Date   : Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:12:30 +0100
From   : info@... (Sprow)
Subject: Master ethernet upgrade

In article <2f806cd70907091424i1d125b75gf5f3e07f6b8e156e@...>,
   Rob <robert@...> wrote:
> 2009/7/9 Sprow <info@...>:
> > Hi,
> > I am pleased to be able to announce the availability of a 10/100Mbps
> > ethernet upgrade for the BBC Master series.
>
> Reading the web page, I presume the LANManFS only talks to SMB shares
> - will you be able to provide other filing system options, e.g. NFS
> (the UNIX/Linux version!)  Or give enough information to allow these
> to be written?

That's correct, the default LANManFS supplied only talks to SMB servers such
as Windows or Samba. It would be completely possible to support other
protocols or other uses, such as
 NFS - for Unix shares
 HTTP - for direct download of games archives
 SMTP - send/receive emails
 FTP - file shovelling

What's missing at the moment (aside from me not having an NFS server to test
on) is any kind of API to allow users such as yourself to talk to the
network. The interface currently supports those things which I've found to
be necessary, eg. for *PING I needed a means of resolving names by DNS and a
means of sending ICMP packets, so there's a "resolve name" and "send one
ping" interface.

I guess the simplest thing to do would be present a BSD-a-like sockets
interface via OSWord or something similar. Or maybe sockets via a filing
system so
 F=OPENOUT"sprow.co.uk:80"
 BPUT#F,"HTTP POST hello"
 CLOSE#F

Suggestions welcomed.

> I'm assuming this connects in place of an econet module, so they
> cannot both be in a machine at the same time - so ... the most obvious
> question I think ... can it talk AUN ?  After all .. I've got BeebEm
> talking it, so it should be possible... :-) :-)

It does replace the Econet module, but (not knowing much about AUN) I assume
with an API of some sort it could directly talk Econet just over a different
medium. The ROM has about 10k of code in it at present so there's 6k blank,
Sprow.