Network Communication - Amiga and the Internet, or an extra touch to rulezu.

Amiga and the Internet, or an extra touch

                to rulezu.

 About 1995-year Internet
rapidly broke into the 1 / 6
part of the land, not so long ago, bore the name
USSR. Creation of military thought, born in
gloomy Pentagon laboratories, as
means the enslavement of all progressive
humanity, to break free
grew to the size of the entire planet,
acquired volume of the universe and has become a place
work, leisure, hooligan antics,
idle pastime and manic
the passion of countless individuals, comparable
with a population of a developing country
which is permanent
population explosion. Innovation had
to taste a wide domestic
computing to the masses, despite the
an astronomical fee.
By words such as "chat", "Connect"
"Traffic", "server" do not strike unless
God-fearing old lady dense, and
ignorance of the new terminology in the youth
environment, simply considered a sign of bad
tone. By 1997, in the medium
government officials, parliamentarians,
NGOs, religious
community bankers, gangsters, movie stars and
Other sex symbols was just the same
obsession open if not
own website, the web-page where you would
fanateyuschie mass could track
status of their idols ... Will not
go into details, as meek,
but do not have large earnings
computer scientists, by hook or by crook
tried to join the Eighth Miracle
Light the end of the 20 th century. Nevertheless, with
some confidence we can say
that in the European part of the former Soviet Union, in
every major city (population of 300
thousand people), has now been
there is a layer of a few hundred or
even thousands of lucky people who have access to
Internet through local providers. From
of thousands, a significant number
users (legal and illegal)
are "advanced" computer people.
Continuing the logical design, can be
argue that the ranks of the lucky ones may
wormed and a few Amiga-fans. ;)
Actually, for future amizhnikov or those
who are already firmly on the Amiga trail, but
only going to get to the vast
Kiberspeysa, is designed to this article.

 So, in the direction of the lyrics, let us deal
the practical side of things. Let us assume that
you already have in mind a good
provider, you also own a
Amiga and almost all contribute
Your brilliant appearance in front of the
world (albeit anonymously). The first thing
should decide this ...


             1. Selecting a modem.

 Here we shall not consider the charms
podklyuchenmiya computer network card to
"Leased line" or via
ISDN-device providing high
speed and incredible ease of use in
Internet. For various reasons (high cost,
disgusting quality of domestic
lines of communication, lack of opportunities for
provider to arrange a complete package of services
etc.) an average user they simply
available. Consider the most
common way
Internet connection - via modem
(Or dialup). Immediately agree that
modem for the Internet will work on
minimum speed of 14400 baud
(Bps), or about 1.6 Kbytes / sec.
Less modem speed - it's just
waste of money. If
finances allow, the best acquisition
to the modem speed 33600 baud. Modem
should buy EXTERNAL having
Serial RS-232 interface. When
buying, make sure that your desired modem -
this is such a small box with lights and not
payment to IBM / PC. From buying
laptop / notebook-modems under the PCMCIA-slot
Amiga (model A600, A1200), should
abstain. In any case, successful
their use in the xSSSR not
registered.

 An important parameter in choosing a modem is
the principle of who his parents. " As shown
long-standing practice, not worth buying
modems made to work in the U.S. or
Canada. The trouble is that these
high-quality devices is bad
adapted to work with domestic
telephone networks. There are several reasons:
a) high level of noise on the line (due to
which the modem can not connect to the long
provider or permanently drop a line
after konnekta, causing bouts of fury
and with difficulty restrained a desire to spread
on atoms capricious box), b)
domestic telephone lines differs from
U.S. and increased operating
voltage (which is again fraught with
unstable operation of the line,
alternating with sudden failure and, in
Ultimately, the untimely death of
modem). Therefore worth considering
of experienced users and to choose such
modems that are adapted to
work with local telephone
lines, even if you have a modern
digital communication line. An example of a reliable
work can be called several models:
US-Robotics (model Sportster or
Courier), GVC (Model SF-1133/R16), Supra,
IDC and Zyxel (model Elite and Omni).
The last three representative enough
expensive (over $ 100), the first two quite
affordable ($ 60). Recently
time, sales began to appear Modems
Zyxel-Comet. Buy these modems are not worth
because of frequent breakdowns and repairs of
(Stuck relay, for example, becomes
Models Comet fatal). However,
The variant of the normal work of the
modem. Prices 14.4K-modem now
acceptable to the overwhelming majority of
people have accumulated an amount sufficient to
purchase of a PC. Such
Popular models like the US-Robotics
(Sportster), GVC, Practical Peripherals,
Hayes Optima and others are sold at a price
$ 10-25; to compare: $ 100-150 in 1994/95
respectively. The author of this article
long time uses
Internet connections, modem GVC-33600/R16
Taiwan's production and is quite pleased
trouble-free operation in the Soviet
telephone line, a far from ideal.
:) If possible, try to
choose the model of the modem, which will be
most resistant to "hold" your phone
line.

 A few more tips: for
Machines A500, A500 +, A600, A2000, if
only they are not worth the accelerator with
32-bit processor and 68020/68030
Fast-memory usage 33.6K-Modem
impractical because of the small
CPU performance and the lack of
hardware FIFO-buffer. Modem at 1.44K,
(With the included hardware mode
VJ-compression works at 1.92K), will
the best solution. For those owners
A500 ... A2000, who do not want to put up with
barrier speed of the modem to 1.92K, and wishes
work with a 33.6K-modem, will
published scheme of hardware
FIFO-buffer, filming this
restriction. Since 1998, became fully
56K-modems are available. Before you buy
a modem, make sure that: 1) Your
provider supports the communication protocol with
these modems, and 2) Your phone is connected
to modern digital communication line. In
Otherwise, the money will be spent
in vain. In the first case, you, with your
latest 56K-modem, will feel
a user-33.6K-modem. In
the second case, at "leveling" of information
through a normal telephone line, a large
part of the data would be hopelessly flawed.

2. Software tools for communication with

               Internet.

 The very first programa, providing
Internet access - TCP-stack, which implements
the TCP / IP protocols and network connectivity
modem - PPP and SLIP. Well-behaved
proved Miami, Genesis (very
easy to configure), AmiTCP and TermiteTCP
(For work do not require much memory). All
These programs have an internal
bsdsocket.library. Miami and Genesis for
Work requires MUI (Magic User
Interface, which became de-facto necessary
additional system interface).
Miami has a high and reliable
internal serial.device to work with
devices connected to the
PC serial port. Genesis
requires an external serial.device; those
can serve as a simple but very fast and
reliable 8n1.device, or artser.device;
Modem US-Robotics can be used
USRserial.device or v34serial.device. No
In no event should not be used
standard serial.device, within the
installation package Workbench (at least
case, you should not use it for
high-speed modems), as it contains a number
errors (this is when the amount of about 5 Kbytes!): /
and not very stable in operation.
The configuration of Miami and Genesis is
utterly simple. Select the type of
connected device (modem, network
card, etc.); own or external
program to work with your device
(Serial.device); the speed is set
port, safe for the Amiga, modem and
serial interface (normally
57600 baud) is determined by the type of modem and
Hayes-command (a list of popular
modems, and are taken from the installation, if
modem is not described, then it is assigned
Name Generic, and his team
initialization will be recovered after
as the Miami meet with modem). Next
are personal settings the user
mobile service provider: contact
phones and type of dialing (pulse
or tone), login, password, and possibly
Some additional information
(Eg, identification number), type
protocol (PPP or SLIP); type of IP-addresses
(Dynamic or static. After
initiating the program is run
short-term connection to the computer
provider, during which the program
communicates with the server, extracting the necessary
information. After separation,
received data is written to
Winchester in the form of log-file from
extracted the main program and
used in the basic facilities for
further Internet connections. Manually
recruited install FireWall (protection from
attacks hooligan elements from
Internet), ARexx-scripts and some
other utility functions.

 Now you have the server provider
identifies you and gives you access to the
Internet, and here it just right
talk to, what else is needed to
work effectively in the World
Computer Web. Now we must
determine which items of interest
You online.

 A) WWW-servers and pages. For their
viewer program is needed - the browser.
The most popular Amiga communicator -
iBrowse, authorship belongs to two
software firms - HiSoft
(UK) and Maxon Computer
(Germany). Second and third place is shared
shareware'ny VoyagerNG (Vaporware) and
Commercial AWeb (product of Canadian firm
AmiTrix Development). Very soon to
Amiga will be freely available to the popular
www-browser Netscape Communicator
(AMozillaX), as well as Web_Cruiser and Opera.
In mid-summer 1999 launch HiSoft
on sale iBrowse_2.0. According to
information, the new device will be
close to maximum capacity
Netscape. As a rule, www-browsers have
built-in "swapping" files (FTP
- File transfer protocol), in this case
You can use the proxy-cache your
Internet service provider. iBrowse and
VoyagerNG need installed MUI;
AWeb does not require MUI, but still
requires at least 2 MB RAM
AmigaDOS_2.04 and interface system
ClassAct. As a useful addition,
VoyagerNG has the option to "Spoof_as_Mozilla".
The fact that some "smart"
site owners are somehow religiously believe
that all visitors enjoy the web-pages
only program of Netscape
Communicator. Other browsers their sites
indignantly rejected. Option
"Spoof_as_Mozilla" allows you to easily
be tested for compatibility with
Netscape. This ability to mimic
can be developed for the communicator
iBrowse_1.22. The most interesting is that
original, such features are not
provided, but the Internet can
get the patch "Spoof_as_Mozilla" for
iBrowse_1.22 from well-known hacker group
Digital Corruption. No loss
advantages of Netscape
Communicator, yet I note that the choice of
browser - a purely personal matter ...

 B) FTP-client. Very convenient
integrated into the Directory Opus 5.x.
Using remote drives looks
just like with their own.
Quite convenient and AmFTP, included in the
Set NetConnect. FTP-client is good
that allows you to organize
two-way exchange of files. Web-browsers
are only able to receive files from
source.

 C) E-Mail-client. For exchange
e-mail messages created a huge
many mail programs. Very
popular YAM (Yet_Another_Mailer, author -
Marcel Beck), a freeware
through AmiNET. In early July, 5 th day
published long-awaited version
YAM_2.0_full_release. Fresh Update
You can always get on the author's website:
www.yam.ch. From commercial postmen,
can be called quite comfortable
MicroDot-2 and Air_Mail_Pro. All these
mailers support a universal system
encoding and recognition of data types -
MIME. MicroDot additional ways
read the news from news-servers.

 D) News-readers. Very popular THOR,
capable of processing and e-mail, and
FIDO-mail, NetGate, using
FTN-soft, WorldNews, MicroDot.

 E) IRC-client. Beyond comparison -
program AmIRC. Under this program
written many ARexx-scripts (package
Red_Dwarf, Kuang and others) that expand
capabilities of users
irc-channels. For example you can have a
to war on the irc-channels with owners
"Cool" Pentium, to find out what
type of computer is better ... ;) AmIRC -
incredibly flexible and convenient
shareware-program from Oliver Wagner
Vaporware. For those users whose
technical capabilities allow
hold audio / video conferencing, is
draw their attention to another program -
BlackIRC, although a number of parameters,
it is substantially inferior to AmIRC. New
BlackIRC_1.1 version can be used
http-proxy. IRC-protocol can not
only communicate in real time, but
share files (DCC_Transfer).
Owners of unexpanded
A500/500 + / 600/2000 fit MezzIRC.

 F) Telnet-Client. Them very much. They
compact and very convenient. There are both
independent programs (DC-Telnet,
AmTelnet, AmTerm, AmTel, Termite), and
telser.device, which connects to any of the
Your favorite terminal program.

 G) A number of additional minor
programs and utilities that facilitate easy
on the Web. NetInfo - gives
able to trace the full path to the
of interest to you server. If desired,
established a set of parameters: the
some countries en route, time
passing a query from start to finish (with
delays at the intermediate server);
construction of the graph of passage; get
IP-address of the server and the full range of services they
provided (www, ftp, eєmail, telnet
etc.). AmTalk - a program for
Internet communication, the call is
after you enter your desired domain name
Users (eg,
AmigaUser19.cch.pmc.ru). STRICQ -
ICQ-client (Internet-pager). ICQ-code
the right person can be identified by
one of the parameters (a pseudonym,
name / surname, e-mail) and if he is in on-line,
send a request to talk or leave
message to the e-mail, if it is missing.
Unfortunately, ICQ-service number
"Damp" (introduced in 1996) and
has a very serious disadvantage:
the computer becomes very vulnerable to attacks
from the internet bullies.

 Those who want to immediately get a computer,
modem, hard drive and software
software, is look at the
Special Internet version of the Amiga:
A1200-Surfer. The set includes:
A1200-Magic; 2 "hard drive with a capacity of 270
MB (too small for today
needs!) external modem 14400
(Generally, US-Robotics); set
Internet programs, and 100 free hours
work ibm.net.


  Successful surfing on the waves of the Internet.

 If you have a permanent and stable
Internet access is not necessarily
spend some money, organizing
mailbox with your ISP. On
sites www.chat.ru, www.mail.ru,
www.hotmail.com, www.coolmail.com You
zaimet can download at least a few
Mailbox for an indefinite period,
pre-filling the registration
form. On the server icq.mirabilis.com, you
can receive one or more
personal icq-codes. Simply
find web-sites that provide 10-20
MB of free space for the organization
Free web-page. With web-or
ftp-surfing to abide by the rules
reasonable safety. On sites that
You have visited, are "tracks" and some
data. It is not known in whose hands can
get this information. The best way is not
leave no trace - to use
Internet anonymizer. Now, he instead
You will leave traces on those sites,
you've been. Address popular
proxy: www.iproxy.com and
www.anonymizer.com.

 What if you're already logged into the Internet,
know that you are interested in, but do not know
address. For such purposes there
many search engines. Most
known: www.yahoo.com and
www.altavista.digital.com. To search
necessary information in Russia, it is better
or just use www.ru
www.rambler.ru. There is a search engine
server and the Amiga community:
www.amicrawler.com. Enter keyword
word or phrase in the blank line and
click on "Search". If you choose
key word "Amiga", then foreign
search engines will be given a few
millions of matches. Field of view
widest! :) Interesting news
relating to the Amiga world, can be obtained
visiting the sites web-news. Perhaps the most
chief among them is the www.cucug.org,
then move to the sub-
"Amiga_Web_Diectory", and from there
available news with many links. As
attractive alternative, it is worth noting
Sites http://come.to/ppcrulez/ and
www.realdreams.cz/amiga/. Last site
By the way, includes not only interesting and
date information, but also perfectly
designed, which is also important ... More
Specific information can be
ask around in irc-chats.

Recommended configuration for the Amiga

         Internet connection.

 A1200, AmigaDOS_3.x; Blizzard-1230/IV or
another fairly fast and reliable in
the work of the accelerator, 8 / 16 MB
Fast-memory; HDD ~ 1 GB; avtokeshiruemaya
File System PFS-2; MUI_3.8;
Miami_3.2b or Genesis_1.0.4; large
software package for the Internet -
NetConnect2. Welcomes the work in
system of external scheduler
Executive_2.10 and programs Fastblit_2.45
or later.

 Maybe many are already aware that in 1999
year for classical Amigo (A1200, A3000,
A4000) will be a new (and, apparently, the last
of the classic) version of the operating
system AmigaDOS_3.5. In addition to various
innovations and improvements (a new file
system, the new Workbench, Glow-icon
support for PowerPC-coprocessors,
subsystem to support graphics (RTG),
Audio-(ARTA) cards, and many others
useful features), the new version
AmigaDOS will be integrated
system access to the Internet. With the OS,
the user will receive a complete software package
to access the Internet: a program
implements TCP / IP-protocol (according to some
data, it will be a special version of Miami
from the Nordic Global); web-browser, according to various
data, or Opera, or special
version AWeb; e-mail-client and mail.library
e-mail. Hypertext
system prompts Amiga Guide will
extended and supplemented HTML-format. As
see, the Internet has made adjustments to the
development of new operating systems and for
Amiga.