Greetings from a mostly lurker. Who can help with the following:
Hasn't someone written a TCP/IP stack for the "lowly" QL? Can one get on the 'Net without having to have a QLx0 or Aurora or the various newer hardware?
Here is what I've heard and what I've done in the past that no longer works (and the hardware I currently have):
Mozilla, Firefox and Gecko-based browsers are already building up a portfolio of vulnerabilities. IE already has tons of vulnerabilities, known and as yet to be discovered. These will only grow. I'm tired of all this and would like something, however slow and however limited (viz., to text) that is unlikely to get these problems. Plus it warms "the cockles of my little black heart" to make use of such a "modest" platform to do what the power platforms don't really do for me. One can do on the QL most of one's daily business and leave the PC for only when it is really needed.
Supposedly SoQL and I'm not sure what else got one on, or had _something_ to do with getting on the net. I used to use the venerable QTPI with its VT100 emulation to get to the area freenet via a shell account and from there out to the wide world, using as I remember the just as venerable lynx (which appears to be still alive, and not just in "the third world") on the freenet's machines.
The freenet eventually decided it was being an ISP and for various reasons the above fell apart. Nobody allows shell accounts or shell acounts and VT100. Dealing with the one area ISP who catered to older platforms has been unhelpful.
Using QPC might allow Net access, but that is really using the PC. I am looking for a use for the physical QL.
Hardware: SGC mainly, but have GC and Trump ~ 1M. Minerva, 14.4 USR, Falkenberg, IBM kbd, Hermes (not SuperHermes, but could use it), dual 3.5" FDD (if I can ever get a working pair--see other email), no HDD. Old Acorn monitor, RGWBlk. 24-pin printer, can't recall the make & model (something with "P" and a four-digit number come to mind). Even have MicroDrives, though not sure they work anymore.
Thanks much,
Doug LaVerne Oak Ridge, TN 37830 USA
At the moment, soql is your main route for a QL+Super Gold Card.
However, it still does not have full TCP/IP facilities - the TCP device is not yet fully implemented due to a limitation in what can be achieved with device drivers/supervisor mode on a standard QL, according to Jon Dent. However, there is a great deal of functionality in it and a mailer program, so might still be worth experimenting with. I don't think soql is freely available on the web yet as I don't think Jon Dent feels it's sufficiently complete to release, but he does seem to respond to requests for test copies as long as people accept it for what it is in its current not quite finished state.
It can do net access with some types of account, the details of which I can't remember from memory (the term SLIP springs to mind, but I might be completely wrong here).
-- Dilwyn Jones
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