Re: [9fans] An old laptop

[Digby Tarvin <digbyt@acm.org>]

Lucio De Re:
> There are other parallel to ethernet adapters, Accton, for one,
> used to build such an item.

True, but while I could justify spending a little spare time fiddling
with it as a learning exercise, I would have a bit of trouble justifying
spending any money on this old machine.

> I don't like the PC parallel port, however, it seems to be quite
> weakly supported all round.  My limited electronic knowledge does
> not explain why, for example, my WinNT box has so much trouble
> printing (admittedly past an HP scanner) - it positively grinds to
> a ver slow pace.

Early PC hardware did leave a lot to be desired. Unfortunately the
machien pre-dates PCMCIA interfaces, so my only options are serial
or parallel, and I don't think serial was much better...

> Funnily enough, Russ Nelson, who was deeply involved with the
> ancient packet drivers for ethernet adapters (anyone remember him?
> he still hangs around lugnet and lego robotics, apparently) complained
> that Xircom had broken the packet drivers licence by adopting them
> for their adapters and refusing to disclose the details.

Yes - the Xircom was the first encounter I had with packet drivers.
With NCSA telnet, it made the Windows system usable as a network
terminal.

> Might explain why they insist on so much secrecy.
>
> Going back to Accton, someone recently mentioned finding the details
> of just such a device from some site that archived drivers that
> Accton had stopped providing, I don't recall the exact details,
> but I can find out more if it helps.

Sure - if I could work out how to program it, it could be useful for
a whole range of old machines that have parallel ports but need a
LAN interface. If you can point me at such an archive, that would
be great.

Regards,
DigbyT
--
Digby R. S. Tarvin                                              digbyt@acm.org
http://www.cthulhu.dircon.co.uk