Re: digicard - ethernet

["brad" <mrbrad(remove)@ll.net>]

"> >
>
> Seems like you want a ethernet to serial bridge. The problem with that
> is that most of those devices were designed to take seral output,
> convert to ethernet and then the other side takes the ethernet packet
> and converts back to serial.
>
> Here is a sample converter (although this one is pricey - you get the
> idea -just google search on serial to ethernet)
> http://www.stayonline.com/serial_to_ethernet/3311.asp. It appears to
> have two modes .. the one I mentioned above (redirected serial port) and
> a custome PC client. Either way the PC would need something to talk to
> this device beyond standard IP apps like telnet.
>
> As a solution you are limited to the apple serial thorughput (19,200)
> but it appears to be simple to setup and get going .... have not used
> one myself though.
>
>
> Putting a ethernet card into a apple running a bbs package like likely
> wouldn't buy you much as the TCP/IP stack alone will take up a fair bit
> of memory and I would expect that memory was fairly constrained in most
> bbs packages although I could not say for sure as I never used one from
> an operators point of view.
>
> Glenn


i guess that is the problem i have with all this...is that terry olsen has
with limted success so far (hopefully he has perfected this and i don't know
what
i'm talking about) a hardware solution to this ..the serial to eithernet
hardware solution..i know another person on this thread has a setup using a
cisco i
think server with a config script...both ways ...again i hope i'm wrong
..have their problems...terry's hardware conversion (boycott bbs) seems the
closest i've
seen to working well..but it hangs..has had problems with proterm causing it
to hang if i remember right and other problems...i suppose i could put such
a device up with terry's help...and simply every time a user logs off
....make the //gs do a cold reboot with somekinda hardware trick and a power
outlet.. ( i think i have a bbs device that does so) it is kludgy...and
such..but there would be no way anyone could have the  usual problems with
such devices...and log on directly into another persons account.on there
logoff...(again my tpro 4.2f RPG BBS pkg does this all the time when a user
logs off..but that is because the driver is really old ..thus stupid..and
seems to have a crude but working way to act as a null modem designed in
that bbs...essentially i'd do the same for the fv/metal bbs but would have
hardware device dump and reboot setup when users leave...thus clearing all
..it also would have the added advantage that a person could re-boot the
apple // remotely with a phone call and a phone tone number if it ever did
hang..) some old old bbs setups had this setup..it was ugly..but the system
was either re-booting from a hangup..in use...or had just re-booted and
waiting nicely for another user...no in betweens with serial and logging
into another users accnt who had just prev logged off kinda thing...on a one
at a time bbs like an apple ii and or a c64 bbs...it was kludgy..but
transparent to the user)....again it was kludgy cause it was a power off/on
type of hard reboot..not just cycling thru a program reboot...tough on
equip..but prob would work with an apple //gs and a cffa card for example...


that i think is the thing that drives everyone nuts..these devices say..they
can tell modem tones..and serial stuff and eithernet stuff..but seem to hang
about 1 time out of 7 or someone else hits on prev accnt..it is a config fix
for the server (cisco) script or the proper script for the eithernet to
modem conversion device or whatever..but...no one ever seems to fix it well
enough for bbs use..it is fine in the old days you wanted something like
this for use with the old DOORWAY program...ibmpc era....because most of
that use was in office and when it kludged out someone could just walk
around the office and reboot it..but 24hr bbs setups where i would have 50
people a day trying to get into the apple // sub bbs's off the internet it
was a pain in the but for the fv/metal version unless the fv/metal was on
its own phone line.and as mentioned prev the tpro 4.2f rpg bbs pkg much to
my annoyance always worked flawlessly which made me nuts i could not do the
same with fv/metal bbs version or gbbs or anything else older then 1984...

again the tpro worked ok with my worldgroup dialout program and a null modem
connector...(and prob a dialout bbs door with a msdos synchronet or wildcat
bbs that runs door programs as well)...but i know of people with fv/metal
and gbbs...etc where this did not work well at all and never got
addressed..i think and i repeat i think...Proline bbs (could make it look
unix like or menu..it is freeware with manual you can find it easy enough
with a google under proline bbs apple ii i think) i think he managed to do
this...and even do it to a unix box ...but not sure if he ever released it
in his main proline stuff..but that is how he got a proline on the net for
his hubs and usenet feeds etc..if he did it at least he was great at
documentation (or use his bbs if included) ...maybe that is a fix use that
apple // proline bbs to connect and perhaps play with his code to pass via
serial to other apple //bbs under it...but again on all this we are running
into big kludge hack efforts...

i look at the effort people have yelling on here on how to get a lance gs
card up on their setup and cringe...this above stuff would prob be worse to
swing

now if terry olsen is reading this..he has a program that is called "bbs
gateway" you run this program on your ms dos machine windows attached to the
internet and viola...via a serial cable it goes to the apple // bbs (my ver
of fv/metal) but i've not got that to work yet...in that terry has been
sidetracked by the hardware eithernet to serial converter project that i've
been squeaking about seems to be driving the guy nuts...)

so terry...hows the progress...should we just go back to the bbs gateway
solution or are you gonna amaze us and that dang 190 buck device you got off
ebay actually gonna work

but again...in an ideal world someone would just get some tcp/ip stuff
working with the lance gs card and then figuring out metal/fv script
language or gbbs stuff to connect to the beast would prob be easier then
trying to re-invent the wheel here on kludge protocols....but if that was
gonna get done it prob would have been done by now..

anyway...i guess i have a shot at getting the fv/metal to work with terry's
bbs gateway program

of course the fv/metal works fine with my worldgroup and/or other dialup
menu setup...via a REAL phone line and a modem...but my days of running the
fv/metal
via a phone (dropped one of the 5 phone lines to the bbs to use with the
apple ii..ie a guy calls up hits my modem then dialed out another phone
number and hit
the apple net using another modem in the bank to get to that apple //gs
fv/metal bbs wasted 2 of my modems on one user..but it worked....)

but..hardly worth doing these days...and i did have or tried to setup the
modem to modem setup .the direct connection method...but being on all the
time between modems *ie no phone tone like the phone co* i again ran into
the
dreaded ...one user gets on other user hits on the prev users accnt
problem.....so unless someone has something they can make on a pcb board to
generate a dial tone so my 2 modems will think it was a real phone line
...maybe that too would work...(hi Woz....i need this...perhaps you'd like
to make an apple // museum..and i could donate my stuff?.....hmmmmm?.....of
course this is like asking john glenn..to make a display on what switches to
hit to make the mercury capsule land..it might be fun..but far to crude a
project for his style of plaything today..sigh...)

anyway if terry olsen from boycot is reading this how goes the hardware
fix..or is it back to the drawing board to the bbs gateway stuff...(ie
running bbs gateway on another computer windows version to connect to the
fv/metal setup that way..he has a www page on this...so i suppose i could
tackle that again....)

anyway..that is my efforts feeble so far in this area...i just hang around
and hope terry has a fix (even if i pay for the eithernet to serial device)
or something else falls out of the sky on this...i suppose it is so far moot
i only have an internal network..and i could use my phone line and the
fv/metal bbs with that call forwarding box i have for differentiating
between a modem/fax/voice etc...but it just ticks me off the stupid little
tpro 4.2f rpg bbs just chugs along merrily w/o a care from 1984...and has as
far as i can determine worked without flaw this kinda way from 1994 to 2002
when i had that worldgroup bbs and the apple //bbs pkgs as sub bbs's units
to it on the internet etc....

whatever...coments welcome..no need to tell me i am an idiot on all this
...been saying it to myself for years on this particular topic..

brad