The Sinclair QL Forum

Hello there,

I am reaching out to gather insights and advice from the knowledgeable members of this community regarding networking solutions for QL systems.

I have recently embarked on a project that involves integrating a QL system into a larger network environment; and I have encountered a few challenges along the way. My goal is to ensure seamless communication between the QL system and other devices in the network while maintaining optimal performance.

Specificall; I am interested in recommendations for networking hardware that would be compatible with QL systems. Are there particular routers; switches; or access points that you have found to work exceptionally well? Additionally; if anyone has experience with network configurations that optimize data flow or enhance security; I would greatly appreciate your insights.

Also, I have gone through this post; https://theqlforum.com/viewtopic.php?ccsp=2826&start=10 which definitely helped me out a lot.

I am also curious about any software tools or utilities that can assist in monitoring and managing network traffic effectively. If you have any experiences to share; particularly regarding troubleshooting common networking issues with QL systems; that would be incredibly helpful.

Thank you in advance for your help and assistance.

Hello komyash and welcome!

There is a lot to be said about Networking on the QL, and you might find the article "Networking the QL (part 1).pdf" available elsewhere here on the Forum a good place to start.

Reading your specific questions, the following points seem most relevant at this stage:

a) The QL, like many other retro systems of the era, implements a proprietary network hardware and software interface called the 'Sinclair Network Standard' that is not natively 'IP' compatible and thus not directly connectable to Ethernet/IP networks and systems

b) There ARE a number of diverse ways currently available to achieve a degree of inter-connectivity between the QL and IP networks, all requiring either additional hardware and/or software, such as:
- The terrific FPGA-based QL compatible system, the 'Q68', which itself has both the native QL Network capability plus a standard Ethernet controller built-in.
- The versatile 'OctaDrive' project which, working with both the QL and Spectrum, effectively bridges the QL-style Network with a Host-PC, which in turn connects to a standard IP-based network
- The 'QLUB Adapter' which, again, connects a Host PC (with its own Ethernet/IP capability) directly to the QL-style Network - where the Host PC also runs a QL Emulator in software
- Other projects, but not recently maintained...

c) The Q68 is probably the simplest starting point, to my mind, leveraging both the ND-Q68 (by myself, Martyn Hill)) _and_ Martin Head's excellent Q68-Ethernet+NETDriver combination to act as an effective 'QL NET to Ethernet/IP Bridge', whereby the Q68 not only acts as a highly capable QL-compatible host itself, but also as a 'gateway' between the QL and PC/IP worlds...

As for optimising speed and security, the basic QL Network is sluggish (though pretty quick by the standards of its day - c. 90 kbps, effective 3 KB ps throughput), but with next to zero security.

In practical terms, meaningful network security (by today's standards) is something that would have to be overlaid only once the traffic arrives at the IP layer - implemented in a more modern PC host system. Having said that, Martin Head's 'NAS_SHARE' solution implements a starting point for adding security at the QL/Q68 Network layer.

Hope that at least offers you some starting points for consideration.

Feel free to share more detail about your 'end-game' and we might be able to help further...