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Ethernet-Karte Ariadne II (von Matt Sawyer)

»PRODUCT NAME

Ariadne II


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Ethernet card with 10Base2 and 10BaseT connectors


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

Name: Village Tronic
Address: Muhlenstrase 2
31157 Sarstedt
Germany

Telephone: +49 (0) 5066 / 7013-10
Fax: +49 (0) 5066 / 7013-49
WWW: www.villagetronic.com
FTP: ftp.villagetronic.com


LIST PRICE

$159.00 (US)


DEMO VERSION

None.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

HARDWARE

An unused expansion slot in an A2000, A3000(T) or A4000(T).

The board does not come with any cables. I had to purchase a
peer-to-peer twisted pair cable (Cost: $6.99) to connect my
Amiga to my PC.

SOFTWARE

TCP/IP software is required to use the card. It comes with
a registerable version of Genesis (formerly known as AmiTCP).

I am using Miami and only needed to get the updated device
driver off the Nordic Global web site (www.nordicglobal.com)


COPY PROTECTION

None.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

Amiga 4000 (Desktop), 2 MB Chip RAM, 146 MB Fast RAM
1 internal 1.76 MB floppy
1 4.3 GB Seagate SCSI hard drive
1 internal Toshiba 32x SCSI-2 CD-ROM drive
1 internal Iomega 1.0 GB SCSI-2 Jaz drive
phase5 CyberstormPPC accelerator w/200 MHz 604e and 50 MHz 68060
phase5 CyberVision64/3D graphics card
Petsoff Delfina Lite sound card
Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 17TX Monitor

AmigaOS 3.1 (Kickstart 40.68 and Workbench 40.42)
Miami v3.2b/Miami Deluxe v0.9a (beta)


INSTALLATION

Installation was easy. The card is not quite full length and
easily fits into any of the expansion slots.

It comes with two setup disks that include the necessary
device drivers and TCP/IP software. However, the version of
the software that came with my card was v1.0 and did not come
with the diagnostic tools listed in the user manual. An e-mail
to Village Tronic quickly revealed an updated set of install
disks (v1.2) on their ftp site.

Running the installer on the first disk installs all the
necessary drivers and diagnostic tools.

REVIEW

This is my first ethernet card for an Amiga. As such, I can't
compare it to other cards that are available. However, I can
tell you that I am extremely pleased with the card.

The card comes with two types of connectors 10Base2 (chepernet)
and 10BaseT (twisted pair). I am using twisted pair (reversed)
from the Ariadne II directly to the ethernet card in my PC.

It does not come with any ethernet cables, however they do supply
an ethernet "T" connector and a terminating resistor for 10Base2
users.

One thing that was interesting about the card is that it has
several expansion connectors on it. However, Village Tronic
has not announced any expansion options for this board so I
don't know if they will ever be used for anything.

I have not tried using the card with the supplied Genesis TCP/IP
software. I have been using Miami for my PPP connection to my
ISP. In order to use PPP and ethernet at the same time, I had
to upgrade to Miami Deluxe which is currently in beta test but
is available.

Being the networking novice I am and the lack of documentation
with the beta version of Miami Deluxe, it took me a while to
get my Amiga configured so that I could use both PPP (internet)
and ethernet (intranet/LAN) at the same time. With a little
patience and persistance, I got it working just perfectly. So
now my setup looks something like this:

PC::EthernetEthernet::Amiga::ModemModem::ISP

I can easily pass files back and forth between my Amiga and my
PC. Plus, my Amiga acts as an internet gateway so that I can
access the internet from either computer seamlessly.

There is no noticable slow down when accessing the internet
from the PC. File transfers between the Amiga and the PC are
fast and error free. Using ftp between the two, I've been
getting around 470 kb/s.


DOCUMENTATION

The board comes with a 34 page user manual. My only comment about
it would be that there is only 2 paragraphs about the software
installation. This would be fine if the only software provided
was just the device driver. There is nothing mentioned about the
included Genesis TCP/IP software at all. In fact, I didn't even
know it came with Genesis until I ran the installation.

However, I should point out that Genesis comes with it's own
documentation in HTML format.


LIKES

The card appears to be well made, was easy to install and has
performed above my initial expectations. Plus it wasn't so
hard on the wallet. It was much less expensive than any of the
other ethernet cards on the market.


DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

It would have been nice if they would have mentioned something
about Genesis in the user manual. Also, when I e-mailed Village
Tronic about the card when it was first announced they told me it
came with a 2 year warranty. However, there is no warranty
information in the user manual.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

I haven't used any other Amiga ethernet cards, so I can't
really compare performance. However, price wise it is much
less expensive.


BUGS

None.


VENDOR SUPPORT

Excellent. When I inquired about the board via e-mail when it was
first announced, they answered all my questions quickly and with
courtesy. Same for when I contacted them about the updated
installation disks.


WARRANTY

The user manual doesn't say anything, but I was told via e-mail it
is 2 years.


CONCLUSIONS

I am very pleased with the board and would recommend it highly. I
give it 5 out of 5 stars


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Copyright 1998 Matthew Sawyer

This review may be Freely Distributed as long as it is only
distributed in it's entirety.

You may contact the author at:

Matt Sawyer