Email on a 286?

[Haemogoblin]

I was wondering how possible this might be on my little Sharp portable. I've used up the single ISA port with the IDE card, so i'm restricted to serial/parallel ports for communication.

I'm working with a 286 CPU and 640kb of ram.

--james

 

[linuxlove]

Dunno how common they are in England, but Xircom did make a parallel port ethernet adapter that works in MS-DOS. If you get one of those, you'd be able to use the CHASE e-mail client, written by our own Mike Chambers: http://rubbermallet.org/software/chase.html
I don't think CHASE can do any sort of encryption though.

 

[mbbrutman]

James,

Definitely look for the Xircom PE3-10BT. Here are some usage notes for it:

http://www.brutman.com/Dos_Networking/xircom_pe3.html



Mike

 

[Haemogoblin]

I've seen these before somewhere, what are the system requirements?

I was using the system today and noticed i was wrong, the system actually has 512kb of ram, i'm not certain if this is upgradeable or how i'd do it.

James

 

[PeterNY]

When you have a serial port you can always hook up a modem, dial in to an ISP and read email through TelNet.

 

[Haemogoblin]

It does have a serial port, i dont really fancy the modem route, as it will incur a charge. And when i've got a fully working broad band connect, i dont see the point in using the phone line

 

[FishFinger]

I've seen these before somewhere, what are the system requirements?

I was using the system today and noticed i was wrong, the system actually has 512kb of ram, i'm not certain if this is upgradeable or how i'd do it.

James

The Xircom adaptors work on anything with a parallel port, even down to an 8088. The drivers take a few KB, but you only need to load them when needed, so it isn't a problem most of the time, and the basic packet driver is very small anyway.

You need somewhere to tap a power supply from though. The parallel port by itself can't supply enough, so they come with a cable to take power from a PS/2 keyboard/mouse port, or you can use an AC adaptor.

I'm pretty sure I've got one somewhere, which you can have for the price of postage if you're interested.