IP Socket, Wireless support.

[ahenry3068]

I've got a useful program that falls within my skill set.

But to do it someone else has to design an interface board for 10baseT or Serial
and get some code that opens a socket/character stream on the interface.

I'm not sure the CX16 could manage 10mbit's (maybe it could, In the distant past I'm sure I've had an 8 mhz 80286 on
a 10baseT card. ).. If it the Commander can't do a full 10 mbits / sec I'm sure it could get close... I know
that between 1998 and 2000 I had a 16 mhz 80386sx acting as a dialup server for my entire home network. (Only 4 computers)
I don't remember what Baud I was on my Modem at the time... Could have been 14,400, or 28,800. I don't think it was 56k
but it could have been... (the fact that I still own my 28,800 as a desk ornament points to me never getting a 56k modem) My memory is less than perfect.

Anyway... If anyone has this on thier Radar. I would be happy to develop both the Client(X16) and Server(Probably Linux)
ends of the software to implement a BBS. A Web Browser is a definitely a step to far. But it would be cool to be able to run
some sort of BBS software natively... My last major project was writing libraries to implement server side support on Linux
for the Free Pascal Compiler. (Its a dead project but some of it is still on the Web...... Search POWUTILS).

[ahenry3068]

If I have time I might even be able to implement PPP myself if some hardware genius can come up
with a cable design to interface to a regular US. Robotics Modem (I've got a 28,800 USR Modem
that hasn't been used in 22 years.....lol (Its currently a desktop ornament, but it was working
when I retired it around 2001/2002)

USR28.jpg (223.13 KiB) Viewed 4221 times

I actually remember some of the AT command set.... and I'm quite sure its
well documented somewhere on the InterWebs.

[ahenry3068]

DAMN. My brain works strangely. I'm wondering now a very recursive strange question.

Would an Analog Modem from Days gone by. Work on a VOIP jack on a digital modem/router.

I know an old fashioned dial phone does.... I wonder if the digital conversion is sophisticated
enough to handle an ANALOG modem

[ahenry3068]

I'm about to hit the sack.... One last post.

I like to code. And I've really figured this out in the last 3 months.
Really I didn't write any code at all for > 15 years... Just life happening
and I never had coding as a career.

I've been enjoying playing around with BASIC. and I think I've
contributed OK... Most of my "Working" code was for
job qualification tracking. actually a pretty large ASK on
a US Navy Aircraft Carrier. I'm also looking at other stuff I've
wrote. I wrote FPC (Free Pascal Compiler) code to parse
the input from a remote web browser and respond... Including
CSS output and Form Variable Processing.

The Most sophisticated program I wrote on the Microsoft QuickBasic Compiler
was actually a wrapper around DOS DEBUG that implemented an actual
assembler. It allowed the assembly of source code text files into 64k or smaller
.COM files.. I actually used it to write the core code of a Menu program
I wrote later.

This being said, I would really like to contribute something meaningful to X16

All of these programs really had processing streams/strings of characters at
the core of their operations. I think I could be pretty good at setting
up the Commander X16 BBS software at both the client and server sides.


But Damn, I need a hardware genius to help

[TomXP411]

DAMN. My brain works strangely. I'm wondering now a very recursive strange question.

Would an Analog Modem from Days gone by. Work on a VOIP jack on a digital modem/router.

I know an old fashioned dial phone does.... I wonder if the digital conversion is sophisticated
enough to handle an ANALOG modem

Probably not. The kind of compression used for VOIP connections generally does not work for analog-encoded digital signals, such as fax machines and modems. Faxes can use T.38 to transfer fax calls over VoIP, but modems need a protocol known as ITU V.150.1 or V.MOIP. These are not part of most consumer VoIP adapters, as far as I know.

More to the point.. .there's zero point to putting something like V.32 modem on a VoIP terminal adapter, when you can instead just use an RS-232 terminal adapter and send serial data directly over TCP/IP. The technical term for these devices is a "RS-232 Terminal Adapter", but they're also commonly known as an "Internet modem" or "Wifi modem".

And you can buy an RS-232 "wifi modem" for less than $50.

Anyway, we've got at least two people working on ways to communicate via a serial port using the 6522 VIA on the Commander X16. The person who created the Meatball, a kind of all-in-one modem and storage device, has started working on connecting a Meatball to the X16 via the VIA 2 port. I've also been working on a parallel-to-serial protocol that will work on VIA2; I can get about 300Kbps using an Arduino Uno, and I plan to pick up some level converters and test this with an ESP32 - once I have a real board in hand.

[DragWx]

Yeah, I just looked up the VoIP stuff too, and it really is optimized specifically for voice, to where not even music can reliably be transferred over it.

Plus, if you're already at "oIP", you'd might as well drop the "V".

Anyway, something I think would be a fairly fun thing to play around with is, an X16 (or petscii-oriented) webserver-like place where a bunch of community members can put some petscii pages up (like, to make small personal websites), which can then be browsed on an X16 with an internet connection, or with a "regular" PC web browser through a portal. There could even be downloadable games too, like what the NABU was supposed to be.

[ahenry3068]

I was really only thinking about it because I have 2 VOIP jacks on my AT&T router and a 20+ year old USR Modem on my desk...
LOL... I'm very serious about coding both the server and client side apps..

TO DragWX actually, program downloads were the FIRST thing I was thinking of on a BBS interface.

Anything I write is probably going to come out something like an old UNIX FTP client at first. with maybe
bulletin boards and chats coming second. (NNTP ? ,,, IRC ?? .... Rofl)

[TomXP411]

Yeah, I just looked up the VoIP stuff too, and it really is optimized specifically for voice, to where not even music can reliably be transferred over it.

Plus, if you're already at "oIP", you'd might as well drop the "V".

Anyway, something I think would be a fairly fun thing to play around with is, an X16 (or petscii-oriented) webserver-like place where a bunch of community members can put some petscii pages up (like, to make small personal websites), which can then be browsed on an X16 with an internet connection, or with a "regular" PC web browser through a portal. There could even be downloadable games too, like what the NABU was supposed to be.

Well, we do have plans to build a BBS, and I've been considering how best to build a web based system that can be accessed from an 8-bit and a modern PC.

The best way is probably a system that works from the least common denominator, with pages encoded as HTML, PETSCII, and maybe ANSI/VT-102, then served to the client based on what the client can view. The PETSCI and ANSI variants would use a very simplified tag system that contains just enough information to identify form fields and basic submit actions.

There'd be no JavaScript for the 8-bit versions of the pages; instead, client side actions would be pre-programmed and very simple: click a button to navigate to a page, post a form, and fill out text fields (optionally with a long format text field for message posts.)

[ahenry3068]

Do you plan on working on both sides of the interface (Server and Client) ?

[ahenry3068]

It shouldn't be to difficult to write a program to translate PETSCII color and control codes to HTML .....

On the X16 client of course you would just pass the PETSCII straight on to the console ROM routines.