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Getting Online with my Atari 800


Tempest

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I have an 850 Interface, a Lantronix MSS100, and an Atari 800 with the Incognito installed.  What do I need to do to get my 800 online?  I assume I need to get some terminal software (BobTerm maybe?) and configure that to use my 850.  Are there instructions for how to do this somewhere?  I think I asked this a while but, but now I'm actually ready to do it and could use some help.

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2 hours ago, Tempest said:

I have an 850 Interface, a Lantronix MSS100, and an Atari 800 with the Incognito installed.  What do I need to do to get my 800 online?  I assume I need to get some terminal software (BobTerm maybe?) and configure that to use my 850.  Are there instructions for how to do this somewhere?  I think I asked this a while but, but now I'm actually ready to do it and could use some help.

You'll first need a cable to connect your 850 to your MSS100. I have the same Lantronix that I use with a P:R:Connection. So I use as an Atari CX88 Terminal Cable + a gender changer on the DB25 end to connect the P:R:Connection to the Lantronix.  You'll need to configure your Lantronix for Modem Emulation - the Lantronix site still has PDF manuals of all its old legacy stuff since much of it was and still is used by medical providers. If I recall correctly, I think it's as simple as issuing a text command through the serial interface. 

 

Anyway, once you get stuff connected physically with the right cables, and your Lantronix connected to your LAN through its Ethernet jack, boot up your favorite terminal program. BoBTerm works, as does ICE-T if you want a high-res Gr.8 80 column text display. ICE-T can also do ANSI color terminal emulation, believe it or not. I recommend connecting everything, going to the Terminal screen and then booting up the Lantronix - you should see its bootup messages and then it will be ready to accept commands. The manual will tell you how to get it set to Modem Emulation mode, and then you just give it Hayes modem-type AT command to connect to the text-based internet BBS of your choice. 

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Thanks for the info.  I bought an Atari modem cable from B&C a while back and then was told it needed to be Null Modem so I got an adapter too.  Hopefully I can get this up and running as I'm stuck working from home and have time to fiddle with it now.

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3 hours ago, Gunstar said:

Has anyone successfully done the on-line thing with Contiki? 

Yes, that's how we first did things when using a wintel or linux machine as a middle box for lynx and irc... slip to contiki to the world... cybernoid, urchlay... I miss you guys... ;)

https://github.com/greggjaskiewicz/fujichat

 

however, the latter day projects for use with the dragon cart also work in a limited fashion...

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ataricc65lib/

https://github.com/oliverschmidt/contiki/wiki/ATARI

http://atari8ethernet.com/index.html

http://atari8ethernet.com/Download.html

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/241436-contiki-august-2015/page/3/#comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3nPasRlrTg&feature=youtu.be

http://atari8ethernet.com/Video.html

I used to use the Atari 8 bit for IRC, Gopher, light LYNX and other WEB browsing...

however you really have to work hard to find useful mobile sites to do so today...

Atari Age is no longer really friendly to A8 browsing or older mobile phones... in fact many sites are now like this... really hard to deal with on a smaller system of any kind (phones included)

Edited by _The Doctor__
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I've been meaning to get on-line via my A8 for years, ever since I first heard of Contiki about 15 years ago or so. I do intend to eventually try Contiki, Plato, Fujinet and even get on-line and play some 8-bit Slicks, but life and A8 break-downs keep me postponing such things. Of course I have to wait for the Dragoncart, one version or another, to get on 8-bit Slicks. The others I intend to do by building a wi-fi modem out of my old 1030 or connecting via a Hayes modem and an old router that has phone line input connected to my modern modem or router.

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On 3/17/2020 at 5:45 PM, DrVenkman said:

You'll first need a cable to connect your 850 to your MSS100. I have the same Lantronix that I use with a P:R:Connection. So I use as an Atari CX88 Terminal Cable + a gender changer on the DB25 end to connect the P:R:Connection to the Lantronix.  You'll need to configure your Lantronix for Modem Emulation - the Lantronix site still has PDF manuals of all its old legacy stuff since much of it was and still is used by medical providers. If I recall correctly, I think it's as simple as issuing a text command through the serial interface. 

 

Anyway, once you get stuff connected physically with the right cables, and your Lantronix connected to your LAN through its Ethernet jack, boot up your favorite terminal program. BoBTerm works, as does ICE-T if you want a high-res Gr.8 80 column text display. ICE-T can also do ANSI color terminal emulation, believe it or not. I recommend connecting everything, going to the Terminal screen and then booting up the Lantronix - you should see its bootup messages and then it will be ready to accept commands. The manual will tell you how to get it set to Modem Emulation mode, and then you just give it Hayes modem-type AT command to connect to the text-based internet BBS of your choice. 

I have everything hooked up, but I need to figure out how to access/configure the Lantronix device.

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2 hours ago, Tempest said:

I have everything hooked up, but I need to figure out how to access/configure the Lantronix device.

If the MSS100 is already plugged in, connected to your LAN via ethernet and booted up (which takes close to a minute), then open up your favorite terminal program. Set it to 9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, and no flow control. These are the defaults per the manual. Press RETURN on the Atari a time or two and you should see some response from the Lantronix including a Local> prompt.

 

At this point, if you don't see that, then just unplug the power to your Lantronix box, wait a few seconds and plug it back in to reboot it. Again, the boot process takes a minute or so and you should see a bunch of status and startup messages on your terminal screen. To enable modem emulation mode so you can issue standard "AT" commands, enter these two commands at the Local> prompt:  

 

image.thumb.png.a3177ac4e379fe5120773c95bcc98195.png

 

After that, to connect to your favorite telnet BBS, you'd send the usual dial command: "atdt whatever.bbsname.whatever

 

There are a LOT of obscure configurable options in Lantronix boxes but most of them don't matter and aren't needed the way vintage computer folks use them. It's been a couple years since I set up mine, but these are all I specifically recall having to do.

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What's the latest version of Ice-T?  2.76 is the last download I can find, but I see some 2.8.0.6 screenshots out there.

 

What about BobTerm? 1.21 Is the latest I can find.

 

Any other terminal programs I should look into?

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18 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

If the MSS100 is already plugged in, connected to your LAN via ethernet and booted up (which takes close to a minute), then open up your favorite terminal program. Set it to 9600 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, and no flow control. These are the defaults per the manual. Press RETURN on the Atari a time or two and you should see some response from the Lantronix including a Local> prompt.

 

At this point, if you don't see that, then just unplug the power to your Lantronix box, wait a few seconds and plug it back in to reboot it. Again, the boot process takes a minute or so and you should see a bunch of status and startup messages on your terminal screen. To enable modem emulation mode so you can issue standard "AT" commands, enter these two commands at the Local> prompt:  

 

image.thumb.png.a3177ac4e379fe5120773c95bcc98195.png

 

After that, to connect to your favorite telnet BBS, you'd send the usual dial command: "atdt whatever.bbsname.whatever

 

There are a LOT of obscure configurable options in Lantronix boxes but most of them don't matter and aren't needed the way vintage computer folks use them. It's been a couple years since I set up mine, but these are all I specifically recall having to do.

I tried ICE-T but it said that it couldn't detect my R: device and that the Base 48K wasn't free.  I'm using an Atari 800 with Incognito (in XL/XE mode) so maybe that's why?  It should work though.

 

BobTerm came up, but I could only find options to change the BAUD rate, nothing for parity or data bits.  Pressing return brought up the terminal window but I got no prompt.  Is there a way I can tell if my 850 and cable are working?

 

More info:  I'm using an Atari CX-87 Modem Cable with a Null Modem adapter.  My cable is plugged into Port 1 on the 850 and my Lantronix device is showing green and ready.

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Try using the R: driver from Altirra with all of them, it appears work fine... in fact The Resistance Cove is using it to run the BBS on an incognito 800 and Kyle22 uses it with Bobterm and Ice T last I knew...

 

atdt broadway1.lorexddns.net:10001

 

the board is under sparta dos...

 

you might want to give a rundown of what dos your using, what all is loaded and your incognito setting etc etc...

Edited by _The Doctor__
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Well I know the 850 works because I plugged it into my 1200XL and heard the beep of it loading the R: driver.  I hear this when BobTerm loads too.  I think Ice-T isn't running because I'm trying to load the XEX file from my CF card and there must be some sort of conflict (the DSK version didn't want to load).  Do I have to do this from SDX or something?

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Here we go.  I had to set the program for ASCII, now I see the startup messages from the MSS100.  However once it boots and gets an Internet Address I can't see anything after that.  No LOCAL prompt appears.

 

The firmware is either 3.6/9 or 1.9 depending on which number I'm supposed to be looking at.  Should I update the firmware?  What options need to be set on the MSS side?  Some things might not be enabled as I had to manually enable DHCP just now (it had a hard coded IP).

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I'm sorry - I've never used the web interface before; just connected via the serial port and done it through the Atari. Hell, I have so many random things on my home LAN I don't know which one is my MSS100 right now without a lot of trial and error. Have you downloaded the manual? 

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18 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

I'm sorry - I've never used the web interface before; just connected via the serial port and done it through the Atari. Hell, I have so many random things on my home LAN I don't know which one is my MSS100 right now without a lot of trial and error. Have you downloaded the manual? 

I'm assuming it's configure the way it says, but just in case how do I do it through the Atari?  BobTerm only let me change the parity and baud, not the data and stop bits.

 

Also, any idea on how to run Ice-T through the Incognito?

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8 minutes ago, Tempest said:

I'm assuming it's configure the way it says, but just in case how do I do it through the Atari?  BobTerm only let me change the parity and baud, not the data and stop bits.

 

Also, any idea on how to run Ice-T through the Incognito?

The reason I ask if you've got the manual is that it tells you how to force a factory-reset of your MSS100, which may be necessary depending on how it was setup by whomever had it in service prior. For instance, mine has a health company service tag on it, which means it probably connected some monitoring device or something to a central LAN. No telling how it was setup and these have quite a bit of internal smarts to them. So if you do a factory reset and then follow the boot up steps, you should see the Local> prompt. Tho' now that I think about it, I think it was actually Local_1> or something. Basically it just means the serial port. The higher-end MSS units have more than 1 serial port.  Anyway, to do a factory reset, pull the power from the MSS100, press in the reset button and hold it, then plug the MSS100 back on. Hold the reset button for at least 3 seconds. That'll reset everything to default. Then I'd recommend going through Chapter 3 of the manual - some of the stuff is pretty arcane but I don't remember having to actually do much if any of it to use the device. As I said before though, it was 3 years ago when I set mine up so I've possibly forgotten a step or two.

 

Oh, and for an Incognito or Ultimate 1MB-equipped machine, I copied the ICE-T files to a dedicated folder and just run it from the SDX command prompt.

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