implementation exists, and they pretty much type "MAKE" and it works. PPP's good points: - PPP users checksums (FCS) SLIP does not - PPP allows more than one protocol at a time, SLIP does not - PPP automatically negotiates IP addresses, SLIP does not - PPP can be used on non-transparent lines (e.g. when XON/XOFF is used by the modems), SLIP cannot Several Amiga versions of PPP are in the works. A shareware version has been released on `Aminet' PPP is not a full protocol it fits in one of the layers between hardware and the protocol. It acts more like a device driver. application (AMosaic, telnet, ftp, etc.) -------------- protocol (TCP/IP) -------------- PPP or SLIP -------------- hardware (serial port) 2.4.1.1.2.5. SANA II --------------------------- SANA was an experimental DATA-link and API paper written by Dale Luck for a DevCon several years ago. Dale suggested two schemes for creating standard interfaces for the data-link layer and protocol stack APIs. After Dale left Commodore, the work passed to several other people-- and the "API" part was removed. After it had touched several people's hands, SANA-II was put together. SANA-II is nothing more than a standard for writing device drivers. Having something which is SANA-II doesn't help you do networking unless you have a real protocol stack communicating through it. FAR too many people have seen "SANA-II", and "Amiga networking standard", and assumed too much. It is just a device driver standard whose purpose is to prevent networking packages from hard coding to specific hardware. This is similar to the reason for packet drivers in the PC clone arena. A side benefit to SANA-II is that it allows multiple protocols to share the same ethernet card. 2.4.1.1.2.6. UUCP --------------------------- UUCP (UNIX to UNIX CoPy) is an old protocol used for transferring files between UNIX boxes. UUCP is not interactive like a terminal program, but more of a batch process. You give a list of commands ahead of time and then at the specified time it calls another machine, executes the commands which usually sends some files and receives what the other machine has for it, and then hangs up. A store and forward methodology as opposed to a dynamic constantly available method. 2.4.1.1.3. G01c -------------------------- Applications The applications are the part of the network that a user is most likely to see, but are useless without the hardware and protocols. Applications allow a user to emulate a terminal, copy files, send electronic mail, browse and search databases, and use applications remotely. TCP/IP applications: """"""""""""""""""""""""" telnet ----- terminal access FTP ------- file transfer protocol ( copy files) SMTP ----- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (email) or Send Mail To People as my friend calls it. NFS ------ Network File System (remote mount disks) PARnet provides a similar service on a much smaller scale. NSLookup -- find address corresponding to a host name Finger --- See who is logged in or access an X500 email database Xwindows-- Use graphics programs on a remote system NEWS ---- A BBS style messaging system global in scale `NEWS FAQ' NNTP ---- A protocol that supports NEWS RN ------ One of many NEWS readers Sockets and ports -- Hooks for programmers to allow communication between applications on different computers. DECnet applications: """"""""""""""""""""""""""" Set Host --- Terminal Access host to host LAT --------- terminal access terminal to host Copy -------- copy files between DEC hosts (emulated on non-DEC hosts) VMSmail --- electronic mail (must have gateway to reach non-DEC systems Dir ---------- Can be used to read remote disks DECWindows ------ Same as Xwindows task to task ---------- Hooks which allow user or vendor written applications to communicate between computers Ethertalk (Appletalk) applications: """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Appleshare ----- Allows remote disk access (file copying) Chooser --------- Supports network printing and other services including Appleshare Electronic mail and terminal emulation for Ethertalk must be bought from a third party, and may require TCP/IP or DECnet drivers as well. 2.4.1.2. G02 --------------------- What is the Internet and Usenet? Two examples of WAN's which use entirely different techniques, but whose services are overlapping. There are interconnections and usenet traffic can and does travel across the internet, but for the most part they are separate networks. Also the Internet is actually many networks which are interconnected on a world wide scale. Usenet utilizes the phone system and temporary links to move information between systems. It uses a system of store and forward. It stores up outgoing messages. Then on a periodic basis makes a connection to a specific computer and forwards the messages, and downloads any incoming messages then breaks the connection. A popular usenet protocol is `UUCP' and the most popular application is NEWS which is also now on the Internet. The Internet on the other hand is mostly a shared backbone which is always available between the primary systems. The usenet does not use dynamic routers. An Internet router is always on and always connected to other routers. An internet router immediately determines an incoming message's next destination and immediately sends it on its way. A usenet "router" waits until the next scheduled connection time before sending the message on its way. The most common protocol on the Internet is `TCP-IP' and one of the most popular applications is Mosaic which relies heavily on FTP and Gopher. 2.4.1.3. G03 --------------------- How do I connect? There are three basic ways with more to come hopefully. a) modem to modem b) modem to commercial service c) direct to WAN provider Or if the company where you work has a network, you should contact your local network administrator about the procedures for getting network access at your company. 2.4.1.3.1. G03a ------------------------- modem to modem This is basically the poor man's network, but it works well. Usenet uses this method. Since there is some overlap between usenet and the internet you can gain some access to the internet such as mail or news. To get on the Usenet you have to either know someone who is already on it and daisy chain from them. Or you can access a BBS which offers usenet access. User groups and BBS are also good places to ask for usenet access. Also you can check the `UUCP FAQ' for information. Of course if you are lucky enough to have an account and modem connection to a machine on the internet you can access most things as terminal and use FTP to move files to your dial up host. You will need a file transfer program to transfer from your dial up host to your machine. Two recent protocols have evolved called `SLIP' and `PPP' which make the intermediate system transparent and provide full TCP/IP connectivity over a modem. In fact the intermediate system need be nothing more than a terminal server which supports SLIP or PPP. Both SLIP and PPP allow your computer to have an address so that TCP/IP applications can talk directly to your node. (i.e. your machine becomes a node, not a terminal) PPP can support other protocols than TCP/IP. Some universities and some public access programs such as FREEnet offer free dial up accounts. If you can't find one of these or USEnet access, then you will need to try option B modem to commercial services, or option C direct to WAN provider. 2.4.1.3.2. G03b -------------------------- modem to commercial services Several commercial services such as Portal, BIX, and Compuserve now provide internet access to varying degrees as part of their service. and in essence have become `WAN providers'. If you have internet access this makes these services far more accessible. If you don't have internet access, they make _some_ of the internet services available to you. As mentioned before file transfer is a two step process. However, more and more commercial services are providing `SLIP' and `PPP' connections which eliminate the two step process by giving your remote host its own internet address. They also provide full internet access, but some applications require more speed than an analog modem can provide. 2.4.1.3.3. G03c ------------------------- direct to WAN provider The WAN providers offer many kinds of connectivity from a normal dial up BBS to a full blown high speed WAN connection. 2.4.1.3.3.1. Full Blown WAN -------------------------------------- The full blown WAN connection is the FASTEST, most flexible and the most expensive. This type of connection is most useful for a group such as a business with a LAN, since this type of connection provides a router at your site. Generally connection speeds start at 56 Kbit/sec and go up. A full blown WAN connection also requires a great deal of expertise to manage. You must learn security, configuration, and troubleshooting techniques. Some WAN providers will provide these services for additional fees. The setup of a WAN connection is WELL beyond the scope of an FAQ, but there are numerous courses and books available if you wish to do the job yourself. Also the documentation that comes with the software and hardware is mandatory reading. 2.4.1.3.3.2. Cheaper WAN -------------------------------------- Cheaper WAN: You basically pay for access to a modem, termserver port, and use of the router at the providers site. They take care of most of the management headaches. Over this connection they provide `SLIP' and `PPP' which require some networking knowledge on the user's part but not as much as managing a LAN. SLIP and PPP offer a full set of internet services, but at a lower speed. Generally you are limited to what speeds the local telco can provide. The fastest is currently ISDN, but that can be expensive and has limited availability. So most will also offer standard analog modem connections. 2.4.1.3.3.3. WAN shopping ------------------------------------ Shopping for the right level of WAN connectivity can be difficult. SLIP and PPP may offer a more cost effective method of accessing commercial services than a standard dial up service while also providing access to archive and WWW servers. You have to run the cost comparisons yourself to see. O'Reilly & Associates, Inc publishes a good book that offers some good ideas for doing cost comparisons. It is called "Connecting To The INTERNET" an O'Reilly Buyer's Guide. I'm sure there are other books as well. Time to head to the bookstore ;-) 2.4.1.3.3.4. WAN providers -------------------------------------- To get a fairly current list of WAN providers you can check your local bookstore. Most books on the Internet contain lists of WAN providers. To get a more current list you can use electronic mail to get a copy of Peter Kaminski's PDIAL list. Send a message with "Send PDIAL" as the subject line. Send the message to info-deli-server@netcom.com Or you can subscribe by using "Subscribe PDIAL" as the subject line. You will then automatically get any updates to the list. PDIAL is also available from the news.answers `FAQ archive'. 2.4.1.4. G04 -------------------- What is a server? A server is a computer which acts like a library for files, and programs. It can also be set up to allow users to change the information as well. Several programs and protocols exist for creating a server: Appleshare, NFS, Xwindows, FTP, news, gopher, WWW, DCE, SQL, and user written applications. Appleshare and NFS make remote disks seem like local disks. Thus allowing a group of users to share disk space and information if so desired. Xwindows is a device independent network terminal package which supports a graphical user interface. It can be thought of as an display server. The application can be run on one machine and the display served to any Xwindow device on the network. If Excel had a X window version it could be run on a Mac or PC and the display could be on any Xwindow device anywhere on the network. It could even be displayed on an Amiga using `X11R4' . FTP server software allows you offer a portion or all of your disk drive for remote access. Unlike Appleshare or X windows you cannot run applications remotely. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and file transfer is all that it does. It does provide a binary mode of transfer so that you can copy applications to your local hard drive or ram and then run them. News, gopher, and WWW are special servers for information which require a client software package to access. They can be thought of as network databases. These are explained in other sections. ` G07' SQL is standard query language and DCE is distributed computing environment. SQL and DCE can be used in vendor or user written applications to create or access multiple database servers. This allows the programmer to distribute the load across several machines. Also it allows for more seamless integration of data from several non-similar computer systems in a transparent manner to the user. For example, very few executives want to FTP to three or four machines to pull together the information for review. They tend to like to click on a weekly report button and have the program do all the work. Since SQL and DCE are standards the weekly report program is somewhat shielded from hardware specifics or changes. 2.4.1.5. G05 --------------------- What is an archive? A computer site which advertises and stores a large amount of public domain and share ware software and documentation. 2.4.1.6. G06 --------------------- What is a mirror? Some archives are heavily used and therefore must be supported by multiple sites which are often located very far apart. Each site should ideally have identical information available therefore they are mirrors of each other. When one site gets a new file it must be mirrored to the other sites usually using FTP. 2.4.1.7. G07 --------------------- What are Gopher, WWW, and WAIS? Three kinds of network information servers. Each more powerful than the next, but with some interconnectivity. Each server requires a client application to allow the user to access the information. For Example, a Mosaic client can access all three servers. The main purpose of these client/servers is to help a user navigate the Internet to find information and files. Gopher is a menu utility which simply uses FTP for retrieving files from archive sites. Gopher also uses a search utility called Veronica for aiding users in finding files in the gopher archive sites. Veronica can do keyword searches whereas Archie can only search for file names. WAIS is Wide Area Information Server which provides information lookup services to libraries and databases on the Internet. A simple WAIS client allows the user to select databases to search from a list. The user then provides keywords to search for, and the WAIS client allows the user to view any matches found. This is cumbersome once the list of databases grows into the thousands. Screenfull after screenfull of database names scroll by. As of March 16, 1994 future versions of WAIS server & client library will be known as ZDist NOT freeWAIS. freeWAIS is based on the older version of the search and retrieval protocol Z39.50-1988. The newest version of that protocol Z39.50-1992 is NOT backwards compatible. Since both versions will be around for awhile, a name change for the server/client software libraries had to be established. Both freeWAIS and ZDist are maintained by CNIDR. Kevin Gamiel is the contact. It should be noted that the Z39.50 protocol is a standard which is NOT published or maintained by CNIDR, but is publicly available. Z39.50-1992 is the protocol of choice for many other network based information search and retrieval applications besides WAIS. Much more info is available thru Mosaic by searching on CNIDR, WAIS, or Z39. WWW is world wide web and uses http and html to make its hypertext and multimedia services available to mosaic and `Amosaic' clients over the Internet. WAIS support is being added to Mosaic. Mosaic offers WAIS an effective interface and WAIS offers Mosaic an effective search engine. All three of these servers use the TCP/IP protocol, and all have both public domain and commercial versions of the clients. 2.4.1.8. G08 --------------------- What are Mosaic and Cello? Hypertext based multimedia interfaces for browsing the Internet. Mosaic is developed by NCSA for Xwindows, Macs, and Windows. Cello is developed for Windows. Anybody know more? `FeedBack' `Amosaic' is developed by public domain effort for the Amiga. They are primarily used to access the 1200 plus World Wide Web (WWW) servers, but can also be used to access WAIS, Gopher, and others. They enable the user to click on hypertext links which will automatically use the network services such as FTP to retrieve the information pointed to by the link regardless if it is text, sound, or graphics. They utilize shareware and public domain viewers and players of the users choice to play the sounds or to display the pictures or animations. 2.4.1.9. G09 -------------------- What are Veronica and Archie? Archie is the older of the two search tools. A user submits a query to Archie or Veronica and they search their database for the location of files or programs. Veronica is associated with the Gopher servers. Both require TCP/IP at some point. Although both can be queried by electronic mail. There is an Archie client available for AmiTCP via anonymous FTP from ftp.demon.co.uk in the /pub/amiga/amitcp directory. 2.4.1.10. G10 ----------------------- What is news? NEWS is a global BBS run by everyone and no one. I will describe it briefly here, but see the `NEWS FAQ' for details. NEWS is made up of broad topics called news groups, to which people can post or respond to posts. Anyone can create a new post, but new news groups are added based on an email voting system. A few groups are moderated, but most are not. NEWS is available via usenet, the internet, and some commercial services. Almost NOBODY carries ALL the news groups. User access is through a news reader application that accesses a news server. There are many variations of news readers. Several for the Amiga can be found on `Aminet' and `Fred Fish'. `GRn' is one. Arn by Mike Schwarz and Mike Smith is another. NEWS began life on a college campus and then became the USENET news as it spread to other college campuses and beyond via `UUCP'. Today it is also carried across the Internet using the NNTP application over TCP/IP. The links between servers are set up manually by news server administrators and the links are called news feeds. A lot of the feeds come and go, since they are done on an informal basis. GRn in combination with INetUtils allows you to access news over either NNTP or UUCP. 2.4.1.11. G11 ------------------------ What is a Set top? A twinkle in some entrepreneur's eye. It will most likely occupy the __TOP__ of your television __SET__. Some call it Interactive TV. Some call it info-pliances. It could possibly bring the internet to your home via cable TV or phone lines, but more than likely it will only bring limited expensive services. AT&T says, "YOU WILL." I say, "I AIN'T YET." A recent newspaper article listed the following companies as competition for IBM in the set top market: General Instrument, Scientific Atlanta, 3DO, and Nintendo. NO mention of HP, Sony, SEGA, or Commodore. Hmmmmmmm. 2.5. Software Specs ================ Specifications for Amiga Networking Software 2.5.1. AmigaELM --------------------------- AmigaELM is available on `AmiNET' and is an electronic mail utility for `UUCP' that allows you to read and post mail through a remote unix mail box. AmigaELM 3.0 was just announced. It is shareware. Don't know much else about it at this time. `FEEDBACK' You should also pick up a copy of INetUtils from `Aminet'. It has a SMTP client which is suppose to work with AmigaELM. SMTP is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or the Send Mail To People protocol as my friend calls it. SMTP is a defined standard for email over the TCP/IP protocol and therefore is widely used on the Internet. This SMTP client is not suppose to require a remote mailbox. 2.5.2. AmigaNOS Flavors ------------------------------------ AmigaNOS and AmigaNOSGW are Amiga ports of the PD TCP/IP package for MS-DOS called "ka9q". Note that there are MANY versions of "ka9q" which tends to make them somewhat unstable, since they have so many variations. AmigaNOS is a program that will allow one to participate in the Internet (or any TCP/ IP network for that matter) via one of two dial-up TCP/IP protocols: SLIP or PPP. It also works with HAM radio equipment. Both programs are a single, integrated "package" of the required TCP/IP protocols (e.g.; TCP, IP, UDP, etc.) and some TCP/IP applications/commands (e.g.; Finger, Telnet, Ping, SMTP). Though the required file structure may seem daunting at first, it is actually simpler to set up than is AmiTCP. Both AmigaNOS and AmigaNOSGW are very close in capability and can be considered equal, in general, for TCP/IP. The main differences between the two versions is that Graham Walter's version, AmigaNOSGW, comes with an external Gopher client program and has an ARexx port. The following data, from the Feb. '94 AmigaWorld article "Net Gains" , by Jim Dutton, provides a brief listing of the major functions of the two Amiga TCP/IP packages. AmigaNOS (V2.9p) - John Heaton - Public Domain (available from 130.88.200.4 via anonymous FTP) - requirements: modem - provides full TCP/IP "protocol stack/suite" plus applications * FTP, TELNET (ANSI: pseudo DEC VT100), Rlogin * SMTP (client & server)/DIGGER, POP2 (client) * TCP/IP/UDP, NNTP, RIP/RSPF/ARP, SLIP/PPP * FINGER, Mailbox/Chatnode * TTYlink, ECHO/DISCARD/PING, HOPCHECK, Route, Message - amenities: mem,shell,pwd,cd,dir,help files via Less,internal multitasking, extensive and easy to invoke statistics - drawbacks: no SANA-II support; opens serial.device in Exclusive mode AmigaNOSGW (V6) - Graham Walter - Public Domain (get it by anonymous FTP from newgate.demon.co.uk) - requirements: modem - provides full TCP/IP "protocol stack/suite" plus application hooks * FTP, TELNET (ANSI: pseudo DEC VT100), Rlogin * SMTP (client & server)/DIGGER, POP2 (client) * TCP/IP/UDP, NNTP, RIP/RSPF/ARP, SLIP/PPP * FINGER, Mailbox/Chatnode * TTYlink, ECHO/DISCARD/PING, HOPCHECK, Route, Message - amenities: internal multitasking, external clients, ARexx port, Gopher client (requires AmigaGuide) which can also do some WWW - drawbacks: no SANA-II support; opens serial.device in Exclusive mode Gopher (V1.7) - Graham Walter - Public Domain (get it by anonymous FTP from newgate.demon.co.uk) - requirements: AmigaNOSGW (V6), AmigaGuide - provides a GUI based/hypertext Internet Gopher client * request Gopher servers for files and/or services that they have * supports some World Wide Web files (eg; HTTP) 2.5.3. AmiTCP --------------------- AmiTCP is a GNU-ware version of TCP/IP for the Amiga. It will work with SLIP or ethernet cards. For more details see the `AmiTCP FAQ' AmiTCP is available on `Aminet' . AmiTCP can be a bear to install, but if you read ALL of the docs it should go easier. Also they have real nice postscript docs available via anonymous FTP. Read the AmiTCP FAQ for the location. 2.5.4. AmigaUUCP -------------------------- AmigaUUCP is a port of Unix to Unix CoPy `UUCP' to the Amiga. It allows an Amiga to participate in the USEnet network. It has it's own `UUCP FAQ' 2.5.5. Amosaic -------------------- Amosaic is a public domain version for the Amiga of NCSA's Mosaic. A hypertext based multimedia interface for accessing the Internet. Amosaic is available via FTP from max.physics.sunysb.edu or via Mosaic from the Amiga home page by Witbrock. Amosaic is also available on `Aminet' in the /comm/net directory. It requires MUI, `AmiTCP' or `AS225r2' TCP-IP software, and some sort of internet connection to access remote information. Also due to datatypes it currently requires AmigaDos 3.0 See the product specific section `AMosaic (AM)' for more hints! AMosaic allows you to browse and retrieve files using a point and click interface. With a single mouse click you can retrieve and view a text file, a picture, or an MPEG movie. Or you can download the most recent version of your favorite program from one of the archive sites. Use one of the many search utilities, and ride the wave of pointers to sites all around the globe! They don't call the World Wide Web (WWW) for nothing ;-) 2.5.6. AS225 --------------------- AS225 by `Commodore Business Machines' Compatibility: NFS - TCP/IP software for the Amiga is compatible with all models of the Amiga. Allows connection to Internet, DDN and other networks supporting TCP/IP and UDP/IP protocols. Works with the A2065 and Ameristar Ethernet Adapters. Network Functions: rlogin (client only), rloginVT (client only VT100 terminal emulation), rsh (client and server, but no interactive shells), NFS client, telnet (client only), ftp (client and server), finger (client only), ping, arp, netstat, rcp (client and server), route, showmount 2.5.6.1. AS225r2 ----------------------- AS225r2 release 2 of AS225 TCP/IP protocol It is under active development again by third parties. Stay tuned for more details as they become available. 2.5.7. DECnet ------------------- TSSnet DECnet by `Thunder Ridge, Inc.' Now your Amiga can become a Phase IV end node in a DECnet network! Communicates over the Amiga serial port as well as Ethernet. Fully SANA II compliant so other protocols which support SANA II such as TCP/IP can run concurrently on the same ethernet card. Both Ethernet and serial connections provide multiple concurrent Virtual Terminal sessions on any other nodes on the network, using the DECnet CTERM facility. VT100 terminal emulation is provided, or use your favorite VT compatible Amiga terminal program such as `VLT'. Supports X windows, allowing you to run VAX DECWindows applications, as well as X clients running on other Amigas or any node supporting X over DECnet. NCP, Network Control Program lets you intuitively control all aspects of your node's connection including line speed, buffers, statistics, and security. NetMail allows full mail access to DECnet networks. NFT, Network File Copy enables you to copy, list, print, rename, delete, type and submit command files across the network. Task to Task Communications provides an AmigaDOS device for communicating with tasks on other DECnet nodes. Full documentation is included for this easy-to-use programmer's interface to TSSnet. FAL, File Access Listener allows other DECnet nodes to access your Amiga directly. Full username/password protection is available. 2.5.8. ENLAN-DFS ----------------------------- ENLAN-DFS by `Interworks' Amiga peer to peer networking software and DFS ( Distributed File System ) Description: The Distributed File System (DFS) allows complete sharing of devices, directories, and peripherals (including printers). With this setup centralized backup is a possibility. Network resources appear on the client as local devices. ENLAN-DFS supports the Workbench interface, icons and all and is SANA II compatible. Security features: Provides password and read only support for public resources. Provides node level username and password if desired. Requirements: AmigaDOS 2.04 or higher. Approximately 456KB of disk space. compatible with A600, 1200, 2000, 3000, or 4000 compatible with the following ethernet cards: `ICard', `Lan Rover', `A2065', `A4066', or `Hydra' Requires 1.5 MB of ram minimum, more for serving multiple systems MSRP for 5 node license $349 2.5.9. Envoy ------------------- Amiga Envoy Available from IAM Amiga peer to peer networking 2.5.9.1. Envoy Description ------------------------------------ Amiga Envoy is the Amiga peer-to-peer networking software developed by Commodore's Amiga Networking Group. Included applications enable connected Amiga computers to share hard disks, CD-ROMs, and printers transparently. Amiga Envoy also provides a simple messaging interface (API) for the easy development of reliable network applications. To make Amiga Envoy available to end-users immediately, Intangible Assets Manufacturing has licensed Amiga Envoy from Commodore. IAM has produced a manual written by Dale Larson, one of Amiga Envoy's original designers. The manual eases you through the set up and use of a simple network. Additional documentation will be available (at an additional charge). It will explain how to internetwork with Amiga Envoy, how to develop software for it and how to use its security features. Technical support is provided through electronic and physical mail and by answering questions in such public forums as UseNet's comp.sys.amiga.datacomm, on CompuServe, and on Bix. Send email to info@iam.com 2.5.9.2. Envoy REQUIREMENTS ---------------------------------------------- Envoy requires: Workbench 2.04, Kickstart 2.04, 512k RAM, SANA-II compatible networking hardware (see compatibility) RECOMMENDED Workbench 2.1 or later, Kickstart 2.1 or later, 1MB RAM, Hard disk with 300k free in SYS:. 2.5.9.3. Envoy COMPATIBILITY ----------------------------------------------- Any SANA-II networking hardware may be used with Envoy, including Ameristar A4066, AmigaLink, ASDG LanRover, Commodore A2065 or A2060 and SLIP (serial port). Additional NON-IP, SANA-II compatible networking protocol stacks may be run at the same time as Amiga Envoy over the same networking hardware. AS225r2 is the version of Commodore's TCP/IP package which is compatible with Envoy (through SANA-II compatibility and close cooperation regarding IP packets). 2.5.9.4. Envoy AVAILABILITY ---------------------------------------- Available now from Amiga dealers or order direct from `IAM' List Price: $59.95 (2-user) 2.5.9.5. IAM Developers Info --------------------------------------- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR DEVELOPERS Developers of any Amiga networking products or networking compatible products are encouraged to contact Intangible Assets Manufacturing regarding inclusion of their products in the forth coming "Amiga Networking Handbook." We want to make sure that Amiga users can find out about every networking product that they may need. We hope to do this by publishing information on all of the products that are available. Applications developers can also contact IAM for information concerning consulting and documentation services or licensing Envoy for use in your applications. 2.5.10. GRn ---------------- GRn Gadtools Read news GRn is a news reader program which was originally designed to work with AmigaUUCP V1.08. Now it will work with AmigaUUCP V1.08-1.17, wUUCP, various ports of C News (including wCNews), AmigaNOS via AREXX scripts, NFS mounted news spools and NNTP in at least four flavors (DNet, serial port, AmiTCP, and AS225r2). GRn integrates with `INetUtils'. Both GRn and INetUtils are available on `Aminet' 2.5.11. INetUtils ----------------------- INetUtils INetUtils is a series of programs designed to allow an Amiga running AS-225 beta 2.0 software (i.e., socket.library capable) or AmiTCP 2.2 (or above) to interact and operate as fully functioning members of an IP network, including the global InterNet. INetUtils is copyrighted, but freely distributable. The utility programs consist of: SMTPd : an SMTP daemon SMTPpost : an SMTP posting program SMTPExpand : an SMTP aliases expanding program NNTPpost : an NNTP posting program NNTPXfer : an NNTP article transfer program newgroup : a maintenance program for use with NNTP GetActive : an NNTP active file transfer program AmiPOP : a POP message handler Sabot : A newmail activity program a NNTPd is in development. The following man pages are included: SMTPd.man SMTPpost.man SMTPExpand.man NNTPpost.man NNTPxfer.man GetActive.man and describe the operation of each program. AmiPOP and Sabot were developed by Scott Ellis (sellis@ucssun1.sdsu.edu) and all communication regarding them should be directed to him. Separate documentation regarding them is included in the AmiPOP and Sabot archives. To properly utilize the NNTP capability requires an NNTP aware newsreader and a mailreader. The 'G' package is presented to meet this need. `GRn' is Gadtools Read News, which can properly read and post with articles via NNTP directly or read with the local directory setup by NNTPXfer, and post directly using NNTPpost. Documentation is available in AmigaGuide format (GRn.guide). GMail, Gadtools Mail, is also in development. 2.5.12. TorqueWare (TM) ---------------------------------- TorqueWare (TM) by `AugmenTek' is a means of developing and running parallel programs over a network of Amigas. It provides six simple C functions to handle the job of distributing data and execution across the network. A graphical user interface allows for compiling and linking locally or remotely, setting up the runtime environment, and running the program -- but this can also be done manually. A hypertext user's guide and tutorial are provided. Instructions for using the Amiga as client to a computational server running on a Silicon Graphics or Mac using TorqueWare form Torque Systems, Inc., are also provided. TorqueWare is an implementation of the Linda parallel programming model. Data are placed in a global data space that is accessible to all processes, whether they run locally or across the network. One can wait for data to appear, read it, or remove it from that global data space. C functions can be run as separate tasks on either one computer or multiple computers, and these remote functions access that global data space. The global data space is content-addressable. TorqueWare hides communication details, such as the nature of the underlying communication mechanism, from you. It supports different computers by handling byte ordering. TorqueWare attempts to keep all of the computers busy if there is enough work. As a programming utility, TorqueWare provides an operating system independent way of multiprocessing. Applications include network rendering (RayShade 3.0 already allows for Linda), news or database filtering, image processing, and audio processing. An example of code using TorqueWare versus socket programming can be found on `Aminet' under biz/demo/netprog_txt.lzh TorqueWare requirements: SAS C 6.x, AmigaDos 2.04 or higher, and network hardware for multiprocessing. MSRP for base development system $100 MSRP for general TCP/iP networking $150 per cpu. Educational and quantity discounts available. 2.5.13. VLT -------------- Valiant Little Terminal by Willy Langeveld A terminal emulator providing both Tektronix and DEC emulation. This little jewel has been around for quite awhile. It is available on Fred Fish and Aminet. Here is a note from Willy that came out just before I released this FAQ. " PS: Oh, in case people haven't noticed: VLT and VLTjr 5.867 have been released. Also, a minor update to rexxarplib was released (version 3.3). I suspect these are all over the net by now..." 2.5.14. X11R4 -------------------- X11 Release 4 server and library by `GfxBase, Inc.' GfxBase provides both a server so that you can run x clients on your Amiga, and a development library so that you can write x clients for your Amiga or other x windows system. 2.5.14.1. X11R4.3 Color Server ----------------------------------------- The X11 R4.3 server supports: - Up to (NTSC)1440x482 (568PAL) resolution. - Overscan, genlock, interlace, superhires, productivity, a2024 all supported. - Superscreens up to 2560x2560 scrollable under 2.0 - Up to 32 colors (lowres). - AGA support: 256colors/16M Local Clients: olwm(OpenLook) twm(Tab Window Manager) bitmap, xfd, xfontsel, xcalc, xmag, xsetroot, xsol, plus many more. xpr (X printer program) supports all standard X devices plus supports Amiga printers via the Amiga printer device mechanism. Fonts: X11R5 fonts are included in this release. 2.5.14.1.1. X11 Compatibility ----------------------------------- Software support ---------------------- network support: Commodore `AS225' (tcp/ip) Thunder Ridge TSSnet (`DECnet'). OS support: Requires WB1.3 or later. Works better with 2.0. And best with 3.0 Coexists with Native Amiga Operating System, and works under Intuition in its own pull down screen. Hardware Support ------------------------- input support: international keyboards supported, Recommended 3 button mouse. Compatibility with all models of the Amiga, A1000,A2000,A500,A2500,A3000,A3000T,A1200,A4000,A4000T. 2.5.14.1.2. Optional color graphics cards --------------------------------------------------- Optional X11R5 for color graphics cards support - GDA1 from GfxBase - PicassoII - 1600GX from Ameristar 2.5.14.1.3. X11 Requirements ------------------------- Requires minimum 1M of Ram for Server, more for local clients. Requires 7M Harddisk, 15megs for standard installation. 2.5.14.2. X11R4 Development Libraries ---------------------------------------------------- -------------X11 Release 4 Development libraries--------------------- Specially modified to work under AmigaDOS with SAS/C 6.51 Libraries: Xlib,Xaw,Xext,Xt,Xmu,oldX,Xau, BSD sockets Includes: X11 Release 4 standard include files Some sample source and lmkfiles for learning X11 on the Amiga. X11 programs on unix machines can be ported right to the Amiga. Develop X applications on the Amiga and know they can be ported to Unix platforms. 2.5.14.3. X11 product Availability ------------------------------ products available from Amiga Dealers or `GfxBase, Inc.' --------- List Prices --------------- software: X11R4: $395/$90 X11tk: $250/$45 XView: $250 X11 Local development system: $475/$100 (does not include support for as225/TSSnet) mwm motif window manager: $99 Complete X11R4/with motif development system: $795.00 Hardware: Boing 3button optical mouse, bought with X11, $75.00 GDA-1 hires graphics card 1024x768 256/16M colors $595.00 2.6. Hardware Specs ================= Specifications for Amiga Networking Hardware 2.6.1. A2065 ------------------- A2065 by `Commodore Business Machines' Function: Full ANSI 802.3 type Ethernet protocols over either Type A (Thick Ethernet) or Type B (Thin Ethernet/Cheapernet) connections. The 32K onboard RAM Buffer provides shared RAM between Am7990 processor and the Amiga. Card Type: Amiga bus (100 pin), Autoconfig Interface Specs: 15 pin female "D" connector for Type A (Thick Ethernet) networking with 100 nodes per segment Female BNC coax connector for Type B (Thin Ethernet/Cheapernet) networking with 30 nodes per segment. Speed: 10Mbps CSMA/CD interface DMA data reading and writing to shared RAM Card Size: Full size Amiga board 2.6.2. A4066 ----------------- the A4066 by `Ameristar' replaces the A2065 ethernet card by Commodore. The A4066 supports 10BaseT Thin, and Thick ethernet. It is SANA II compatible and should support the AS225r2 software as well as `DECnet' at the same time. 2.6.3. Amiga Link ------------------------- Amiga Link is a floppy port based networking solution which is SANA II compatible. It will work with any Amiga with a free floppy port including CD32 with the expansion module, and a floppy with a pass thru port. Transfer rate: 450,000 bits per sec (~ 45KB/sec) Max cable length: 100 meters (~330 feet) cable type: RG-58U 50 ohm co-axial Cable connector: BNC and floppy port connector Max # of computers: 20 Included Protocol: Network Operating System optional Protocol: Envoy, or any SANA II compatible protocol Supports remote printing using the Commodore CMD program. Requirements: kickstart 1.2+, Workbench 1.3+, 512k ram Recommended: Workbench 2.0+, 1MB+ ram, hard drive SRP: AmigaLink Starter Kit $259.95 20 software licenses and hardware for 2 nodes AmigaLink Single node $124.95 hardware only, no cable. 2.6.4. DoubleTalk ----------------------------- DoubleTalk was by Progressive Peripheals NOTE: This product may no longer be available. Works with Amiga 500, 2000 and 3000. Apple File Protocol used in standard AppleTalk networks. Share files, printers on existing AppleTalk network. For Amiga-only networks, has a high-speed mode (twice AppleTalk speeds) and allows any Amiga to function simultaneously as a file server, printer server or client. Hardware: Network interface card with 512K ROM and phone jack network adapter. Network card provides an additional serial port for the Amiga. Software utilities: Network Manager, AutoLogoff, AutoPublish, password security, NetMail. 2.6.5. GG2 Bus+ ============= The GG2 Bus+ by `Software Results Enterprises' lets you add IBM-compatible hardware to your Amiga. The most common additions are extra parallel and serial ports, and _network_ cards. The GG2 Bus+ is NOT a 486 bridgecard, and does NOT run windows, it merely allows you to access less expensive PC cards. 2.6.5.1. GG2 Bus+ Hardware Compatibility -------------------------------------------------------------- The GG2 Bus+ supports almost all non-DMA AT-compatible (8 MHz bus capable) PC plug-in boards. This includes such popular items as internal modems, multi-I/O boards, IDE hard drive controllers, non-DMA ethernet boards, VGA boards, A/D boards, etc. Access to the PC cards is at full Amiga Zorro II bus speed unless wait state support is turned on. 2.6.5.2. GG2 Bus+ PC drivers ------------------------------------------ PC drivers included with GG2 Bus+ are: ibmser.device A replacement serial device for internal modems and multi-I/O cards. Includes automatic use of the 16550 FIFO buffer when available. Support for up to 4 serial ports at once, equivalent of COM1-4. ibmprint.device A new parallel output-only driver for printing through IBM LPT compatible parallel ports on multi-I/O cards. Support for up to 3 printers at once, equivalent of LPT1-3. ibmIDE.device A driver program to allow the use of IDE, RLL or MFM hard drives. NE1000.device and NE2000.device These are SANA-II ethernet drivers for Novell NE1000 and NE2000 boards and compatibles. NE1000 is 8 bit card, 8K memory NE2000 is 16 bit card 2.6.5.3. GG2 Bus+ Software Compatibility ------------------------------------------------------- Since the Ethernet drivers are `SANA II' compliant, you can use your GG2/Ethernet combination with all of the popular network packages, such as `Envoy' (from IAM), `AS225r2' (from Commodore) and `AmiTCP' (available via ftp from Aminet sites). Commodore's AS225r1 is *not* a SANA-II networking package, and will not work with an Ethernet card on a GG2 Bus+. !!! Oxxi's Novell Netware Client software is *not* a SANA II networking package and will not work with an Ethernet card on a GG2 Bus+. !!! CrossPC and PCTask software PC emulators are aware of the GG2 Bus+ and will let you use IBM-compatible hardware from inside the emulation. Among other IBM peripherals that have been successfully operated are, ROM programmers and PC-television cards. 2.6.5.4. GG2 Bus+ Requirements ---------------------------------------------- The GG2 Bus+ occupies one Zorro II slot aligned with an PC-AT slot in an Amiga 2000, A2500, A3000, or A4000. It has essentially the same form factor as a Commodore bridgeboard. You will need at least one additional open PC-AT slot for your plug-in PC card. The GG2 Bus+ requires 1 Megabyte of available AUTOCONFIG memory space to correctly map all of the PC memory locations. All address and data lines to the PC bus are buffered to avoid loading-down Amiga bus lines. Most of the software requires 2.04 or higher. The actual device drivers themselves (ibmser.device, ibmIDE.device...) will probably work under Amiga Dos 1.3, but the support programs (like SwitchControl and SerPrefs) don't. 2.6.5.5. GG2 Bus+ Availability ----------------------------------------- $119.95 USD All sales are being handled by `Software Results Enterprises', so there are no distributors in any countries. 2.6.6. Hydra ------------------ Hydra by `Hydra Systems' Ethernet cards for the Amiga 2/3/4000. Did have a model for the A500. Has SANA II driver with new boards or available from vendor. Has thin wire connector (BNC) and a thick wire connector (15 pin D). 2.6.7. ICard ------------------- ICard by `Interworks' A 16 bit ethernet card for the A1200's PCMCIA slot. Provides 10BaseT and 10Base2 ethernet connectors. Provides SANA II driver for compatibility with any SANA II compatible network protocol including Interworks `ENLAN-DFS' MSRP $299 2.6.8. LAN Rover ------------------------ LAN Rover by `ASDG' LAN Rover is now called EB920. A thin wire ethernet card for Amiga 2000,3000, and 4000. It is a full length Zorro II card and comes with `SANA II' drivers and supports adjustable interrupt settings and network address roms. Being SANA II compatible means it will support all the major network protocols available for the Amiga. More info in a future release of FAQ 2.7. Manufacturers ================= For Additional information on Products and Vendors consult "AC's Guide for the Commodore Amiga" at your local Amiga dealer or newsstand or contact AC's Guide c/o PiM Publications P.O.B. 2140 Fall River, MA 02722-2140 phone: (800) 345-3360 2.7.1. Ameristar ---------------------- Ameristar products are distributed by Creative Equipment International (CEI) 5555 W. Flagler St Miami, Florida 33134 USA Phone (305) 266-2800 2.7.2. ASDG ----------------- ASDG, Inc. 925 Stewart St. Madison, WI 53713 Phone (608) 273-6585 Fax (608) 271-1988 2.7.3. AugmenTek ------------------------ AugmenTek 3606 S. 180th St. C-22 SeaTac, WA 98188-4339 USA Phone: (206) 246-6077 email: augmentek@acm.org 2.7.4. Canadian Prototype Replicas ------------------------------------------------ Canadian Prototype Replicas PO Box 8, Ontario, Canada (519) 884-4412 2.7.5. Commodore Business Machines ------------------------------------------------ Commodore Business Machines 1200 Wilson Dr., West Chester, PA 19380 (215) 431-9100, (215) 436-4200 2.7.6. CSA --------------- CSA Computer System Associates, Inc. Stephen Riker, Director of Sales and Marketing CSA 7564 Trade Street San Diego, CA 92121 PH:(619)566-3911 FAX:(619)566-0581 2.7.7. GfxBase, Inc. ------------------------------------------------ Contact Dale Luck at GfxBase, Inc. PO Box 360814 Milpitas, Ca. 95036-0814 Phone: (408) 262-1469 FAX: (408) 262-8276 for more info or more complete literature. 2.7.8. Hydra Systems ----------------------------- Hydra Systems Wyndrushe House Red Land, Kenilworth Warwickshire England CV8 1PB Tel/Fax: +44 203 473333 2.7.9. IAM -------------- IAM Direct postal mail to: Intangible Assets Manufacturing 828 Ormond Avenue Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604 USA Direct electronic inquiries to: info@iam.com 2.7.10. Interworks ----------------------- Interworks 43191 Camino Casillas Suite B2469 Temecula, CA 92592-3714 phone and fax: (909) 699-8120 2.7.11. Oxxi ------------------------------------------------ Oxxi P.O. Box 90309, Long Beach, CA 90809 Phone: (310) 427-1227 2.7.12. Progressive Peripherals ------------------------------------------ Last Known address for Progressive Peripherals & Software 464 Kalamath Street, Denver, CO 80204 (303) 825-4144, (303) 893-6938 (FAX) Apparently out of business. Anyone with information on the disposition of their product line pleas provide `FEEDBACK' 2.7.13. SCALA, Inc. ------------------------------ SCALA, Inc. 12110 Sunset Hills, Dr. Ste 100 Reston, VA 22090 phone: (703) 709-8043 2.7.14. Software Results Enterprises ------------------------------------------------- Software Results Enterprises 2447 N. 4th St., Ste. B Columbus, OH 43202-2706 phone: 614/262-9146 (voice) fax: 614/267-2683 sales@kumiss.infinet.com support@kumiss.infinet.com Please use e-mail whenever possible. It leaves more time to develop products. Also be sure to ask for the GGII Bus+ FAQ which goes into more specifics than is practical in this FAQ. 2.7.15. Spectronics -------------------------- Spectronics Int'l USA 34 E. Main Street #23 Champaign, IL 61820 Phone: (217) 352-0061 Fax: (217) 352-0063 BBS: (217) 352-7627 Eddy Coopmans, President 2.7.16. Thunder Ridge, Inc. ------------------------------------------------ Thunder Ridge, Inc. N9353 Benson Road Brooklyn, WI 53521 phone: (608) 455-1039 fax: (608) 455-1317 email: 73071.1356@compuserve.com 3. Related FAQs ================= 3.1. AmigaNOS FAQ ----------------------------- AmigaNOS is a serial port only version of TCP/IP. The AmigaNOS FAQ is posted to comp.sys.amiga.datacomm news.answers and comp.answers news groups. and should be on the `FAQ archive' as... /pub/usenet/news.answers/amiga/AmigaNOS-faq 3.2. UUCP FAQ ------------------------ The UUCP FAQ is posted to the news groups alt.sys.amiga.uucp, alt.answers, and to news.answers. It is available at the `FAQ archive' site. Parts of UUPC (a version of UUCP by John Gilmore) were ported to the Amiga by William P. Loftus in 1986. After developing a system that worked for him, it was taken over by Matthew Dillon, who (along with a cast of dozens) developed it into a full-fledged `UUCP' package. Matt took care of AmigaUUCP (often called DUUCP) from 1988 until 1992. In 1992, Matt had the press of other obligations; and after the release of AmigaUUCP v1.16, turned the buglists over to Michael B. Smith. Michael is in the process of releasing AmigaUUCP v1.17. v1.17beta has been available freely for some months (currently at update #4). After Matt quit working on UUCP, Kai 'wusel' Siering also started on a version of UUCP based on AmigaUUCP v1.15. It currently has most of the v1.16 enhancements as well as other features. Its current version is V0.23. 3.3. X11 FAQ -------------------- X windows is such a big topic there is a FAQ dedicated to it regardless of vendor. It is posted in multiple parts in comp.windows.x and news.answers news groups which means it is available from `FAQ archive' You can send submissions to faq%craft@uunet.uu.net BTW, uunet.uu.net is one of those cross over points between the USENET and the Internet. 3.4. AmiTCP FAQ ------------------------- AmiTCP FAQ has been released by Neil McRae. Look in the comp.sys.amiga.datacom news group for biweekly updates. It is also an officially accepted FAQ by the news.answers moderators. Therefore it can be found in news.answers, comp.answers, and in the `FAQ archive' 3.5. Wiedmann's Amiga FAQ --------------------------------------- Jochen Wiedmann's Amiga FAQ Can be found at `Aminet' sites in the /pub/aminet/tex/docs directory with the file name AmigaFAQxxxxxx.lha where xxxxxx is the date. send submissions to wiedmann@mailserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de or Am Eisteich 9 72555 Metzingen (Germany) Tel. 07123 / 14881 Mr. Wiedmann's FAQ can now be found on line using Mosaic. It is now part of Mr. Witbrock's Amiga Home Page. It was converted to HTML from Amiga Guide by Mr. Witbrock's AG2HTML.PL perl script. The script is on line also. 3.6. DAK's Amiga FAQ -------------------------------- This document is a summary of information about Science/School/UNIX software for the Amiga. Originally compiled-by: rfarmer@nyx.cs.du.edu (Richard Akerman) Now maintained-by: dak@emx.cc.utexas.edu (Donald A Kassebaum) This FAQ is cross-posted around the middle of each month to comp.sys.amiga.applications, comp.unix.amiga, comp.answers and news.answers also available on `AmiNet' sites: /pub/aminet/text/doc/AmigaSciSchUnix.lha The news.answers automatic archiving software will store a copy of this posting, available by anonymous FTP on rtfm.mit.edu [18.20.0.224]: /pub/usenet/news.answers/amiga/science-faq 3.7. FAQ archive ------------------------- You can find numerous FAQ's posted to the news.answers news group. They are also cross posted to *.answers for the specific news group to which the FAQ is related. For example this FAQ is cross posted to the comp.answers news group. This makes it easier to find related FAQ's. There are several FAQ's slanted towards new users, so instead of flaming someone try sending them the appropriate FAQ. The FAQ's are updated periodically, and the older versions are archived at several sites. Both the current and the archived FAQ's are also available via Mosaic, and anonymous FTP in addition to being available through the news. RTFM.MIT.EDU [18.20.0.224] is one of the primary archive sites for news.answers FAQ's and it supports anonymous FTP and email. To use email send a message with "send usenet/news.answers/pdial" as the message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu. For more information send "help" as the message. 3.7.1. Aminet ------------------- Aminet is another archive site with many mirror sites. In addition to FAQ's you can find all kinds of Amiga programs and files at an Aminet site. They usually have a directory called /pub/aminet. See the "All about FTP" `FTP FAQ' for details on using anonymous FTP to access the archive. Aminet hosts are USA (MO) ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 USA (CA) ftp.cdrom.com 192.153.46.2 USA (TX) ftp.etsu.edu 192.43.199.20 Scandinavia ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2 Germany ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95 Germany ftp.uni-erlangen.de 131.188.1.43 Germany ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de 130.149.17.7 Germany ftp.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.2.32 Germany ftp.uni-oldenburg.de 134.106.40.9 Germany ftp.coli.uni-sb.de 134.96.68.11 Switzerland ftp.eunet.ch 146.228.10.16 Switzerland litamiga.epfl.ch 128.178.151.32 UK ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.2.1 Please use a mirror close to you! There are other amiga related FTP sites. You can use Archie or Veronica to locate sites that have a specific file you are looking for and perhaps avoid overcrowding the mirror sites. The Aminet Archive now has a Mosaic home page where the most recent uploads can by found and retrieved. You can access it directly or from Mr. Witbrock's Amiga Home Page. Aminet also offers a mailing list for info on the recent uploads. Just send one of the following as the body of the message to listserv@wunet.wustl.edu subscribe aminet-daily site@domain subscribe aminet-weekly site@domain where site@domain is your return email address. There are over 3000 addresses already on these lists. A complete index of aminet files (over 600k) is located in the file /pub/aminet/INDEX 3.7.2. Fred Fish ------------------ Fred Fish is/was a floppy based archive of public domain and shareware software for the Amiga. Fred has begun to make the archive available on CD Rom as well. Fred posts info on new CDroms on the comp.sys.amiga.announce news group. Amazing Computing Magazine also prints information about the Fred Fish collection and may be handling the floppy distribution in the future. The Fred Fish collection has been a valuable asset to the Amiga community, and I will be adding more info to this section in future releases of this FAQ. The Fred Fish CD Rom is available from Amiga Library Services 610 N. Alma School Road, Suite 18 Chandler, AZ 85224-3687 U.S.A. Phone/FAX: (602) 917-0917 3.8. NEWS FAQ ------------------------- The NEWS FAQ can be found at the `FAQ archive' or on the news.answers or comp.answers news group. It explains some of the history and different incarnations of news servers and readers. There are also specific FAQs for the INN news server and others. Also there are specific news groups for those who wish to be administrators of a news server. 3.9. RFC -------------- RFC Request For Comment These are good documents if someone wants to understand the technical side of the protocol. They can be found online at a number of sites by archie, but they are officially available from just a few. RFCs can be obtained via FTP from NIS.NSF.NET, NISC.JVNC.NET, VENERA.ISI.EDU, WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU, SRC.DOC.IC.AC.UK, FTP.CONCERT.NET, DS.INTERNIC.NET, NIC.DDN.MIL. Details on obtaining RFCs via FTP or EMAIL may be obtained by sending an EMAIL message to "rfc-info@ISI.EDU" with the message body "help: ways_to_get_rfcs". For example: To: rfc-info@ISI.EDU Subject: getting rfcs help: ways_to_get_rfcs Requests for special distribution should be addressed to either the author of the RFC in question, or to NIC@NIC.DDN.MIL. Unless specifically noted otherwise on the RFC itself, all RFCs are for unlimited distribution. 3.10. BDG to Internet ---------------------------- Big Dummies' Guide (DBG) to Internet is available in Amiga Guide format on `Aminet'. It explains more about the history of the Internet, and some of the same topics covered in this FAQ. If this seems like an awful lot of material to read, good because it is. You will NOT become an expert over night. So Relax, take a deep breath, and count to 10 often ;-) 3.11. FTP FAQ --------------------- All about FTP is a FAQ on the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) application for the `TCP-IP' protocol. The FAQ is posted to comp.sys.amiga.misc, comp.sys.amiga.introduction, and the comp.sys.amiga.datacomm news groups. It should be read by anyone wishing to download files from `Aminet' or anyone wishing to know more about FTP. It is posted by umueller@wuarchive.wustl.edu 3.12. ZEN ------------- Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide A booklet explaining the basic concepts of ideas behind using the Internet. It explicitly avoids machine or OS specific commands or bias. The booklet is widely available, probably even from your service provider. It is also available via FTP from ftp.uu.net [137.39.1.9] in the pub/zen directory or you can use Archie or Veronica to locate a copy. 3.13. misc ------------- miscellaneous stuff: A domain name and host name can be had for free. Send email to info@rs.internic.net 4. Feedback ------------------- Send corrections, updates and suggestions to: norman@afas.msfc.nasa.gov Richard Norman ED36 MSFC, AL 35812 USA All submissions will be considered altuistic donations to the network community's pool of public knowledge. Send flames to yourself for not getting off your behind and writing a better FAQ yourself. Besides I'm still learning too! ;-)