Re: Unix/Linux Box

[julian814@hotmail.com (Ralph Glatt)]

et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Black) wrote in message news:<bhv0u0$65u$1@freenet9.carleton.ca>...
>  <snip>
> > 
> > 
> You can put your Apple on the internet, so long as you can find an ISP
> that still offers a shell account.  You'd run terminal software on the
> Apple, and it would be basically the same as if you were dialing a
> BBS.

My problem is that the nearest place that has shell accounts is still
a long distance call. I'd like to be able to make it local, if I can.
;-)
> 
> Since ISPs with shells are in limited supply, the alternative
> is to run a shell at home.  Run Linux on a computer at home,
> and the only real difference between it and a shell at your ISP
> is that your Linux computer might be more limited than the ISP's
> computer (but not necessarily).  It will be running identical software.
> 
> So the Linux computer becomes the "go-between".  You connect your
> Apple to the Linux computer over the serial port, and run terminal
> software on the Apple. Instead of having to dial into your ISP
> with the Apple, you just start typing away.   You're Apple will
> be seeing the shell on the Linux computer, and you enter things
> on the command line.  You tell it to dial the ISP, and it makes a PPP
> connection.  Then, you type "pine" (for instance) and pine will
> run on the Linux computer, connecting to your ISP and collecting
> email, but you'll be reading it on this terminal connected to
> the Linux computer, which happens to be an Apple.  Want to browse
> with the Apple?  Type "lynx" and you've got a text browser and
> you can visit most webpages.
> 
> Maybe there's not much advantage in this.  But if you use lynx
> to download an Apple program, lynx will download it to a temporary
> file on the Linux computer, and you can then transfer it over the
> serial port to the Apple.  You no longer have to make a disk on
> the main computer, in Apple format on top of that, and move it
> physically to the Apple.  And except for software that apparently
> runs on the IIGS, this is the closest many people will get to
> putting their Apple II on the internet.
> 
> Since Linux is multiuser/multitasking, you can be using the connection
> for other purposes while doing things for the Apple II.  I do not
> have any other computer connected to this computer, which is Linux,
> but two years ago when I installed Linux I did have a Mac Classic
> attached to the serial port, in this very same fashion.  I could very
> easily be doing it right now.  As it is, I have Lynx running on one
> of the built in consoles, I can run pine on another to check email,
> and on this console I've telnetted to a "freenet" to deal with newsgroups,
> since my ISP dropped newsgroups over a year and a half ago.  It
> is wonderful.

I think you have a pretty good idea of what I'm trying to do. thanks!


Ralph Glatt