*** WARNING: this is a work in progress ***


Backround information related to colorforth,ethernet,ip, and udp topics.

I will list here as fast as I can basic information concerning files listed
at the url http://www.dnd.utwente.nl/~tim/colorforth/ether-ip-udp

The file ether-udp-3.blk is the exact image that Dr. Moore mailed me.
it is a work of art with many utilities and examples.

The files bs-client.blk and bs-server.blk are my images of a colorforth
block server that I'm hosting on the internet. It has just come online.

At this point the block server is available and can be used with a 
masquerading gateway or a fixed IP address. To do this one would start with
the client image and adjust the code for their backend network, or fixed IP
address. I will give some pointers below:

It is based on the common rtl8139 series chips.
It has worked for me on the rtl8139, rtl8139a, rtl8139c, and rtl8139d
based cards. I've not tested more. These cards cost 8 US dollars at the
moment here.

One needs to edit two of the screens that have IP addresses listed.
these are the ARP screen as well as the IPV4 screen. The ARP screen
should have both the gateway and client ip address. The Ipv4 screen should
have the client address and my server's ip address.

130 is the load screen.

If this activates a red screen with a bunch of numbers in a white font,
with a counter that is moving fast then it is ready for use as far as
io address and interrupt. you should then be able to use the put and get
utilities.

Put and get both take one number on the stack as argument.
they consume this number as well.

If you did get a red screen with the numbers but they are not changing,
then I sugest you think of the following issues:

Is the IO address correct?
At the moment on the old kernel the address is hard coded.
this is because the word device is not available.

I have used a kernel with a smaller font, this allowed me two adjust
north to show the devs and regs at the same time. Use north to see if
you see a device with 8139 in the name, it's address is listed next to it.
this is often 6800,5800,4800 hex. This value needs entered in the rtl8139
driver code if it is different from that of this image. 

Some bioses need to be told that the OS is not plug and play.
Others seem to work without this being neccessary.

This code is meant for interrupt 10 decimal.
Using a different interrupt will mean editing the value
of the interrupt associated with the word recieve.

At the moment there are about a bit more than 1000 blocks hex available.
This will change later. This is the limit before hitting the netcard buffer.
and there is also a 16 bit limit to the get and put utilities at a udp
level. Later I would like to try to use the ram above the 32MB that CF does
not use. for the data store. It now starts at block 300.

thus the data block range is:
0 - (8192-300)

The client and server clip the values to be in the appropriate range.

The bs-server.blk file is the image of the server I'm hosting on
the internet. You might want to use it in troubleshooting, as well
as for a block server of your own.

I will be releasing a request for code, and data to populate the server in
the future. Until then we should agree on some type of block allocation.
I will address these issues in a mail to the colorforth list.

end of document.