Date   : Thu, 27 Jan 2005 12:32:56 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Newbie with a Master

On Thu, 2005-01-27 at 10:42 +0000, Richard Gellman wrote:
> >So, my question is, if it's at all possible, what's involved in connecting my 
> Econet Master to my Ethernet Windows LAN and possibly use my PC as a file 
> server for the Master?
> >
> I'd also like to know about this possibility. I have a Linux fileserver 
> that deals with Mac, *nix, and Windows clients, so of course adding "BBC 
> Master" to the list would be nice :)

It's something I want to do at some point too. There's an Econet driver
in the Linux src (under net/econet) but I think it only covers the
protocol side of things; it's not a driver for any kind of hardware.

> Is there available either some kind of Econet card for PCs (ISA or PCI 
> (yeah right) acceptable)

Yep - the EcoLink board. I've got one, but I don't have full programming
details for it. Reverse-engineering the old DOS drivers that come with
it might be possible I suppose, but is probably beyond me.

Another option would be to interface a PC to one of the Econet modules
as used in the Master. Probably still need an ISA board to drive it
though as neither the PC's parallel or serial ports would be fast enough
though. (Actually the Ecolink board is essentially one of these modules
coupled to a 6502 CPU and local memory, as PCs of the time weren't fast
enough to drive the module direct)

cheers

Jules