[Coco] Run a CoCo while sitting on the toilet! :)

[Roger Taylor]

At 07:48 PM 2/19/2007, you wrote:
>Gene Heskett wrote:
> >
> > I shared an on-demand dialup here for years Roger, but all the local stuff
> > till just recently was all cat5 connected.  Now I have an old wap11
> > rigged so my lappy can connect using its radio.
> >
> > Running on linux of course, the script actually runs as a daemon.  Its
> > about 25 lines long & easily configured if anyone if interested.
>
>         Me too! My Linux box had the modem and diald so the link 
> would come up
>when needed. All the other computers in the house (Coco3, MM/1, and
>AT306) had a serial PPP connection to the Linux box. 'ftp rtsi.com' on
>the Coco3 and the Linux box would dial-in to my provider and route the
>traffic from the Coco3 to RTSI.
>
>         Now my Linux box has wireless broadband, and I live 10 
> miles out of town.

I'm interested in knowing how to boost my 802.11 transmission power 
to reach maybe a mile or two away.  I've monitored hotspots quite 
some distance away but couldn't talk back with my stock setup.  I 
know this is cheating a bit but if the city offers high-speed 
wireless yet you're a few miles too far, this would be a good project.

Anyway, after I clear out these CoCo TV orders I'm seriously 
considering a NetWire project similar to Boisy's DriveWire, but with 
both functions or at least internet capability for all CoCo's.  The 
PC could mount virtual disks and drives as well as serve preformatted 
HTML renderings suitable for CoCo fetching and viewing.  I have PC 
console commands for FTP and GETURL (HTTP) which can be used by the 
PC driver written as a Windows app or background service.

Remember, I doubled Boisy's DriveWire top speed and with error-free 
tests for weeks until I moved on to demanding projects and put that 
on the back burner.  The CoCo 3 and any other CoCo capable of the 
~2mhz rate and with the same rated 6821 PIA can definately do 115200 
bps serial transfers!  And although I tested huge packets (for a 
CoCo, anyway) that didn't show a single bit of error, I plan to use 
reasonable-sized data packets for cutting down on possible errors.

115.2K serial on a CoCo was an amazing accomplishment, although there 
is a special protocol absolutely required.  Printers can't be used 
this way due to the handshaking "technology" I had to devise to get 
this to work.  Even OS-9 Level II can do this while doing other 
things.  I know this because of the protocol schema, but I haven't 
tried it yet.  This is why I am working on getting RMA/Rlink to work 
from the Rainbow IDE to do further development in this area.  So far, 
RMA works, but Rlink doesn't.  Bummer.  Ofcourse, a Disk BASIC driver 
would come first since I've got most of the work done.

Sorry about the topic changing, but maybe there's a connection 
between all of these great ideas?  A CoCo connection.. get it?  Now 
if we can do all of this while sitting on the toilet :) now THAT'S a miracle.






-- 
Roger Taylor