Lets build an Amiga Network Adapter [video] | Hacker News Reader

Lets build an Amiga Network Adapter [video]

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In the past, I used PARnet to connect two Amiga computers via the parallel port.

This was a time when computer networks were a novelty to me. The unique aspect of this setup was that the required cable could be made at home. The ability to access and browse the filesystem of another Amiga through PARnet was a special experience, especially given the technological context of that time.

> In the past, I used PARnet to connect two Amiga computers via the parallel port.

That is very cool! Not Amiga but Linux: back when I was still on dialup my 486 desktop PC had a PLIP (Parallel Line IP) connection to my crappy laptop and so my brother and I could both be using the Internet at the same time. The laptop was so old and underpowered that it'd just be running a X11 server and the 486 desktop would be running the graphical session (including the browser) shown on the laptop.

IIRC the cable was just a regular parallel cable (the same kind we'd be using back then for printers).

It also felt like magic back then: one computer running two browsers, with one displayed locally and the other remotely over a parallel cable... All the while monopolizing mom's landline for the dial-up connection!

> IIRC the cable was just a regular parallel cable (the same kind we'd be using back then for printers).

Sounds more like something called a "Laplink cable" back then (2 25pin connectors with RX/TX crossed), named after the application made for exactly that purpose you used it for. Parallel-port Printers used a different connector on the printer-side...

Not explicitly mentioned, and totally wild from today's point of view: AmigaOS does not have a TCP/IP stack. The "Raodshow" briefly mentioned in the video is a commercial implementation of a TCP/IP stack which you have to pay for.

I wrote my first website on an Amiga. Didn't have internet, but a browser. So I carried my lovingly hand-crafted HTML on diskette to university to store it in my public_html folder. I'm guessing they must have been running some 1.0 version of Apache with mod_userdir.

My first access to the Internet was through an Amiga, over a 9600 baud SLIP connection. I installed AmiTCP and a Mosaic port: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMosaic

What were your Amiga and Modem specs for that connection? USR? +++ATH

It was an A3000 and some sort of early 90's 9600 baud modem. The 2400 -> 9600 upgrade felt huge!

Likely CERN or NCSA httpd, as apache came out in 1995.

Before apache came out (1995), it wasn't wild for an OS not to have a native TCP/IP stack.

That's the year of the eponymous Windows 95 which had its own TCP/IP stack. Windows for workgroups 3.11 only got a TCP/IP stack from Redmond in 1994, so until that time you needed to install a third party winsock, like Trumpet winsock or the one that came with the Quarterdesk browser.

I remember doing ISP tech support, talking people through downloading Trumpet Winsock with a regular terminal program... It could take a long time to get someone online.

My anecdote is from 1996-1998 - I was riding out the end of the Amiga era pretty far.

The first TCP/IP Amiga stack was released in the late 80s called AmigaTCP (AmigaNOS) based on KA9Q TCP. All it had was SLIP, FTP and Telnet. I've never managed to get it going on my Amiga 500.

On my Amiga 1200 I used Miami as it was easier to set up, but towards the end I managed to understand and get AmiTCP going which was better as it had a smaller RAM foot print. Having to pay for PPP drivers on the Amiga when you were a teenager was a pain in the @$$.

I mainly just used DCTelnet on my Amiga and IBrowse for Aminet.

Nothing beats that truly emotional moment (here at 24:15) when you get something working/fixed/debugged after hours of attempts. Brings a smile to my face every time I see somebody’s cheesy grin!

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