New find - Poor Man's Network - - for CP/M!

From: Curt Vendel <curt_at_atari-history.com>
Date: Fri Mar 16 21:20:18 2001

Bob,

   That sounds very cool. Have you found any sources on the web of more
info concerning it??? I'm into the old Corvus constellation equipment
myself. There used to be a language lab in the Fordham Prep school in the
Bronx, NY that had 64 Atari 800's connected to a single 10mb hard disk and
autobooted from it using a modified OS board called "The Integrator"
designed by David Small. A few years back I checked in with the gentleman
who maintained the lab, sadly he turned the lab over to another person since
he had a new job at the school. Well the idiot who took over the lab threw
everything out because he thought it would be better to have brand new PC's
in the lab. Damned shame!!!

   So lets hear more about this CP/M networking, very very intriquing :-)


Curt


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Stek" <r.stek_at_snet.net>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2001 8:34 PM
Subject: New find - Poor Man's Network - - for CP/M!


> I just came across a piece of software I don't remember from 1987. It is
> called "Poor Man's Network: A Networking Package for CP/M Computers." It
> was put out by Anderson Techno-Products of Ottawa, Ontario. Judging from
> the manual, it appears to have been a one- or two-man operation (nothin'
> wrong with that - been there, done that).
>
> It uses standard serial or parallel ports and is based upon a very
modified
> Christensen protocol to communicate with itself on the other computer (it
> only support two computers - after all, you couldn't afford more than two
> computers if you were really poor <g>). It's capabilities seem to have
been
> to allow allow read and/or write access to files on the other computer
> (handy for those NorthStar hard-sector disk file transfers to and from 8"
> drives, for example), sharing drives on the other computer on a R/O basis,
> redirecting output to use the other computer's printer or plotter, sending
> one-line messages to the other computer, and the ability to send screen
> messages and data mesaages to the other computer and to receive data
> messages from the remote computer (simultaneous read and/or update a
> database using added BDOS calls). Sharing was on a drive basis only. It
> took up about 7-8k memory and worked with CP/M 2.2, ZRDOS or equivalent.
>
> Has anyone had any experience with this gem? Or even remember it? Were
> there others like it? By '87 I had become enmeshed in the IBM-Microsoft
> world, and don't remember this one at all!
>
> Bob Stek
> Saver of Lost Sols
>
>
Received on Fri Mar 16 2001 - 21:20:18 GMT