[Coco] CoCo Ethernet for $25-$30...

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 9:45 AM, Frank Pittel <fwp at deepthought.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 08, 2013 at 01:45:17PM -0400, Aaron Wolfe wrote:
>> > I have ben waiting over a decade for someone to come out with some way to get a CoCo on the internet without it just being a PC on the internet with a CoCo attached... Still hasn't happened, so I guess one of us will do it then figure out a way to standardize the interface so software can be written.
>> >
>>
>> I don't think this assessment is fair.  The web server, telnet client,
>> inetd, smtp client, etc that work with DriveWire 4 all process their
>> respective protocols at the TCP layer.
>>
>> The DW4 server is doing no more work than the wiznet chip does, in
>> fact the DW TCP API is designed specifically so that a wiznet chip can
>> be used in place of the DW server and the same client programs we
>> already have written.
>>
>> Connecting a CoCo to the internet via an offloaded TCP/IP chip is
>> cool, don't get me wrong.  I designed the networking in DW4 with
>> exactly that as the eventual goal.  However, to same one method of
>> providing the stack externally is somehow more "real" than another...
>> I don't see it.
>
> Now that you mention it I remember you having set up a coco connected to the
> internet via telnet a number of years ago. At the same time there was talk of
> using a coco as a web-browser and web-server. I wasn't aware that the API is the
> same as what wiznet uses.
>

Yep, we currently have:

inetd -  listens for incoming TCP connections and invokes any OS9
executable, mapping stdin and stdout to the TCP socket (for instance
'shell' provides remote telnet access)
telnet client - connects via TCP to remote host
smtp client - sends email via SMTP
httpd server - web server capable of static content and OS9
file/directory browsing via the web
...and some partially finished IRC clients, and a barely started
Twitter client :)

*all* of this software can work unchanged with a Wiznet type solution.

-Aaron