X-SURF 500 with AmiTCP 3

Why would you want to do that if a recent version of AmiTCP, along with our GUI, is included for free with the X-Surf-500? Maybe you've missed that the network install disk is included in the flash of your ACA500plus?

Jens

This sounds like an XY problem. What is it that you actually want to achieve by doing this?

Quote from Amiga

I want to put it on a floppy disk at startup so that I can run the network from a floppy disk without WB.

This is already possible with our network install disk. It's bootable, and it brings up AmiTCP.

Jens

The reason we have developed the automatic network install disk (which can be used in two ways - either for booting from it and having access to the iComp drive, or as an installer from WB) is that we don't have to explain how to install a TCP/IP stack in the first place.

Our products are priced extremely low, and in order to keep it that way, this kind of support request must be eliminated at the root: Installation must be easy, automatic and does not require expert knowledge.

This is exactly what we're providing, and that's the reason why the X-Surf-500 can be priced so low.

Please understand that there is neither a need for you to use an older version, nor is there any money on this side to pay for this level of support. Please use the install disk - if you boot from it, you can access the internet already, and all functions of AmiTCP are available. You can also make changes to it's config either with the GUI or by editing the config files - although I don't think that IMP3 will require any changes. All you need is "an internet connection", and IMP3 will just work.

Then again, I have a hard time imagining why you don't want to boot from a CF card, as that's the easiest thing. After all, you've bought an ACA500plus and X-Surf-500 for a reason: To reduce the amount of pain that you inflict on yourself by using the Amiga. By attemting to use an old version of AmiTCP from a boot medium that may be too small for what you're attempting to do, you are leaving the realm of support for the ACA500plus and the networking card.

Just one last thing: If you do want to run it from a single disk, start off with the network installation disk and delete drivers that you don't need (such as the X-Surf-100 and A1200 PCMCIA networking card drivers). Since IMP3 is only around 50k, this should already do the trick.

Jens

I can totally understand the desire to tinker with this kind of stuff. I did this myself at some point, and it was AmiTCPv4 if I remember correctly. I made a disk that was able to boot an Amiga from floppy disk, and then continued booting a fully featured Workbench via NFS from a fileserver. That gave me an Amiga "thin client", and all I needed was some network adapter and a boot disk. Quite some fun.

I am fairly confident that both AmiTCPv3 would work with our drivers, and also that AmiTCPv4 can be made to fit on a disk. There should be no substantial hurdles. It's just that you are on your own support-wise. I found AmiTCPv3 annoying to configure and work with. And putting a TCP/IP stack on a disk isn't the most common use-case. Use a working installation of AmiTCPv4 from our network package. Start by cleaning up a Workbench disk, copy the contents of the AmiTCP directory on this disk, place an assign on it, remove all unneeded drivers and documentation, etc. But you will likely need to pull some more tricks to save diskspace.

There's an 'Amiga Network Boot Disk' that someone put together with AmiTCP 3.0 to be found with some creative searching. The thin client boot mentioned is one reason for it (with customization). The other reason is for a way to do a clean-backup, and clean-restore of a system from that backup, maybe it's a base image. The trick is that AmiTCP 3.0 always needs to be set up with a Static IP. Once the setup is deemed functional, one can take a copy of that boot disk, remove the reconfiguration scripting and unneeded card drivers, and add anything back that is desired/needed before a network link were to come up.

Based on the above thread comments, AmiTCP4 should be able to do the same. It takes digging in to what bare components (files) are needed, and what configuration files are set to - a learning experience. Any tool in the IP stack not needed to connect is on a folder on the network that is added to the search path (after connecting) vs taking up space on the floppy.

I also did this kind of thing back in the mid-90's to effect a (then) Win 3.11/DOS 6.22 image copy-down using a TCP/IP boot floppy. In the (then) pre-Ghost days, it was much faster, and near-seamless to configure the host, than waiting on and maintaining a stack of floppy disks. I have one of these network boot disks as an ADF for my Amiga PLIP boxes when I need to backup/image someone's system before wiping and reloading.