Is SERNET still available?

[martyn_hill]

Hi everyone

Following a chat session with some of the forum members this evening, I thought to post this query around the availability of SERNET.

Having acquired a BBQL recently and hacked it to bits already - having lots of fun in the process - I wanted to explore filesharing between QPC2 on my laptop and the Minerva'd/Hermes'd BBQL.

Dilwyn's site makes several references to SERNET (and that I'll also need the SIMSER extensions to run under QDOS/Minerva) and that it came with SMSQ/E whilst it was still a commercial offering.

As I only got SMSQ/E with QPC2, I never got my hands on SERNET.

Any ideas? Perhaps the original SERNET author, Bernd Reinhardt, is reading this...

Thanks in advance!

[dilwyn]

First port of call must be Jochen Merz. As the last distributor of Sernet, he'd know how it can be supplied now and how to contact Bernd.

Dilwyn

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Martyn,

SerNET was designed to work in a SMSQ/E environment. SerNET needs extensions to the serial port called STX/SRX for the network to function.

QDOS & MInerva do not have this function builtin, but Hans Peter Reckenwald wrote some extensions called simSER, which adds STX/SRX to QDOS and can be used on Minerva.

I could only get a reliable SerNET connection to QPC, Q60, QXL at 9600 Baud. But I suppose with Hermes fitted, the serial connection could go higher, though I have not tried this.

I had Q60, QPC2, QXL, Atari QL, Super Gold Card QL on a serial network, with a custom cable, with 5 wired connections, interchanging the TX/RX, RTS/CTS and GND lines.

If only 2 Computers on the network a standard Null Modem lead will do.

I have been told by Tony Firshman that the Superhermes SER3 port does not support 2 clocks and this is why SER3 can not be use on SerNET.

But I wonder if SimSER could be altered to use SER3, which would have to be done at port level, I have disassembled SimSER and and am trying to understand the process and apply it to SuperHermes.

[dilwyn]

Hi Martyn,

I had Q60, QPC2, QXL, Atari QL, Super Gold Card QL on a serial network, with a custom cable, with 5 wired connections, interchanging the TX/RX, RTS/CTS and GND lines.

If only 2 Computers on the network a standard Null Modem lead will do.

It should be noted that not all released versions of Sernet supported more than 2 computers, even using the 'circular' serial port wiring. I don't know why this was so, although I do remember Bernd telling me at some point that if I wanted to network more than two computers, I would need the multi-computer version of Sernet software. Whether later versions included this feature, I don't know.

Perhaps if someone is able to contact Bernd, it would be nice to be able to preserve (and hopefully release) both versions, now that SMSQ/E (with which Sernet was supplied) is not being supplied commercially as it was.

Must admit, I haven't checked if the sernet software is included with the SMSQ/E downloads from Wolfgang's site (probably not, but someone might like to check)

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Dilwyn,

I use SerNET v2.22, which worked for 4 SNET nodes, which I connected via a circular null modem lead.

I connected Q60 to QPC2 at 115200 Baud, which was much faster than the QLAN network.

I have connected other SMSQ/E systems, with the maximum supported reliable Baud rates

QXL: 38400 Baud
Atari QL: 19200 Baud
QL Gold Card / SimSER: 9600 Baud

I could not get the SuperHermes SER3 to work with SerNET, as mentioned earlier, Tony Firshman, indicated the Superhermes has only one clock, so they did not implement SerNET support.

The BBQL SER1/2 I only got reliable data transfer at 9600 Baud, raising the Baud rate any higher gave data transmission errors.

So I connected the QL to the QXL via QLAN and connected QXL to Q60, QPC2 at 115200 Baud.

In SerNET v2.22, Phil Borman has written the SerNET Server code.

[martyn_hill]

Thanks guys!

I'll reach out to Jochen and post back any news!

M.