On 9 Sep 99, at 2:56, Daniel L. Stripes wrote:
> I am also very interested in others' experiences with and opinions of
> setup and use of the available ethernet cards and MiamiDX. I plan to
> connect via cable modem or xDSL soon, and to network 2 or 3 of my Amigas
> before the end of this year.
I use a A2065 Ethernet card with my A3000 Tower. Given the fact it is a
really old project and outdated technology (Zorro II doesn't count, as
long as we are talking of 10 Mb/sec Ethernet networks), you cannot expect
miracles from such board. Also, A2065 lacks the TP connector, but has BNC
and AUI connectors, and an AUI-TP transceiver is very cheap nowadays.
However, the A2065 is probably one of the most supported Ethernet cards,
as it has drivers for almost any kind of OS installable on the Amiga.
AFAIR, there have been at least two production batches of A2065. Speaking
of mechanical dimensions, one of the two kinds is a little shorter than
the other, and this is especially important in early A3000 models, in
which the "longer" (ie, normal) version of A2065 may not fit in the slot
(typically, one had to remove the plastic guide that helps the board to
stay fix in place).
I have my A3KT connected with a SGI Indy, using a TP null cable (ie,
crossed) and an AUI-TP transceiver. Using MiamiDx and A2065 SANA II device
driver, I've got a maximum transfer rate of about 384 KB/sec with FTP
(either MiamiFTP or DOpus Magellan II FTP module). I've setup MiamiDx to
work as a gateway, and I have also enabled the built-in firewall. Above
all, it works pretty well, and the Indy on the LAN has no problem in
connecting to the Internet via MiamiDx.
I normally use two kinds of ISP connections, one for my personal use and
the other for my job. The second one is a callback connection from my
office, using RAS running on a Windows NT 4.0 Server. Both connections
works flawlessly. Using the integrated firewall, I've also tested the port
redirection capability of MiamiDx, enabling the access to telnet and http
services on the Indy, again with no problems at all.
The only problem I have with this setup (give the fact that I'm new to
this list) is that I cannot use FTP from the Indy workstation. I've
followed the instructions for IP-NAT configuration of MiamiDx, and enabled
in the IP-NAT config panel the FTP option. I understand that this has to
do with the random ephemeral port FTP server uses for data transfer, but
in the text file for IP-NAT setup there is no mention about FTP other than
to enable that button. Also, MiamiDx 0.9j version still lacks bubble help
in some config panels, so I have no clue on what that FTP button really
does.
The other minor annoyance I have is not really related to MiamiDx, and it
has to do with DNS. On the Indy, I've setup the resolver to look for the
same DNS server address configured as static in MiamiDx setup. However,
when I switch ISP (my personal provider or my company), I switch also the
DNS server address in MiamiDx configuration, but of course it does not
happen the same on the SGI machine, which will continue to use just one of
the two DNS servers. I've thought to install a cache only DNS server on
the Amiga, and to point Indy to use just that one, but I've read on this
list that there are some concerns regarding its usage. Are those concerns
related to the not so friendly setup of a BIND (aka named) service, or to
its reliability? Configuring BIND is not a problem for me, since its a
part of my job.
This is just my experience in Amiga Ethernet networks. Sorry for the quite
long message.
Andrea
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Andrea Suatoni E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
System & Network Administrator [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Itaca s.r.l. Phone: +39 6 4356-0007
Via Tiburtina, 605 Fax: +39 6 4356-0031
00159 Roma (Italy)
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