Can you connect to the WiModem232 from a Mac?

[Craziazkowboi]

Hi Folks,

Just bought a WiModem232 for my Amiga 1000, and have Term ready to connect to BBS's via Telnet - easy.  

Does anyone know if I can connect to the WiMODEM232 from a Mac, which would enable me to send files from my Mac to the Amiga (running Term which understands X,Y,Z MODEM and KERMIT).

I have an app called 'Serial' on my Mac, which will let me connect via a USB-Serial cable to the Amiga, but it does not appear to have a function to connect via TCP (which is an unusual request).  I might be able to use 'lrzsz' if I install it manually, but a pretty window would be preferable 

Alternatively, I could connect to a Raspberry Pi if that has any options anyone knows of?  Minicom maybe?  I could download Aminet files to the pi, and then have Minicom on the pi make the files available to the Amiga running Term maybe?

The advantage is that I can avoid taking removing and inserting the SD Card and wearing the host socket out.  Sure transfers will be slow....comes with the territory

Any help appreciated, thank you for reading my post!

[Craziazkowboi]

Alternatively, anyone know of an ftp program that will work with Amiga OS1.3 or another way to download from a Mac/Raspberry pi? Everything TCP related seems to need OS2+

There was mention of an AmigaNOS that might provide a TCP stack for OS 1.3, anyone know anything about this?

Thanks again!

[admin]

If you have a wireless connection on your Mac you can use any terminal program to send files to/from any other wireless device (including the WiModem).

You just need to know the TCP/IP address and port of the WiModem, which you can find using the ATI command.  Once you are in a terminal program on your Mac (connected to your wireless router) you can simply connect to the TCP/IP:port address of the WiModem.  You can use Putty and other programs for the PC.  You could also connect to the Mac from the WiModem if you know the Mac's TCP/IP:port as well.  It doesn't matter who negotiates the connection as long as they get connected.  At that point it will be no different than using a NULL modem cable.

I connect to my Amigas all of the time and transfer files back and forth to my PC using this method.  I have also transferred files between Amigas this way.

[Craziazkowboi]

Thanks for the reply! This is great news! Would you have some more info on the what and how please? Does the WiModem run an ssh/telnet daemon to allow connections? Do I FTP to the WiModem (and if so, does the WiModem translate FTP traffic to ZModem)? How does the magic happen?

To connect to the Mac from the WiModem and Amiga with a TCP/IP:port, wouldn't I need a TCP/IP Stack? I have Roadshow, but ALL TCP/IP stacks on the Amiga need OS2+, and I am running OS 1.3 (works better on the Amiga 1000, and more authentic). This is my Achilles heel.

[admin]

The WiModem uses TCP/IP (often confused with Telnet, which is a protocol that uses TCP/IP).  If you had two WiModems you would just need one WiModem and a terminal program on each computer and that's it.  The WiModem handles the TCP/IP interface with your router.  So, whatever a single WiModem is plugged into takes care of that... you would just connect to it's IP address (192.168.0.100 for example) using "something", which could be your Amiga, PC, or any other device that has access to your router.  This will require some means to get onto the Internet and the proper TCP/IP software and hardware.

The terminal program is solely responsible for handling data transfers.  I use NCOMM and JR-COMM, but I have used TERM and a few others in testing.  There is also a program callled "WiBridge" that was written by a customer for the WiModem which is a PC (console) application that you can run that lets you connect to a PC and browser the PC's directories and transfer files back and forth.

[Craziazkowboi]

Hmmm, thanks. You don't 'connect' to an IP address, you send messages (packets) TO an IP address. put another way, you connect WITH something both the host and the destination understand, and one end needs to be running a daemon of some kind to respond to requests with.

So for example, if I FTP to a server running an FTP Daemon, I'll get a connection and we will communicate. If It's not running an FTP daemon/server, then my FTP attempt will fail to connect. Same for Telnet, SSH, any browser, mail, etc...

From what you have described, the WiMODEM is just the messenger, relying on the host and destination to be running client/server applications and the WiMODEM is just passing through messages?

So I would need a server that could send something the Amiga understands (ZMODEM data for example), to be able to use NComm on the Amiga to download a file. If I have this correct, then I would need the lrzsz package on my Mac to send a file using the ZMODEM protocol (in this scenario) to an IP address (the WiMODEM). A Serial Terminal App on the Mac would not work because it will pass the data to a serial port, not an IP address. Same issue on a PC I imagine. The hard constraint will be what the Amiga understands.

The WiMODEM will just pass whatever data it gets to the Terminal program right? Its totally up to the client/server to talk the same protocol and do something?

Then my challenge is to find Mac apps that can send old protocols to an IP address rather than a Serial port. Even 2 WiMODEMS won't fix this challenge.

[admin]

You DO "connect" to an IP address. That's how this functions.

There is no "FTP" here. This is an established TCP/IP connection.

You need a terminal program because that sends serial data to the WiModem, which in turn communicates with your router. The WiModem is solely responsible for handling the TCP/IP communications to/from the router.

You can use two computers (Macs, Amigas, PCs, Atari STs, etc), each with a terminal program and WiModem and they can communicate together just like they were hard wired together, but they both go through your router. If you have a static IP or DNS forwarding you can connect between computers located anywhere in the world.

Once the computers are connected, you can type on one and the other will have whatever you typed (and vice-versa). From a terminal standpoint, this is EXACTLY the same as using a modem. The WiModem takes the place of a regular modem (which used a phone line connection) and uses an Internet based connection instead.