SymbOS network support development

[Prodatron]

Since last week I am working on the network support for SymbOS. The first version is based on the Wiznet W5100 ethernet controller, which is used in the DenYoNet card for the MSX (as well as in the Spectranet hardware). There is a W5100 project for the CPC, too, so it's probably one of the choices you will have. Here is a first screenshot...



...showing the test utility, which is loading the WWW.MSX.FI homepage.
The driver is designed in a way, that it's very easy to exchange the used hardware by dividing the code into three layers. The low level code is for accessing the W5100 hardware directly, which is different between the CPC and the MSX. The mid level is for working with the hardware, which is the same for all systems using the W5100. Other hardware like the ESP8266 Wlan module, which can be connected to the MiniBooster/CPC Booster/RS232 on the Enterprise 128 or own TCP/IP stack implementations are realisable with just another midlevel code. The high level is for managing the connections and communication with the processes, which want to do networking.

All TCP routines seem to work now, now it's time for UDP to make DNS and DHCP possible.

The network driver is running as a "Daemon", which is an own background process in the multitasking environment. Applications can send messages to it, like asking for opening a new connection, sending data to an already opened connection etc. They will also receive messages from the network daemon, if there is new incoming data or if the status of a connection changed etc. This makes it possible to run multiple applications at the same time, which all can have open connections.

The new network driver takes care about compatibility to Dr.Zeds NetD driver from 2007, which was developed for the SYMBiface 3 expansion card.



That makes it easy to adapt applications like SymTEL and Dr.Zeds' GUI-based SymFTP ftp client.

[Gryzor]

Oh. Wow.

[Phi2x]

.

[FloppySoftware]

 
Very good job! Congratulations!

[Edoz(MSX)]

Amazing !! Congratulations !! This is so cool to see! All the work you did on SymbOS .. it's amazing !! and now... the first stage of network support .. !! how crazy, how cool !!

[Bryce]

Excellent, finally we can have pR0n internet on SymbOS! I assume you are now working on a Youtube frontend?

Bryce.

[BSC]

I think "holy crap" quite summarizes my thoughts right now.. And I can't wait for SSH and SymPutty to maintain butch, koons and all those bansrv-xx guys ;-)

[Singaja]

Too good to be true :-) Made my day

[Executioner]

Hi Prodatron,

Sorry I missed your PM before, can you send me some info on the network interface?

Cheers,
Richard

[Prodatron]

Hi Richard, sure I will! The bitwise-eMail is still valid?

[MacDeath]

could you support Thomson's nanoRéseaux as Well ?




ok i'm out....

Excellent, finally we can have pR0n internet on SymbOS!

Were you about to tell pr0net ?

http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=7798
http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=7710

Warning : safe for work, but it really depends on your job...

[Prodatron]

could you support Thomson's nanoRéseaux as Well ?

That remembers me on your discussion on CPCRULEZ
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fcpcrulez.fr%2Fforum%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ff%3D2%26t%3D5450&edit-text=

I am currently concentrating on the TCP/IP stuff. I wonder if the API of the network daemon could be abstracted in a way that it supports other network technologies as well. It shouldn't matter if the destination is a domain name, an IPv4, IPv6 address or whatever, it's only a string and the driver will handle it. But it's also important that you have a TCP and an UDP like communication with the remote side, which is either a connection-based or a connectionless communication, otherwise you can't use the API in the way it is designed for.

[EgoTrip]

Will it support Flash and sites like YouTube?

[XyphoesRe]

Is the Jabber-Client of DRZed then also implemented?
I'd like to run Jabber on my CPC :-) Dunno why - but it will be great.
And: as soon as you have kind of httpd i put one of the CPC6128 into our datacenter with a webcam pointing to the monitor where you can then see the logfile running through - so you must(!) implement kind of an 'tail -f /var/log/httpd.log' possibiliy 

[Edoz(MSX)]

Will it support Flash and sites like YouTube?

If you make the DOX proxy

[Munchausen]

I think "holy crap" quite summarizes my thoughts right now.. And I can't wait for SSH and SymPutty to maintain butch, koons and all those bansrv-xx guys ;-)

Unfortunately I think SSH is way beyond the capabilities of any symbos machine without some external micro controller to do the key exchange and encryption (which sort of defeats the point?). A putty like program that can do telnet (and serial?) would be awesome though.

[Phi2x]

.

[EgoTrip]

If you make the DOX proxy

What does posting up people's personal details have to do it?

In all seriousness though, I know flash is impossible. But would a specifically designed system for SymbOS be possible, so you can have a YT style website you can stream video and music tracks from?

[Trebmint]

What does posting up people's personal details have to do it?

In all seriousness though, I know flash is impossible. But would a specifically designed system for SymbOS be possible, so you can have a YT style website you can stream video and music tracks from?

The answer is yes. The idea is you will be able to browse, download,stream, chat & play via a dedicated symbos server. I'm looking forward to the coding some network games

[Prodatron]

I completely forgot about the Jabber client, which Dr.Zed started in 2007 I have to ask him, if he still has the source codes. Jabber or IRC, one or both is a must for networking.
Yes, all kind of encryption is probably impossible on the Z80. So we have to stay with SymTel (Telnet)
I didn't try any major performance tests yet with the W5100. In theory you have the maximum speed of 162KB/s on the CPC when transfering data to/from the W5100 buffer. The problem is, that each buffer is only 2KB, when using all 4 sockets, and here you may have fragmentation problems with the IP packets, which could cause delays and re-sends and slow down the network speed.
I will finish DNS lookup today and then do some tests.

[TFM]

As long as you send 'text only' most encryption shouldn't be a problem. However, anything else has just too much 'volume' and would make it too slow. A problem I see is actually to get the correct encryption / decryption protocols, but maybe you already solved that problem. 


EDIT: On CPC you can also omit the usual 'backdoors', which would make SymbOS the most secure OS. 

[Edoz(MSX)]

Thanks Prodatron !! Amazing !! My MSX did a network task for the first time with SymbOS!




Crazy !!

[MacDeath]

On CPC you can also omit the usual 'backdoors'

what ? my CPC doesn't have any backdoor ? I think it is less sexy now I know that...

[TFM]

what ? my CPC doesn't have any backdoor ? I think it is less sexy now I know that...

The secret services of the following countries will love you for ever:
- usa
- gb
- france
- small country in middle east
- russia
- china
- india! (yes, India too, they bitched at Apple until....)

[Prodatron]

SymTel is working again! 

(click for larger images)


I made the first test with Karlochs' HispaMSX BBS, which worked out quite well so far. Have to fix a bug and reimplement the ANSI/VT100 control code handling, the old one was quite botched.

Here is a short video just to prove, that it really works

SymTel - TELNET for SymbOS - first try