[Coco] internet access

[Allen Huffman]

On May 25, 2014, at 4:15 PM, keithclark1966 at gmail.com wrote:

> Is there any way for my coco to access the internet to check email and do
> some text based surfing using drivewire 4?  I don't seem to be able to find
> any instructions for the advanced features.

Hi Keith,

I have an Arduino project that uses a clone Arduino (about $14) and Ethernet add-on ($11.49) and some other misc parts to hook it to a CoCo RS232 port. I have not had time to work on the CoCo software portion yet, but have played with it via a Mac. The goal is to use it like an Internet modem, so you would issue commands to it from a terminal program (ATDIwww.google.com for example) and it would connect to a site and then you could read/write the data that comes through.

VERY basic text surfing (pulling the HTML file and parsing out the codes) is possible, but with all the modern CSS and JavaScript, many sites just won't work even on a modern PC/Mac if you have those turned off. We kind of missed our window of opportunity to CoCo web browsing.

For e-mail, straight POP/SMTP mail is doable, but today everything seems to be IMAP and POP is considered unsafe to use (?). Still, if support for POP/SMTP is there, it would be possible.

When I have some time to get back to this experiment, I will make a page for it on my Sub-Etha site with details.

(By the way, my clone parts are shipped from the USA and arrive in just a few days; I expect they could be cheaper if purchased and shipped from China, taking 2-3 weeks.)
-
Allen Huffman - PO Box 22031 - Clive IA 50325 - 515-999-0227 (vmail/TXT only)
Sub-Etha Software - http://www.subethasoftware.com - Established 1990!
Sent from my MacBook.

P.S. I got $45 (so far!) in Amazon gift cards this way (use my link and I get credit):
http://swagbucks.com/refer/allenhuffman