CLOANTO AMIGA FOREVER DATA SHARING SOFTWARE (AMIGA SIDE)


 INTRODUCTION

 This directory contains the parts of Amiga Forever which are designed to
 run on a "real" Amiga computer, including the Amiga Explorer network
 server software (to connect one or more PCs to the Amiga) and the MSH
 filing system (to read and write MS-DOS disks on an Amiga). The contents
 of this directory is designed to fit on a single Amiga 880 KB floppy
 disk, for users who do not have a CD-ROM drive on their Amiga.

 This directory also contains the "transdisk" and "transrom" utilities,
 used by several Amiga emulation environments. These utilities are not
 necessary if Amiga Explorer is installed, because Amiga Explorer
 incorporates and extends the features of both tools. Amiga Explorer and
 MSH are fully independent from the Amiga emulation software, and can be
 used to share data between Windows and Amiga systems without using the
 Amiga emulation software.

 All Amiga software on this directory is designed to run on version 1.3
 and upwards of the Amiga OS (some programs may even work on older
 versions).

 The contents of this directory is normally stored in the "Amiga/AF_Disk"
 directory on the CD-ROM, from where it can be copied to an Amiga floppy
 disk. Additional copies of such a disk, stored as Amiga DMS and LhA
 archives, are included in the "Archives/AF_Disk" directory of the CD-ROM.
 Both formats use data compression, so that they fit on a single 720 KB
 (i.e. PC, MS-DOS disk format) disk, which makes it possible to move any
 of the two files from a PC with CD-ROM drive to a PC floppy disk, and
 then to an Amiga capable of reading PC floppy disks (see the
 corresponding section in the main documentation). The DMS and LhA
 archives can be processed (extracted) with the freely distributable
 versions of the DMS and LhA software, respectively. The DMS software
 automatically creates a disk identical with the bootable floppy disk
 created by Cloanto (without requiring prior formatting of the disk). If
 instead the files are copied from the "Amiga/AF_Disk" directory on the
 CD-ROM, or from the LhA archive, then the floppy disk must first be
 formatted (and made bootable with the AmigaDOS "Install" command, if the
 disk is to be used for booting an Amiga).

 In the following text, this directory, and the equivalent disk, are
 referred to as the "AF_Disk".


 SHORT REFERENCE

 This text is intended as a short reference to the files on the "AF_Disk"
 directory or floppy disk. Please refer to the main documentation on the
 CD-ROM for the full instructions.

 If you wish to use the Amiga Explorer functionality over a null modem
 cable connection, and/or the MSH filing system to access MS-DOS (or IBM
 PC DOS) disks on the Amiga, then it is possible to entirely skip all
 configuration steps, and simply boot the Amiga from this floppy disk, and
 then remove the disk. This does not even require a monitor to be
 connected to the Amiga. Such a configuration is most useful if the Amiga
 is only used as an "Amiga floppy drive" for the Windows computer. On the
 Windows side of Amiga Explorer, you only need to make sure that the
 proper COM port is selected for communications with the Amiga. If this
 works satisfactorily for you, you may skip the remaining part of this
 documentation.


 AMIGA EXPLORER

 The Amiga side of Amiga Explorer ("AExplorer" icon) communicates over a
 cable connection with the Amiga Explorer part which resides on a Windows
 machine, exposing all Amiga drives to one or more PCs running Windows. In
 this configuration, the Amiga is called the "server", because it is the
 computer which satisfies requests from "clients", which are Windows
 machines. All Windows clients can "see" what is on the Amiga server, and
 read and write to the Amiga. The Amiga itself does not see the drives
 mounted on the client machines, i.e. the drives of the Windows computers
 do not appear on the Workbench screen of the Amiga server.

 On the Amiga side, double-click on the AExplorer icon to start it, and,
 if necessary, double-click on it again to stop it. Stopping Amiga
 Explorer may be useful, for example, to free the serial port for other
 tasks, or to change some Amiga Explorer settings. To install Amiga
 Explorer, simply copy the "AExplorer" icon to the hard disk. On version
 2.0 and newer of the Amiga OS, copying the "AExplorer" icon into the
 "WBStartup" drawer will cause Amiga Explorer to start automatically when
 the system boots. On all systems, Amiga Explorer can also be started
 automatically by entering the following line in the  "S:Startup-Sequence"
 or "S:User-Startup" file:

    Run >NIL: <NIL: AF_Disk:AExplorer >NIL: <NIL: [OPTIONS]

 Instead of "AF_Disk:", which is the path for the Amiga Forever floppy
 disk, you will probably prefer to enter the path of the software as it is
 installed on the hard disk, e.g. "Work:", or "Work:AmigaForever/", etc.
 The optional [OPTIONS] part consists of one or more keywords each
 followed by a setting, e.g. "CONNECTION SERIAL SERBAUD 115200", etc. If
 no options are indicated, then the default settings are used. The option
 names and the default values are explained below (all command line
 options have matching ToolTypes with the same name).

 This version of Amiga Explorer supports standard "null modem" 7-wire
 serial cables (the schematics are included in the main documentation), as
 well as TCP/IP (Ethernet, ARCNet, serial, etc.). Settings can be changed
 by clicking on the "AExplorer" icon once, and selecting the
 "Information..." (or "Info", on older systems) item from the Workbench
 menus. All settings are accessible by editing the appropriate "ToolType"
 entries, which are described here.

 CONNECTION: This entry may be set to AUTO, SERIAL or TCP/IP. AUTO, which
 is the default, means that Amiga Explorer uses TCP/IP if a TCP/IP
 environment is found, otherwise it uses the serial (null modem) cable
 connection.

 SERDEVICE, SERUNIT, SERBAUD: These are the serial port settings. By
 default, the standard Amiga serial device, "serial.device", unit 0, is
 used. This does not require changes, unless non-standard serial ports and
 devices are used, in which case the corresponding documentation needs to
 be referred to. SERBAUD is preset to 19200 bit/sec, which was tested to
 run well even on the slowest Amiga systems. Higher values allow for
 higher transmission speeds, but are not supported by all systems. If this
 setting is changed, it also needs to be changed to the same value on the
 Windows side of Amiga Explorer. Other possible values include (without
 being limited to): 4800, 9600, 38400, 57600 and 115200.

 TCPLIBRARY, TCPPASSWORD, TCPCLIENT, TCPSERVER: These are the TCP/IP
 settings, which on the Amiga side by default do not require any specific
 configuration. The Amiga side of Amiga Explorer processes requests from
 all Windows clients. To limit potential security risks, Amiga Explorer
 gives the possibility to specify a password (TCPPASSWORD), and to
 optionally indicate the IP address of a single Windows client to which
 exclusive access is to be granted. A default password is preset on both
 the Windows and the Amiga side. If the password is changed, the new value
 must be set both on the Windows clients and on the Amiga server. Requests
 from clients with a different password are not processed. By default, the
 Amiga side of Amiga Explorer "listens" to all Windows clients. As an
 additional security measure, it is possible to program the TCPCLIENT
 setting to the IP address (e.g. "TCPCLIENT=10.0.0.5") of a single Windows
 client, which will then become the only client with which the Amiga
 server exchanges data. This provides an additional level of protection
 over the password solution, because the (encrypted) password is
 transmitted over the network, and, in theory, could be read by an
 unauthorized party on the same network path using a TCP/IP packet
 monitor. The TCPSERVER setting, which is also optional, can be programmed
 to the IP address of the Amiga server. This is required on multi-homed
 systems, i.e. where the Amiga has more than one network board and/or IP
 address, and Amiga Explorer may need to be told which one to use.

 PACKETSIZE: This value indicates the maximum size, in bytes, of the data
 packets sent by the Amiga server to the Windows clients. A "packet" is
 the unit of data which is transmitted from one side to the other at one
 time. Each packet has different checksums to ensure the integrity of the
 data, once the packet is received by the other side. If the line is not
 totally error-free, which may for example occur on a serial connection
 which is set to an excessively high speed, corrupt packets are detected
 and re-sent. If this happens, the overhead is in proportion to the size
 of the packet. Longer packets are more likely to be corrupt, because they
 contain more data, and they also take longer to be sent and re-sent.
 Shorter packets are more reliable, but they slightly increase the overall
 overhead on an error-free line, because each packet has some additional
 header and checksum data, which, if there are no errors, is not
 necessary. By default, PACKETSIZE is set to 4096, which is a good
 compromise for different types of connections. It is not necessary to set
 the Amiga side and the Windows side to the same value (the clients may
 use a different setting for data sent to the server, if so desired). All
 Amiga Explorer packets are "dynamic", i.e. the packet size is only a
 maximum, not a constant. If the packet size is set to 4096, but only 100
 bytes need to be transmitted, then only 100 bytes (plus the header) are
 transmitted, not 4096.

 RETRIES: This parameter determines how often the Amiga side will request
 a corrupt packet to be retransmitted, before "giving up". By default, it
 retries 10 times. The Amiga and the Windows side do not need to be set to
 the same value.

 ADFVERIFY: Amiga Explorer can transform Amiga disks to ADF ("Amiga Disk
 File") images, and vice versa. When writing an ADF image to an Amiga
 disk, Amiga Explorer by default verifies that the data was written
 correctly, just like the Amiga OS does when formatting a disk, or like
 disk-copying programs can do during a copy. In this way, bad disks and
 other possible problems are immediately detected. If ADFVERIFY is set to
 NO, bad disks and other write errors are not detected, but the write
 process will be faster.

 OVERRIDEPROTECTION: If this setting is enabled (=YES), then Amiga
 Explorer overrides any Amiga protection bits which may indicate, for
 example, that a file cannot be deleted, read or written.

 LOGGING, LOGFILE: Logging can be enabled (LOGGING=YES) in case of
 persistent difficulties, to better track the origin of specific problems.
 By default, logging is disabled (LOGGING=NO). Please refer to the main
 documentation for additional information.

 QUIET: This setting can be set to YES or NO to respectively suppress or
 enable the initial and final status window which appears when Amiga
 Explorer is launched or stopped.

 DONOTWAIT: This ToolType ensures that the "AExplorer" icon can be dropped
 in "WBStartup" without leaving the Amiga OS waiting for Amiga Explorer to
 terminate.


 MSH

 The "MSH" directory contains MSH, an Amiga file system handler that
 allows the Amiga to read and write floppy disks in the MS-DOS format.

 Amiga operating systems beginning from version 2.1 already include a
 similar type of support for MS-DOS disks, as explained in the Amiga
 documentation. MSH works on all versions of the Amiga OS, including 1.3
 and 2.0.

 To install MSH from the Amiga Forever floppy disk to your system, execute
 the following in a Shell or CLI window:

    Copy AF_Disk:devs/messydisk.device DEVS: CLONE
    Copy AF_Disk:devs/MountList.MSH DEVS: CLONE
    Copy AF_Disk:l/MessyFileSystem L: CLONE

 In the "S:Startup-Sequence" or "S:User-Startup" file, add one entry for
 each disk drive for which you wish to enable MSH, where the name of the
 device to be mounted is "MS" plus the unit number. For example, to add
 MS-DOS-support to drives 0 and 1, add:

    Mount MS0: FROM DEVS:MountList.MSH
    Mount MS1: FROM DEVS:MountList.MSH

 Please note that high density data (disks formatted for 1.44 MB) cannot
 be accessed by the Amiga unless the Amiga drive supports this. Some
 drives shipping with the Commodore Amiga 3000, 3000T, 4000 and 1200
 models, as well as some newer third-party drives support this. If
 high-density is not supported by the drive, then only disks formatted in
 the 720 KB format can be accessed.

 Please refer to the main documentation for additional information. The
 original MSH distribution archive, with source code, is also stored on
 the CD-ROM, in the "Archives/MSH" directory.


 TRANSDISK AND TRANSROM

 The "Trans_Disk+ROM" directory contains the "transdisk" and "transrom"
 utilities, which can be used to create image files of Amiga ROMs and
 floppy disks (ADF format), for use with the UAE and Fellow Amiga
 emulators. The same functionality is also part of Amiga Explorer, which
 is capable of creating "virtual" ADF and ROM image files, so these
 additional tools are mainly interesting when Amiga Explorer is not used.

 In order to share data stored on floppy disks between the Amiga and other
 systems, the disks must be formatted in the MS-DOS format. The main
 documentation of Amiga Forever explains why Amiga-formatted disks cannot
 be read on non-Amiga systems, and how MS-DOS disks can be formatted and
 used on the Amiga (for example using MSH).

 Please note that a ROM image fits on a 720 KB (MS-DOS) disk, but a disk
 image of an 880 KB Amiga disk cannot fit on an MS-DOS disk unless it is
 either compressed (with a program such as LhA), or split in several
 parts. The transdisk utility includes an option to split a disk image in
 several files.

 Both utilities are designed to be used from the Shell. Before use, they
 are best copied to the C: directory, or to another location where the
 system looks for programs associated to Shell commands.

 The following are examples of command lines entered in a Shell (or CLI,
 on older systems) window.

 To install the command line utilities:

    Copy AF_Disk:Trans_Disk+ROM C: CLONE

 To get instructions on the use of transdisk:

    transdisk ?

 To write a ROM image file to the PC0: MS-DOS disk:

    transrom > PC0:kick31.rom

 To write a ROM image file to the MS0: MS-DOS disk:

    transrom > MS0:kick31.rom


 NOTES

 Amiga Explorer is Copyright © 1997, 1998 Cloanto. MSH is Copyright ©
 1989-1997 Olaf "Rhialto" Seibert, distributed under license. Transdisk is
 Copyright © 1995-1997 Bernd Schmidt, Joanne Dow, Marcus Sundberg, Rodney
 Hester and Stefan Ropke, distributed with permission. Transrom is
 Copyright © 1995-1996 Bernd Schmidt, Marcus Sundberg, Rodney Hester and
 Stefan Ropke, distributed with permission. Please refer to the main
 documentation (contained on the Amiga Forever CD-ROM) for additional
 copyright, distribution and other legal and technical information.