Usenet 1993 July/InfoMagic USENET CD-ROM July 1993.ISO/answers/amiga/AmigaNOS-faq

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Subject: [comp.sys.amiga.datacomm]: AmigaNOS Frequently asked questions
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Archive-Name: amiga/AmigaNOS-faq
Version: $Id: nos-faq,v 1.5 93/06/17 19:43:50 mcr Exp $



        Frequently asked questions about AmigaNOS.
        ******************************************
           Michael Richardson
        [e-mail]

  I think I see at least a question about AmigaNOS every week. I'm
going to try and compile a frequently asked questions on it. I think
at least the following questions must be answered:

  1.*) general questions
  1.1) what is AmigaNOS
  1.2) what is it used for?
  1.3) how do I get it to dial?
  1.4) where can I get documentation/source/binary?
  1.5) can I do dialup X? NFS? SMTP?
  1.6) What about PPP?
  1.7) where I find out more?
  1.8) How do I install it?

  2.*) questions of a more technical nature
  2.1) Does it come with a library gives you socket calls?
  2.2) What about AmiTCP?
  2.2) What about AS225?

  If you mail me other questions (or answers) I'll include them, and
find answers for them. If you have better responses, please send them.
I'm taking this stuff from postings that are still around my system.
  This is formatted as a digest, you can go to the next section with
many news readers with ^G.

--------
Subject: 1.1 -  What is AmigaNOS

From: [e-mail] (Steve McKinty - Sun ICNC)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 11 Feb 92 13:11:05 GMT

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Only the BEST!!) writes:
   > Guys, pardon my ignorance, but what is AmigaNOS really used for??  I thought
   > it was a terminal program, but it apparantly is some kind of a networking fo
   > software.  So what is it used for, and how could I take advantage of it.

NOS was originally written for PCs by Phil Karn, a radio ham whose callsign
is KA9Q (the software is often referred to as the KA9Q software). It was
designed to allow hams to run AX25 (a modified version of X.25 for amateur
radio) and TCP/IP over their packet radio modems. It now also supports
TCP/IP over ethernet lines and serial lines, and as far as I know also
has support for other protocols like Net/ROM (ham radio) and PPP.

AmigaNOS is an Amiga port of it, currently maintained by John Heaton, a UK
radio amateur. Its not exclusively for hams, it works very well as a
general network package for PCs, Amigas, Macs etc. I've used it to
connect PCs to Suns, and intend to do the same with an Amiga/Sun connection.

Steve

--------
Subject: 1.2 -  What is AmigaNOS used for?

  A great deal of people use AmigaNOS over serial lines (with or
without modems) for file transfers and telnet connections. The other
facilities are of limited use unless you are a ham radio operator.
  I (<[e-mail]>) use it to connect my Amiga and Sun 3/60.
I have an ftp login that connects me to the MSH: device. This lets me
stick 720k MSDOS disks in my Amiga and transfer things (usually things
I've ftp'ed at school) directly to the Sun.

  In order to make use of AmigaNOS' SLIP capabilities you need a host
to connect to that is willing to do SLIP. Just having AmigaNOS doesn't
get you on the Internet.

--------
Subject: 1.3 - How do you get AmigaNOS to dial?

From: [e-mail] (Steve Gilbert)
Subject: AmigaNOS that dials for you
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 31 Aug 92 09:02:17 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail]

There is now a modded version of AmigaNOS which will dial, and log on for you.

Very useful for slip connections over a modem link.

Available from gate.demon.co.uk (158.152.1.65) for anonymous ftp, with
the filenames

pub/amiga/anos29/DiallingAmigaNOS      - The Executable
pub/amiga/anos29/DiallingAmigaNOS.txt  - Some Instructions from the Author
pub/amiga/anos29/fixed-anos-src.lha    - Source for above.

Regards,

Steve.

-----

[These patches have since been incorporated into the mainstream version]

----
From: [e-mail] (Roy A Sutton)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Brian Mcbee) writes:
>So, my understanding is that AmigaNOS doesn't have the ability to let you dial
>your modem.  Those of you using it for dial up SLIP, what terminal program
>are you using to dial with, and where did you get it?  I have a small
>collection of terminal programs that I have been using, but they all drop
>the connection when I exit from the program.  Any ideas?
>
>
>--
>Brian McBee   [e-mail]  or  [e-mail]

If you have a Hayse compatible modem, it can be programmed
to (or not to) drop the line when DTR is dropped. Since all
terminal programs release the serial device when they are existed,
the DTR is droped. What you can doe is issure the command to
your modem, if supported, to not drop the line when DTR is dropped.

I hope this helps,

Roy Sutton
PVAMU

From: [e-mail] (Duane)

The reason that your carrier is dropped when you leave a terminal program,
is that your modem is not set so that "DTR ALWAYS ON", refer to the
manuals, but I imagine its a dipswitch setting...

From: [e-mail] (JOHN HEATON)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

>6.  Dialer Subcommands
>    Each dialer command may (should) have a different diler file.
>    The file resides in the configuration directory, as specified in the
>    Installation section (see chapter 1). etc.

I have NOT put these into AmigaNOS, because I have no need for them on
Packet Radio.

--------
Subject: 1.4 - Where can I get documentation/source/binary?

  If you can ftp, look on ucsd.edu under /hamradio/packet. Look for
the PC documentation, as there is little that is fundamentally
changed.
  /hamradio/packet/tcpip/amiga will usually have the latest binaries
and source. [and there is now Amiga documentation there too]
  John Heaton also has source and binary kit available for anon-ftp
available from jh.mcc.ac.uk (130.88.202.27). Unless you are on John's
side of the big sink, you would be better advised to try ucsd.edu.

--------
Subject: 1.5 -  Can I do dialup X? NFS?

From: [e-mail] (Randy M. Roberts)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.packet,comp.sys.amiga.datacomm
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John Heaton) writes:
}I Use AmigaNOS on my 2000 to send/receive files to/from my 386/40 PC running
}NOS.EXE at 19200baud at about 5k/sec using SLIP.
}
    Does this mean that I should have no problem (hee, hee) using
    AmigaNos to connect to the SLIP system at school over a modem?

    Does this also mean that I can buy GfxBase's X server and use
    it over said line?

    Inquiring minds want to know!

}Cheers, John.
}                  JANET : [e-mail]
}  Packet: [e-mail]7NWP.#16.GBR.EU                        (QTHR)
}* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *
}|                      NRS Central Administrator                      |
}| MCC Network Unit, The University, Oxford Road, Manchester,  M13-9PL |
}|           Phone: [phone], FAX: [phone]          |
}* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *


  As said above, yes, AmigaNOS will let you do SLIP. How usefull this
is uncertain. It does let you have multiple sessions, and you can do
background file transfers.

  No. You can't run X with NOS. GfxBase has a SLIP driver for the AS225
package, and the DaggeX package is supposed to run on top of AmiTCP.
AmiTCP uses SANA-II drivers, and their exist PPP as well as SLIP
drivers for that.
  There is no NFS server or client in AmigaNOS. See question 2.1.

--------
Subject: 1.6 - Can I do PPP?

In article <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> writes:
>I am currently using the AmigaNOS with PPP, which was done by Marc Boucher.
>The version information indicates: KA9Q NOS 900418 (PPP.15).



--------
Subject: 1.7 - Where do I find out more?

  To have yourself added to the list, please send mail to
    [e-mail].

  Messages from the past several months are being collected in
alfred.ccs.carleton.ca:/pub/amiga-net/amiga-slip, and are also
available via WAIS. Search for `amiga-nos'

--------
Subject: 1.8 - How do I install it?

From: [e-mail] (JOHN HEATON)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>

All the files relating to AmigaNOS, are normally under the device TCPIP:
i.e,

directories:
    TCPIP:Finger
    TCPIP:Spool/HELP
    TCPIP:Spool/MAIL
    TCPIP:Spool/MQUEUE
    TCPIP:Spool/NEWS
files:
    TCPIP:Spool/areas
    TCPIP:Spool/forward.bbs
    TCPIP:AmigaNOS
    TCPIP:ftpusers
    TCPIP:Domain.txt
    TCPIP:alias
    TCPIP:nos.rc
etc....

If you want a full list then let me know.

Cheers, John.
                  JANET : [e-mail]

--------
Subject: 2.1 - Does it come with a library gives you socket calls?

  You can't interface GfxBase's X server because AmigaNOS does not
provide any kind of standard TCP/IP library interface. Commodore
hasn't really released one yet. Although they do have TCP/IP software
for their network board, I don't think it does socket.library yet, and
AmigaNOS doesn't talk to socket.library anyway.

  AmigaNOS is one binary and multitasks internally (but not with
AmigaDOS' help). You have to remember that NOS stands for Network
Operating System. On NOS' native PC environment when you remove NOS
all you have is a sophisticated program loader, NOS provides
everything else.

  To add a new client or server to NOS, one must recompile the whole
program. On PCs, the NOS people are currently hitting the 640k crunch
very hard. Fortunately, we don't have this problem.

--------
Subject: 2.2 - What about AmiTCP?

  However, there is now another option: you might want to try out
the AmiTCP package. It is currently in beta testing, and I hope to
fill this question in with better details when the program is better
stabilized. I understand that there currently aren't any clients, not
even Telnet.

--------
Subject: 2.3 - What about AS225?

  Commodore still hasn't released the new version of AS225 that is
SANA-II compliant. I have heard that developers who've signed a
Non-Disclosure Agreement have had it for some time now. Perhaps the
Usenet Oracle knows when it will released. I certainly don't.







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