Amiga 1200 Web Browser recommendation

[ArcadeGuru]

Hello everyone,

I am in the process of networking my Amiga 1200. I have a 3com 3C589D PCMCIA card and I am just waiting for the dongle to arrive. I have installed the 3C589 driver and will be installing the Miami TCPIP stack. Can anyone recommend a half decent web browser I can use (I am running Workbench 3.1)

I'm fairly sure it will work but is anyone else using a 3com 3C589D card in their Amiga 1200?

Thanks

[Buleste]

Does your 1200 have a RAM expansion or an accelerator? If the answer is no then there really isn't anything that will be any good. If you have an expansion or accelerator then try AWeb or Ibrowse however as both are out of development they do not have any of the features of a modern browser. TBH even if you had a A4000/060 and a graphics card there is no browser that can be used effectively as the Amiga just isn't powerful enough.

[Phantom]

iBrowse is the best solution for 68k Amigas.

[Puni/Void]

Hi there ArcadeGuru,

Nice to hear that you are going to get your Amiga 1200 Online. I've got one myself that uses a PCMCIA wireless network card from AmigaKit. Works fine. It is very handy if one wants to download games, demos and utilities.

As mentioned by Phantom, IBrowse is a fine application. You can also try out AWeb and Voyager. IBrowse is the one that is most up to date of these. There's also Netsurf, but I think this one requires a bit more powerful hardware. Correct me if I'm wrong. :)

There are lots of other stuff to try out to. IRC, e-mail (Yam), FTP and much more.

Good luck! :)


Hello everyone,

I am in the process of networking my Amiga 1200. I have a 3com 3C589D PCMCIA card and I am just waiting for the dongle to arrive. I have installed the 3C589 driver and will be installing the Miami TCPIP stack. Can anyone recommend a half decent web browser I can use (I am running Workbench 3.1)

I'm fairly sure it will work but is anyone else using a 3com 3C589D card in their Amiga 1200?

Thanks

[Buleste]

Netsurf requires a OS4.1 machine (It can run on a Blizzard PPC but only if you have a PCI graphics card and an overclocked PPC otherwise it's AMigaOne or SAM) or it can just about run on WinUAE at silly speeds but it does have issues.

I'd forgotten about Voyager. I know some of the Amiga Magazines used Web Browsers for some of their offline webpages. I'm trying to remember which browser for which mag. I know Ibrowse is slower on a unexpanded miggy because it uses MUI whereas the others use custom UI's.

[Harrison]

There is a 68K version of Netsurf too Buleste, called Netsurf 68K. It still only just runs on a 50MHz 060 though, so is really only useful using emulation.

[Buleste]

There is a 68K version of Netsurf too Buleste, called Netsurf 68K. It still only just runs on a 50MHz 060 though, so is really only useful using emulation.

I know there is a 68k version that's why I said it can just about run on WinUAE if you set up at silly speeds (I know this because I keep putting posts about it) but for it to run properly it needs a OS4.1 machine as there is no classic Amiga that can run it at acceptable speeds even with a PPC on board.

[Harrison]

But, is that a CPU or ram limitation issue? With the new ZorRam board from Amigakit making it theoretically possible to have 1GB of ram in an A3000 or A4000, that would take care of the ram limitations. All be it costing over £400 just to get 1GB of ram, which is expensive by any ones standards (a 1GB DIMM is what, £12-20 these days by comparison, making it 2000% more expensive!).

[Buleste]

It's CPU and Graphics RAM that are the issue. The largest Zorro graphics cards are 4MB or 8MB with Cybervision. Net surf you need at least 16MB graphics RAM which you can get with a PCI graphics card but you still can't get a CPU with enough grunt although a 604 might help for the OS4 version but realistically to run Netsurf you need a OS4.1 machine or WinUAE.

[Harrison]

Lets hope Natami delivers, then we might be able to run a more up to date browser finally. Although currently based on 060 it might still be too slow.

I refuse to move to PPC Amigas as they are not real Amigas in my view.

[Buleste]

The 060 for the Natami is only for the development boards. The final release board will have a new CPU based on 68000 architecture but running a lot faster and it should be a perfect candidate for Netsurf 68k at the very least.

[Harrison]

Good news :)

[ArcadeGuru]

Thanks for all the replies. The hardwasre I am running is a Blizzard 1260 with 16MB of RAM:thumbs:. Just got hold of the SCSI adaptor and I am going to install another 64MB of RAM giving me a total of 80MB.

I think I will try Ibrowse. I know I am not going to get a web browser of todays standards but I don't really need it, I just want to get it networked and have a play:)

[amigakit.com]

Hello,

A DIMM is a 3.3v memory module manufactured in the millions for the mass PC market.

The Amiga is a 5v machine with a proprietary Zorro III bus. To synchronize the fast SDRAM with the Amiga takes custom logic interface and extensive R&D. All this added to a Zorro card in small quantities of hundreds of boards (not thousands) costs a lot of money (financial risk that AmigaKit.com has taken).


But, is that a CPU or ram limitation issue? With the new ZorRam board from Amigakit making it theoretically possible to have 1GB of ram in an A3000 or A4000, that would take care of the ram limitations. All be it costing over £400 just to get 1GB of ram, which is expensive by any ones standards (a 1GB DIMM is what, £12-20 these days by comparison, making it 2000% more expensive!).

[Harrison]

No need to take a defensive stance. We fully understand and appreciate the development of the Zorro based ram expansion card, and for A3000 and A4000 owners it does offer a huge expansion potential to allow these Amigas much more freedom. And being based on obsolete and proprietary Amiga expansion slot design will always push the price up.

However, comparing costs of ZorRam against say PC3200 ram on a ram size for size comparison was really to show that retro hardware is not comparable against more recent technology, and any new hardware for a retro system will always command a premium due to limited manufacture compared to large scale PC manufacture..

BTW, have you considered a PCI Ram expansion that does use DDR Ram or SDRam modules? This potentially has a much wider user base than Zorro 3 equiped big box Amigas as there are a lot of people with Towered A1200's that have PCI boards fitted and would love a ram expansion solution that works with their PCI slots.