Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!darrell!gaudi!zimmer.CSUFresno.EDU!erick From: erick@CSUFresno.EDU (Eric Keisler) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.datacomm Subject: Re: Networking the Ami Message-ID: <1991Jan12.052120.13419@CSUFresno.EDU> Date: 12 Jan 91 05:21:20 GMT References: <1991Jan10.202026.1@vax1.mankato.msus.edu> Reply-To: erick@zimmer.CSUFresno.EDU (Eric Keisler) Organization: California State University, Fresno Lines: 83 In article <1991Jan10.202026.1@vax1.mankato.msus.edu> stx@vax1.mankato.msus.edu writes: > >I have a questions about the networking capability of the Amiga. I know there >are ethernet boards out there. How do they rate? Do they work well with other >machines on the net? Is the software sound? > .. Well, we have a 12 workstation graphics lab here of Amiga 2500/30's. Currently 6 of the Amigas are outfitted with CBM's A2065 ethernet adapters. We have a good relationship with our regional CBM rep, so we got our hands on a beta version of the AS225 TCP/IP software. I've been working with this stuff for a few months now and am very impressed with it. The A2065 board supports both thick and thin ethernet and has both a BNC and transciever connector. This is a quality board. The software is a fairly well rounded implementation of the TCP/IP suite. On the application level, it contains: telnet, rlogin, rloginVT (VT100 support), rcp, rsh, finger, FTP, TFTP, ping, and route. Protocols supported are: ARP, ICMP, IP, TCP, and UDP. Other TCP stuff includes rpcinfo, ls, chmod, passwd, arp, netstat, showmount, and a diag utility. It also supports NFS and has various commands and facilities for mounting remote file systems. The current rev of the NFS software allows the Amiga to be an NFS client but not a server. The same goes for telnet and rlogin (ie: you can't telnet *into* an Amiga but you can telnet out), however you can do an rsh into an Amiga. The documentation I recieved was a disk based pre-release version of the manual. All I can say about it is *even* in this pre-release form the docs look good. I have tested this software extensively with Suns, Nexts, and BSD Vaxen. Bottom line: it works great, it's fast, it does what we want. By the way, here's a kicker: all of our machines have Bridgeboards. I found that using Adisk and Jlink with network based 'virtual' volumes works just like they would on a hard drive. The fact that this works proves to me how well they interfaced NFS with the AmigaDOS filesystem. If you've ever tried to network real MSDOS PC's with a Sun via PC-NFS, then you'll drool over how much easier it is with AS225 software and a Bridgeboarded Amiga. Problems? I've noticed a few minor glitches, but nothing really worth noting. Shortcomings? Well, currently one cannot do a 'reverse arp' (ie: the Amiga yells out to the network "Who am I?", and a remote host tells it who it is). Also the lack of NFS server capability seems to me a big omission. Oh yes, the AS225 software also works with the CBM ArcNet board. According to the docs and developer note included with the TCP/IP package, the software is pretty much done - very few changes (if any) are planned. What puzzles me is that CBM *still* has not officially released it. It's very solid. The hardware is done. So why the delay? PLEASE NOTE>>> We're talking about *BETA* software here. So any problems or shortcomings I mentioned will likely (most likely I hope!) not be in the commercial release version. In closing, myself and a few other network 'gurus' have looked at these products quite closely. We're impressed. >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > stx@vax1.mankato.msus.edu Kevin Whyte Proud Owner of an > Computer Services Box 45 > Mankato State University Amiga 1000 > stx@att1.mankato.msus.edu Mankato MN 56001 >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ --- Eric Keisler, University Computer Services Department of Art CSU Fresno erick@zimmer.csufresno.edu