Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!emory!mephisto!mcnc!rti!sas!walker
From: walker@sas.UUCP (Doug Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Net: parallel port handler
Message-ID: <1549@sas.UUCP>
Date: 13 Feb 90 04:08:38 GMT
References: <71.25D2B100@afitamy.fidonet.org>
Reply-To: walker@sas.UUCP (Doug Walker)
Organization: SAS Institute Inc, Cary NC
Lines: 44

In article <71.25D2B100@afitamy.fidonet.org> Jim.Priestle@afitamy.fidonet.org (Jim Priestle) writes:
>Dnet (Dillon Net) is found on FF220.  -jim-

Unfortunately, DNet has nothing to do with Net: on the parallel port.

There seems to be a lot of misconception on usenet about DNet, parnet, NET:,
so let me waste a little bandwidth explaining it.

Matt Dillon implemented DNET, which runs on the serial port and allows processes
running on two Amigas or an Amiga and a Unix system to communicate.  DNET is
not a file system - it doesn't allow you to CD to the remote side, use the
workbench, do DIR and LIST and so on.  It does let you put and get files to
and from the other side by using the provided PUTFILES and GETFILES commands,
as well as other useful utilities.

John Toebes and other members of the Software Distillery wrote a file system to
read and write AmigaDOS format diskettes in the floppy drive.  (Also one to
read and write MS-DOS format diskettes in a 5.25 inch drive, but that's another
story.)

I took John's code and Matt's code as a starting point and implemented NET:, the
network file system.  The first version used DNET to communicate between the two
Amigas.

Matt wrote routines to read and write data to and from the parallel port of the
Amiga.

I posted source code to NET:.  Matt picked it up and wrote a device driver for
NET: that used his parallel port routines (a relatively simple matter since NET:
was designed to be modular).  This is what has become known as parnet.

Now, on to the question - where to get the NET: parallel port device.  It's not
on the Fish disks as far as I know.  It is on BIX and PLink, as well as the
Software Distillery BBS.  It has been posted here, so it should be in the
comp.binary.amiga archives.  A new version is on the way within the next couple
of weeks, so you might just want to wait for that.


  *****
=*|_o_o|\\=====Doug Walker, Software Distiller=======================
 *|. o.| ||
  | o  |//     "I try to make everyone's day a little more surreal."
  ======               - Calvin
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