What is "Roadshow"?

Roadshow is an Amiga TCP/IP stack allows you to connect to the Internet, access your e-mail, web pages, chat, etc. It can also help you access and exchange files within your local home network. Roadshow is one of the fastest, if not the fastest Amiga TCP/IP stack. In sustained data transmission tests, Roadshow was able to receive 997 KBytes/s (tested on an Amiga 3000T, using 40 MHz 68040 WarpEngine CPU card and an Ariadne Ethernet card). Roadshow is compatible with the vast majority of Amiga networking programs which use the AmiTCP program interface, such as OWB, IBrowse, AWeb-II, YAM, SabreMSN, ATC and others.

Roadshow comes with comprehensive documentation, in the form of AmigaGuide files and a printable PDF reference document (more than 100 pages). The reference document covers everything from installation, to configuration files, the shell commands which make up Roadshow, to the individual command and configuration file parameters. Roadshow includes not only the TCP/IP stack software, but also a firewall. A full set of shell commands to control both is included, as well diagnostic and file transfer commands. Drivers for PPP networking are included as well, which allow you to connect your Amiga via ADSL modems and serial lines (modem, ISDN, etc.).

Requirements

Amiga operating system versions 2.04 or higher are required. This includes AmigaOS 3.0, 3.1, 3.5 and 3.9. Operating systems which are highly compatible with these original Amiga operating system versions, such as MorphOS, are also expected to work with Roadshow. Roadshow supports the SANA-II driver software standard, and standard compliant drivers for accessing the network are a requirement. An Amiga computer with at least 2 MBytes of memory installed is the bare minimum on which Roadshow can run. The most basic hardware configuration with which the software was successfully tested was an Amiga 600HD running Amiga operating system version 3.1, equipped with 2 MBytes of memory, using a PCMCIA network adaptor. Roadshow benefits from faster computers and more memory.

Networking hardware such as an Ethernet adaptor is recommended. Ethernet adaptors include devices such as:

• Commodore A2065
• Village Tronic Ariadne I
• Village Tronic Ariadne II
• Any PCMCIA network adaptor for which a working driver exists, e.g. "cnet.device" with PCMCIA NE2000 hardware

Software-only drivers such as "slip.device", "plip.device" or the "ppp-serial.device" driver included with Roadshow are supported, too. Note that you still need a serial or parallel port to use these drivers.

Limitations

Documentation is currently available only in English. There is no graphical configuration/management utility included with Roadshow. This means that you need to use a text editor to change and create configuration files. Also, the software which allows you to connect to the Internet through a serial line or ADSL modem can only be run from the command line shell. Because there is no graphical user interface to speak of, Roadshow is expected to be most useful for knowledgable, experienced Amiga users rather than for beginners.

Demo version

A free demonstration version of Roadshow is available, which save for restricted versions of the TCP/IP stack and PPP driver software, is identical to the regular version which you can buy. The demonstration version restricts network access to 15 minutes at a time, after which Roadshow will shut down. The regular version has no such time limit. The regular version ships with a specially optimized TCP/IP stack and PPP drivers for Amiga computers eqipped with 68020/68030/68040/68060 CPUs.

Software development kit (SDK)

The free software development kit includes comprehensive API documentation, plus source code for the Roadshow management, monitoring and file transfer commands. Also included is developer documentation for the SANA-II networking driver standard. The 'C' language header files required for writing new Amiga software to use the Roadshow APIs are included as well.

A brief list of some of Roadshow's features

• Compatible with the AmiTCP 4.0 API
• Amiga-ized configuration utilities rather than the terse and somewhat cryptic Unix legacy tools
• DHCP configuration for Ethernet devices
• Support for ZeroConf automatic network interface IPv4 address assignment, in case no DHCP server is available
• IP packet filter/network address translation (firewall)
• Built-in DNS cache, which reduces the number of server lookups
• Built-in support for international domain names using the ISO Latin 1 character encoding. Roadshow will transparently translate between domain names using the ISO Latin 1 character set encoding (umlauts, accented characters, etc.) and their internal PunyCode form.
• Support for local Amiga Internet server programs ("inetd" style "Internet superserver")
• Berkeley Packet Filter support ("tcpdump" command included)
• Multicast support
• "TCP:" device support, for use with e.g. ARexx scripts
• Integration into the AmigaOS installation; configuration files go into "DEVS:" subdirectories, no special "Roadshow:" assignment necessary
• Installation script can backup/restore network settings, and also uninstall Roadshow again
• "Simple" configuration: one single shell command can bring up the entire network; no unnecessarily complex configuration utilities
• Networking driver configuration concept similar to "mount files", with drivers getting configured in the "User-Startup" script file
• Changes to global configuration files are tracked by file system notification; updates are made right after a change is detected
• Complete SANA-IIR3 support, including DMA access feature
• Enhanced API to allow developers to take greater control of the TCP/IP stack, including features for monitoring and packet filtering
• Enhanced & cleaned-up software development kit, which includes the complete source code of all the configuration tools and sample programs
• Complete localization of all tools and error messages
• Roadshow also includes network device drivers and tools for use with dial-up (PPP) and ADSL (PPPoE) networking.

Availability

Roadshow is available direct at APC&TCP.