Getting on the WEB with an AMIGA

The Computer

To get on the web and surf with an Amiga you
need both a machine with a but of grunt and
a graphics card. Whilst it is possible to fit
graphics cards to A1200`s this will mean towering
up, so probably better to get an A4000d or A3000
and fit a graphics card within the existing system

I chose to obtain an A4000d and although the machine
I have is just an 030 it does come equipped with
a Blizzard 4030..Processor: 030@50Mhz
FPU: 68882 (PGA) at the same speed as the processor.
All my RAM is on the original motherboard and this is
just about the minimum you would need, being just
12MB Fast and 2MB Chip. And so my weapon of choice is a
Commodore Amiga 4000 Desktop - board revision B
Phase 5 Blizzard 4030 accelerator with 68030/50 CCU
with MMU and 68882/50 FPU - 2 Mb chip RAM
12 Mb fast RAM - Kickstart ROM`s 3.1 - super Buster 11
New battery - original hd floppy drive assembly (1.76 Mb)
840 Mb IDE non removable disk furnished with Amiga OS 3.1
8x IDE CD ROM

The Graphics Card

Graphics cards come in various flavours
The best being the PicassoIV, I believe, though
the Cybervision64 and 3D version are pretty good
You can also get other cards like the Picollo, but
for the purposes here I chose the Cybervision64
The software required to run the card is the Cybergraphics
software that came on a disk with the card. If you
do ever obtain a card do try and get the software
and the manual for jumper settings and the like

Cybervision64

A Zorro III only graphics card.
Pixel clock ~ 135Mhz
(8bit), 80Mhz (16bit) and 50Mhz (24bit).
Built-in monitor switcher.
Hardware support for chunky to planar conversion.
Digital video expansion bus.

One issue with the Graphics card is the screen
resolution. There is a pass through on the back
of the card so that you can still receive the
original Amiga screen formats, when used in
conjunction with a Multiscan monitor, such as
a Microvitec. If you don`t have this type of
monitor and simply connect into a VGA monitor
you won`t see the Amiga Low RES message that asks
for screen options. You can connect another Amiga
friendly monitor into the original Amiga video port
but I found the loop through from the original
Amiga video port to the input on the graphics card
essential.

Fast Serial Port

I considered long and hard the benefit of getting
a serial port enhancer to boost my transfer rates
and determined that whilst not essential, a card
such as the Multiface below would certainly help
in speeding matters up when on line

The modem used is a 56 US Robotics which you can
buy from any decent sized computer supplier
Remember that modern modems will come with a 9 pin
connector so if you use the conventional serial
port on the A4000d you will need a dual connector
with the 25pin version. Fortunately the Multiface
has a 9 pin to take the connector from the US Robotics

Amiga Multiface III Zorro Card IO extender
(Fast Serial/Parallel Port)
Two serial ports controlled
(up to 115200 bps transfer speed)
3 byte FIFO buffer
Two 26 pin internal headers
The first is directly wired to the DB9 connector
on the slot cover of the card
The second is for the ribbon cable of the
DB25 connector on the separate slot cover
Supported by Linux and NetBSD
One bidirectional DB25 parallel port
with a faster transfer speed than IOExtender's
No ROM or EPROM - no autoconfig drivers,
duart.device (serial) and pit.device (parallel)
have to be mounted with the supplied MFC program disk.
With manual, software disk and
ribbon cables for further ports.

THE INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER

The best way to do this I found was to sign up
with one of the free providers, like FreeUK using
a PC if you can get to one, and then going into
Outlook Express checking the account and simply
making a note of the POP3 mail and smtp servers
together with your email address and password.
It is then just a case of inserting these into
your TCP/IP stacker.. see below. You will also
need the telephone number to ring out which the
dialer the provider gives on the PC will show
Simply go onto Dial Up Networking and right click
on properties for the respective dialer ie FreeUK

THE TCP/IP STACKER

Whilst Nordic Global are no longer shipping their
excellent MiamiDX, the archive is still available
from Aminet. The installation is very simple and
the step by step instructions make it pretty well
impossible to install incorrectly. There is a timeout
sadly on the demo, but you may be lucky in obtaining a key

MIAMIDX Short: TCP/IP router stack (main archive)
Author: kruse@nordicglobal.com
Version: 3.2b2
Requires: OS 2.04 or higher, 68020+, MUI 3.8+

Words from Aminet

This is the main archive for Miami Deluxe 1.0c.
Miami Deluxe is an easy-to-use TCP/IP stack for Internet
access and access to local networks, complete with
dialer, PPP, (C)SLIP and auto-configuration tools. It
supports multiple interfaces, routing IP-NAT, SOCKSD,
dial-on-demand and much more.

You will also need other archives -- see below.

Minimum requirements:

- Any Amiga with Kick/WB2.04 or higher

- 68020 or higher

- MUI 3.8 or higher

Miami Deluxe 1.0c is distributed across two archives: one
main archive and one GUI module.

- MiamiDx10c-main.lha: Main archive. *Everybody* needs to
download this archive.

- MiamiDx10c-MUI.lha: MUI user interface module for
MiamiDx. Requires MUI 3.8 or higher.

At this time you need to download both archives.

Holger Kruse
kruse@nordicglobal.com

Check the link below
Miami Archive

You may find you need one or two libraries and installers
to unpack software and run applications. You will find
all these on Aminet... like the latest installer and reqtools
and ofcourse MUI 3.8

MUI 3.8

You really won`t get very far on an Amiga without
MUI and this can still be purchased. You can opt to
buy the USER INTERFACE key or run the demo. Personally
I opted to buy the key and was emailed this by return
having purchased this through a PC on line

MUI installs automatically so there are no problems
with the installation

For MUI 3.8 Check the link below
MUI Software

The Mail Reader

For my money there is only one mail reader and
this is YAM. The software is free. I would recommend
getting it from the YAM website as the all the five
archives are here and they are not corrupt. Although
it looks as though you don`t need all five archives
you do need all five and you must un-archive them
into a single folder. You will need LHA which is an
Amiga tool that resides in your C drawer on your workbench
Hopefully you have DOPUS, which makes life all that easier.

Again, its just a case of firing up the install icon
and installing the software on your system. When
running YAM you will need your POP3 and smtp names,
like pop3.freeuk.net and relay.freeuk.net or
pop3.virgin.net and smtp.virgin.net, your domain
name like freeuk.net and your mail account name
and password. Its that simple.

For YAM Check the link below
YAM Website

BROWSER

I purchased AWEB-II off Ebay, but there are several
about. Like Ibrowse which all do the job of surfing
As ever the software is self installing, and in the
case of AWEB, there is no further setting up of the
software.

For AWEB Check the link below
AWEB Site

Rememeber that for both mail and internet you need
to go on-line with MIAMI to get the stack running
Also remember to tell the payer of the telephone
bill what your up to... Happy surfing.

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Last updated 07/10/06