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[amyren]

I just stumbled upon this device: http://www.connectone.com/products.asp?did=73&pid=85
It is a RS232 serial-to-wifi bridge, claimed to be plug and play for any device.
My thought when I saw this product was if it could be used to connect old computers like the classic amigas to the internet. Just as this was a standard modem - only faster.
But I could not find so much information about the usage of this bridge, so Im not sure if it can act like (emulate) a standard modem, or if there are special drivers needed to get it working.
If someone with a bit more technical knowledge that myself could have a look at it and give some feedback, it would be useful.
Anyone?

[Tension]

Hmmm.... some strange protocols in use... prob no software for it for the Amiga side.

[Birkwood]

Those things are Serial ports for use over WiFi, they just transmit the RS-232 signals from a computer to the WiFi serial port. You would be able to connect the Amiga to a PC via Null-modem but nothing more.
Think of it as a wireless serial cable.

[J-Golden]

Originally Posted by Birkwood

Those things are Serial ports for use over WiFi, they just transmit the RS-232 signals from a computer to the WiFi serial port. You would be able to connect the Amiga to a PC via Null-modem but nothing more.
Think of it as a wireless serial cable.

The page sez:

Secure iWiFi™ is a serial-to-WiFi device server that enables installed serial devices to connect via their existing serial port to the Internet over an 802.11b/g Wireless LAN.

So it does work over the wireless network but programing it is another thing. Did you look through the docs. to see how to initialize the beast? If it is anything other then a remote login (connect directly to the device via its wifi) then you'd need a PC or something to run what ever sofware is needed to set it up.

Keep us informed cuz this is highly COOL!

[ferix]

Well, If you can live with wires and wait for me to finish my project, I'm building a serial to ethernet bridge (SLIP to TCP/IP over ethernet).
Yo can see some photos here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/album.php?albumid=54

The goal is to provide a small bridge from the slip side to the ethernet one. It implemented a smart bridge that takes care of the arp tables and packet fragmentation, routing, and other TCP/IP over ethernet related questions.

The hardware part is almost finished. Now, I'm making some hardware tests. Once I finished them, I'll start with the software part.

[tone007]

If the "SerialNET™ mode for serial-to-IP bridging" is SLIP compatible, this would work to connect the Amiga to WiFi. You'd think they would've just said SLIP though.

[amyren]

ferix: The serial-to-ethernet project looks interesting. I wonder what you have planned do show in the display.. Are you planning to sell these things when you get it finished, and do you have any hint about the price tag? (or what are the axrox. parts cost if you plan to release it as a DIY project.)

tone007: I just sent an email to the sales department asking about this. If I get a decent reply I'll post it here.

[kolla]

I'm getting this RSS-22 Bluetooth adapter myself to build inside Minimig. I already tried this weekend with a similar external adapter, and it works excellent for running 57600 bps terminal at least.

[Birkwood]

Originally Posted by J-Golden

The page sez:



So it does work over the wireless network but programing it is another thing. Did you look through the docs. to see how to initialize the beast? If it is anything other then a remote login (connect directly to the device via its wifi) then you'd need a PC or something to run what ever sofware is needed to set it up.

Keep us informed cuz this is highly COOL!

Sorry, I've been hanging around /. too long

Yes indeed! It will do some protocols and raw sockets, via AT commands, there is a programmers manual under support or here http://www.connectone.com/media/uplo...anual_8_32.pdf

It would probably be enough if someone wrote a TCP/IP Stack for it...

[NovaCoder]

That's another reason to go for a 1200, $30 got my Miggy connected wireless via a cheap PCMCIA card

[AmigaHope]

A *far* better solution is to add an ethernet port to your Amiga which is relatively easy to do on all models except the A500 and A1000.

For those two models, you can add a Z2 busboard sidecar, and then add a Z2 ethernet card. This is an expensive way to do it, but it works.

Once you have ethernet, then you can add an ethernet -> wifi adapter. Older adapters are dirt cheap on ebay these days. You really only need 802.11b for the older Amigas, since they'd only have a 10Mbit ethernet card anyway. I use an ethernet -> wifi adapter on my A4000 via an old Ariadne 2 card, and it works great.

RS232 is VERY cpu intensive on the internal chipset, not to mention dirt slow -- maxing out at 0.1Mbps.

[ferix]

Originally Posted by AmigaHope

A *far* better solution is to add an ethernet port to your Amiga which is relatively easy to do on all models except the A500 and A1000.

For those two models, you can add a Z2 busboard sidecar, and then add a Z2 ethernet card. This is an expensive way to do it, but it works.

As you say, It's expensive...
If you are a DIY man, It's very easy to interface an ISA ethernet card to those amiga models.
The same on PCMCIA. PCMCIA is only an extension to ISA bus. I've connected PCMCIA cards to AVR microcontroles with success.
The problem is always the same... drivers...
I wrote my self lots of network drivers for linux and some microcontrollers, but these have well known (and well documented) apis, or no api at all (like microcontrolers). The amiga's problem is to write a sana2 compliant device driver... As far as I know, ofcourse.

Originally Posted by AmigaHope

Once you have ethernet, then you can add an ethernet -> wifi adapter. [..]

If you get a fonera, you can hack It to work as ethernet to wifi bridge. And if you build the serial adapter, you can even make your own slip to ethernet or wifi bridge. I made It my self, and It works nice.
The only problem is that linux kernel doesn't manage bridges with diferent MTU sizes. So, yo have to configure the slip interface to a MTU of 1500 bytes to match the ethernet MTU... And It could be a high load for the amiga.
That's not a problem for ethernet to wifi briges. Wifi uses ethernet frames under the link layer, so It uses same MTU size.
You can get a NEW fonera+ for about 30 euros (about $45 or 27 pounds):
https://shop.fon.com/FonShop/shop/ES...18&language=en

Note: My design takes care of it. It automatically fragments incomming packets that exceed the slip MTU size... At least is what I have planned...

Originally Posted by AmigaHope

RS232 is VERY cpu intensive on the internal chipset, not to mention dirt slow -- maxing out at 0.1Mbps.

Yes, you're right, but It's the cheaper and easier option, I think...

Originally Posted by amyren

ferix: The serial-to-ethernet project looks interesting. I wonder what you have planned do show in the display.. Are you planning to sell these things when you get it finished, and do you have any hint about the price tag? (or what are the axrox. parts cost if you plan to release it as a DIY project.)

I'm not planning to sell It. Maybe, I'll free the schematics and sources, as soon as I'll have a full working prototype.
I don't know how much I spent on It, because It's almost made with spare and sample parts, but I guess It would cost about 20 euros or so, without the LCD.
The LCD is not necessary at all. I included It for configuration and status information, but you can do the same directly by the serial port.

[amyren]

Here is some feedback I got from the customer service from ConnectOne.
I also attached the file about how to set it up on windows. It does not seem to require any special drivers to work, and could possibly be set up to work on Amigas as well (?)


Hello,

The Secure iWiFi can be connected to a computer as a NULL modem connection,
and convert the connection to WiFi. The feature to be looking at is the "PPP
Host Interface and Routing" described in the release notes for firmware
version 804b04, found on our website.

I attach explanation on the configuration with Windows XP. In addition to
the document you must set the following commands:
1. AT+irrhw=0 ; Disable readiness pin .
2. AT+iioc:x0xxxxxx ; PIOC01 Signal is Output, default LOW
3. AT+idown ; Invoke software reboot

SLIP is not supported.
Best regards,

Avishay Katz
Field Application Engineer
Connect One
560 S. Winchester Blvd, Suite 500
San Jose, CA 95128
USA
Office: (408) 572-5675
Direct: (408) 857-4006
www.connectone.com

[ferix]

If I understood It well, It emulates a serial port connection over the wifi, and then you need to provide the communication protocol (PPP in that case), but you need a PC as host on one side for acting as a ppp server and for routing...
It's the same as a null modem connection between your amiga and your PC, but without wires... It doesn't connect your amiga to the network (directly).

[amyren]

Originally Posted by ferix

If I understood It well, It emulates a serial port connection over the wifi, and then you need to provide the communication protocol (PPP in that case), but you need a PC as host on one side for acting as a ppp server and for routing...
It's the same as a null modem connection between your amiga and your PC, but without wires... It doesn't connect your amiga to the network (directly).

Doesnt a program like MiamiDx enable the Amiga to be set up with PPP and work with this adaptor?
I also remember I used MiamiDx with the nullserdevice to emulate a null-modem connection between the Amiga and (Shapeshifter) MacOS8 in order to provide internet to the Mac side. That is internet via nullmodem from the Amiga, but my hope is that it could work the other way as well.