Re: PLIP: Parallel Line IP.

["C.P.Briscoe-Smith" <cpb4@ukc.ac.uk>]

Peter Ross:
>I've practically searched all over the internet for approximately 3 hours and 
>25 minutes and I still haven't found PLIP.  Please someone give me a clue as 
>to where I could find it.

Get MiNTnet 0.90.  It includes the PLIP driver.  PLIP is not a separate
package.  Try <URL:http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/%7eroemer/>

>Thank you also, are there interfaces that allow
>one to adapt the parallel port to use telephone line or networking line?

For a telephone line, you need a modem, and as far as I know all modems
are serial.  If you use serial, you might want to modify the serial
ports to give higher throughput than 19.2kbps.  (Falcon/MegaSTe may not
need this.)  And I suggest you use HSmodem, too.

You can get a DE600 ethernet adaptor, which is for the PC parallel
port, and build an interface card to attach to your ST cartridge port.
MiNTnet will then drive this.

If you need a cheap solution, PLIP works well for me.

>The Falcon and the MegaSTE are in two different areas of my house.  I would
>like to connect them as elegantly as possible.

In this case, PLIP is probably not good, it's best for short distances
(only a few metres) because it's TTL and the signals can't travel too
far (or something).  Running co-ax for Ethernet, or a 2-core bell wire
or similar for SLIP/RS232 is probably best.

>How fast would the transfer rate
>be via parallel compared to via serial and would the MegaSTE be usable as a 
>print server for the Falcon?  Thanks.

RS232 is slow (maybe 1Kb/sec at 19.2kbps), PLIP is faster (I think I
got about 15Kb/sec), Ethernet is faster than that (the docs claim
something in double figures 80Kb/s maybe?).

If you run a UNIX lpr/lpd, UNIX programs should be able to print over
the net.  For GEM programs, you'll have to find some other way, like
printing to disk, then using lpr.  (I never got printing to
/nfs/<whatever>/dev/prn to work.)

--Charles