Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!barrett
From: mooncrow@aloha.com (Robert A. Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: CEI A4066 Ethernet Plus network board
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.networking
Date: 20 Jul 1995 18:21:52 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
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Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
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Reply-To: mooncrow@aloha.com (Robert A. Green)
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Keywords: hardware, networking, ethernet, Zorro, commercial
Originator: barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu
PRODUCT NAME
CEI A4066 Ethernet Plus network board
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
A Zorro II/III Ethernet card supporting 10BaseT, AUI and ThinNet
connections. Includes a SANA II compliant device driver.
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: Creative Equipment International
Address: 5555 W. Flagler St.
Miami, FL 33134
USA
Telephone: (305) 266-2800
LIST PRICE
I believe the suggested retail is $300 (US). At any rate, that seems
to be what it is going for in the mail order ads.
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
A Zorro II/III slot
SOFTWARE
Some type of networking software (after all, why install the
card otherwise?).
COPY PROTECTION
None.
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 3000T with 25MHz 68040 CPU
2MB Chip, 8 MB Fast RAM
Kickstart 37.175 (2.04) Workbench 38.36 (2.1)
AmiTCP 4.0 (demo)
INSTALLATION
The card comes defaulted for use with ThinNet cabling which is what
my LAN uses, so it was simply a matter of opening the computer and
installing the card in a free Zorro slot.
GENERAL COMMENTS
The A4066 is a pretty straightforward product in the whole scheme of
things. Let it suffice to say that out of this whole project, the Ethernet
card was the easiest thing to deal with. Basically, I put the card in the
machine, powered up, installed the driver, and was done with it. AmiTCP
worked flawlessly with the card as soon as it was started. My Amiga is on a
TCP/IP network with an 2 MS-DOS machines, 2 Linux machines and one box that
is booting as either MS DOS or Linux depending on what it is being used for.
The Amiga has never batted an eyelash about contacting any of these machines.
[MODERATOR'S NOTE: For non-English speakers, "never batted an
eyelash" means "never had a problem." - Dan]
APPLICATIONS
So far I have used the A4066 for only telnet and ftp, but judging by
the fact that everything so far works fine, I would estimate that this card
will work with any software that supports a SANA II network device.
For reference, my machine is also running Parnet at the same time,
and the two get along just dandy.
Please feel free to drop in and "check" the card operation for
yourself, as it is also supplying telnet connections for Internet access to
my BBS: telnet bbs.mxi.com.
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation for the card is pretty sparse, consisting of a 5 page
booklet. Frankly, it doesn't need much. Getting a network card installed is
pretty straightforward. Getting the software that will use the network card
set up is a whole different story, but that's for other reviews.
LIKES
Well, what's not to like about Ethernet? It's fast (10MB/sec data
transfers) and doesn't seem to have any effect on the machine's speed. Wish
I could say the same about AmiTCP <grin>.
DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS
About the only thing I didn't like about the A4066 was the price,
but since it is priced about the same as the other Zorro Ethernet cards I
checked on (Hydra, Ariadne) I guess that is just the state of the market.
Sure makes me wince when I think back to the $30 I paid for essentially the
same thing for a Bmer though. Such is the price we pay to use the Amiga I
guess.
COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
I haven't used any other Amiga Ethernet cards, but based on what I
have read, there isn't much difference between this card and the Ariadne and
Hydra cards. Here's the differences that I was able to gather though:
A4066 has a 64K buffer, Ariadne has 32K, Hydra has ??.
A4066 comes with only the device drivers, while the Ariadne also
comes with Envoy (an Amiga-Amiga networking package). For my purposes, Envoy
was of no use, since I am linking my A3000T to non-Amiga machines.
BUGS
No bugs noted.
VENDOR SUPPORT
N/A
WARRANTY
1 year repair/replacement warranty against design, material or
workmanship defects to the "buyer".
CONCLUSIONS
This is a solid product that delivers exactly what is promised. I
give it a hearty recommendation to anyone needing to connect an Amiga to an
Ethernet LAN.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Copyright 1995 Robert A. Green (mooncrow@aloha.com). May be freely
reproduced and distributed in whole or in part so long as no text is
modified and this copyright notice is included. No fee may be charged for
the reproduction/distribution of this document, nor may it be included in any
document/publication for which a fee is charged without the prior written
consent of the author.
/\ /\ /\ /\ |/\ /\ |/\ /\ | | Robert A. Green
| \/ | | || || || | | | | | mooncrow@aloha.com
| | \/ \/ | | \/ | \/ \/\/ BBS:808-456-8541 8-n-1 28.8K
Web Surfing Address - http://asylum.aloha.com/~mooncrow
---
Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews
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