Atari to PC communication

[jdh]

I've just got my XE with 850 interface talking with a NULL modem to my PC, which is pretty cool, just echoing stuff at the moment

What I'd like to ask is what sort of things I can do now I have this connectivity? File transfers, network games, that type of stuff.

[Urchlay]

I've just got my XE with 850 interface talking with a NULL modem to my PC, which is pretty cool, just echoing stuff at the moment

What I'd like to ask is what sort of things I can do now I have this connectivity? File transfers, network games, that type of stuff.

 

File transfers with X/Y/ZMODEM... with the right software, you can run a web browser, email client, connect to BBSes, etc. If you're running Linux or BSD (or anything UNIXish) on the PC, you can use the Atari as a terminal, log in, and use any text-only software (lynx/links for web browsing, pine/mutt for email, ftp, telnet, ssh, etc etc). You can connect to most BBSes with telnet, and play networked "door" games there (Trade Wars, LORD, etc).

 

If you're feeling really ambitious, you could try to get Contiki or Lunix to run on the Atari, which would let you set up a SLIP connection (the Atari would actually have its own IP address). I don't know how likely this is to actually work, though. I couldn't get Contiki to do anything when I tried it.

[jdh]

I've just got my XE with 850 interface talking with a NULL modem to my PC, which is pretty cool, just echoing stuff at the moment

What I'd like to ask is what sort of things I can do now I have this connectivity? File transfers, network games, that type of stuff.

 

File transfers with X/Y/ZMODEM... with the right software, you can run a web browser, email client, connect to BBSes, etc. If you're running Linux or BSD (or anything UNIXish) on the PC, you can use the Atari as a terminal, log in, and use any text-only software (lynx/links for web browsing, pine/mutt for email, ftp, telnet, ssh, etc etc). You can connect to most BBSes with telnet, and play networked "door" games there (Trade Wars, LORD, etc).

 

If you're feeling really ambitious, you could try to get Contiki or Lunix to run on the Atari, which would let you set up a SLIP connection (the Atari would actually have its own IP address). I don't know how likely this is to actually work, though. I couldn't get Contiki to do anything when I tried it.

 

Thanks. Excellent idea, I have an old FreeBSD disk somewhere.