Retro Wifi modem

[simulant]

Hi we've been making and selling rs232 Wifi Hayes compatible modems for retro computers for quite some time now. They work with Amstrad CPCs and other Amstrads too like NC100/200, PPC, DOS IBM/XT etc etc and of course other computers like Amigas, C64 and such. Basically any old computer that used to use a standard dialup modem...

Fantastic for BBSes (Bulletin Board Systems). We recently even had a magazine review:




I thought users may be interested or even if you have other retro computers that may be able to use them:

https://www.simulant.uk/shop/retro-vintage-computer-wifi-modem-rs232-serial-hayes-compatible
 

[remax]

this is on my list for quite a long time, but it requires a rs232 extension, which is quite rare on cpc sadly

[simulant]

this is on my list for quite a long time, but it requires a rs232 extension, which is quite rare on cpc sadly

Hi yes we were lucky enough to manage to buy a PACE RS232 which works great with this wifi modem on PLUS and CPC machines. Of course other types of Amstrads often have rs232 like the NCs and PPCs and such so they "just work" without any extra hardware...

[Gryzor]

I'm in Greece so dark and rainy nights are few and far between, will this work here?


This sounds like so much fun. I'm tempted to buy one for my Mega ST (if I find the box it's in)!

[GUNHED]

Now, WiFi solutions for the CPC pop out like the mushrooms. Amazing!    Is there already some software for it?

[simulant]

Hey Gryzor! Don't rub it in about your lack of dark and dismal rainy nights!! haha. Maybe it needs some quality Greek testing to see if it will withstand the hot weather? Yeah it is a lot of fun though getting computers back online that we just never thought would get another chance!!

Gunhed, yeah there is a fair bit of software on CPC for it. Basically any original Dial up modem terminal software - so there are ones in CP/M, basic and native CPC too such as Honeyterm.

We've setup a wiki for it https://wiki.simulant.uk/index.php?title=Retro_Wifi_SI_(rs232_serial_port_Hayes_compatible_modem)
which eventually will have setups and best settings/software for different systems. So whether it has a page on CPC Wiki or our one above, or both - hopefully we can list which terminal softwares work best and are the best!! But any terminal will work to an extent - it is just finding the best ones from the vast amount of CPC and CP/M software that is out there (or used to exist!!) that gives you the best experience really whether just basic ASCII use or ANSI graphics and such...

A nice project for a CPC master coder would be a modern and newly written full colour ANSI terminal with all the full extended character set. That would be so brilliant as it could be open source, updated for bugs and such. Github etc - what a cool project that would be!

[ComSoft6128]

Hi Simulant,

I used CPM Comms utilities (Mex I think was one) for a few years until the excellent Ansiterm arrived in the UK. It was a great program for Bulletin Boards and, using CIX, email.
What may be of interest to yourself and others is that I found the source code and a little documentation for Ansiterm last year and passed it to @arnoldemu to examine. I'm not sure if it is on his website but you may want to drop him a PM and see if he found anything of value.

This may also be of interest:

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/applications/aspects-bulletin-board/

CIX info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIX

Cheers,

Peter

[Vyper68]

Is there another option? I managed to get on the BBS with SymBOS but the window was very small and I couldn’t resize it.

[simulant]

Is there another option? I managed to get on the BBS with SymBOS but the window was very small and I couldn’t resize it.

Hi it sounds like you didn't quite get the settings right maybe in SymbOS before logging in. If you load up the built in SymbOS telnet client  in the terminal window you can then change its display options - so you can set it to use your full screen width and height in the higher res mode as well as also turn on full screen mode. If you get all that setup right (sorry for vague instructions as I'm not near my CPC right now so going off memory a bit here... haha) then actually do the telnet connection in the telnet client already in full screen and higher display mode/column width - it gets everything on screen really nicely. It should work much better that way... Sorry again for quick ranting jumbled post, just busy with a few other bits so breaking off to just try help you out a bit

[Vyper68]

Thanks for the help, I am quite new to SymBOS and managed to get 80 x 25 full-screen. So I got back on tonight 


How rare are RS232 interfaces these days

[simulant]

Thanks for the help, I am quite new to SymBOS and managed to get 80 x 25 full-screen. So I got back on tonight 


How rare are RS232 interfaces these days

They're actually not so rare believe it or not! I've seen several pass by on ebay in the last year or so... So I suppose that is quite rare but when I bought a PACE rs232 to test with I got it fully boxed with instructions and cable for £20. I got lucky I think on that one as it is a brilliant bit of kit. But since then as I say within the last year or so I do keep seeing them on ebay, you just have to keep a Saved Search on there for PACE rs232 etc and keep your eyes peeled and fingers crossed.
At some stage we will look to create a clone of the PACE hopefully so that there is a modern option for those that can't get hold of the original. There is the old Amstrad branded one too that came out before the improved PACE one - they also do popup on eBay too sometimes and are probably even more rare!

[Vyper68]

It would be good to have a new interface for this rather than wait for old ones to come up for sale. I also have a C128 and Atari 8-Bit and saw you have a User port adapter for the C64/128 so I need to get one soon.

[simulant]

It would be good to have a new interface for this rather than wait for old ones to come up for sale. I also have a C128 and Atari 8-Bit and saw you have a User port adapter for the C64/128 so I need to get one soon.

Hi thanks, yes we do currently offer and stock a C64/128 User Port adapter which can be used with our modem of course but is also there to generally give the C64/128 a standard rs232 interface port too which is pretty useful for other stuff too. Thanks again for the support and let me know if we can ever help with anything. The new interface for rs232 on CPC will hopefully arrive at some point soon