VOGONS

PCjr: Your favorite cartridge game machine is ... a server

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First post, by mbbrutman

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Just for giggles I registered a new domain name, setup dynamic DNS, and pointed it at a PCjr running a test version of the mTCP web server. Well, that was 3+ weeks ago. Right now is has been running 577 hours straight. It's not a terribly busy server, but once in a while it gets a burst of activity; I have it set to beep when it gets a connection so I can hear how busy it is. ;-0

Current stats:

  • 577 hours of run time
  • TCP/IP connections: 42427
  • Objects (individual files served): 48090
  • TCP packets sent/received: 1224963 / 1110131
  • All packets sent/received: 1900911 / 1995256

You can see up-to-date stats by hitting the PCjr directly at http://brutmanlabs.org/status . If you visit the main page there is an actual picture of beast on it. I plan on leaving it up until the fan noise drives me crazy or the power goes out. (I need to swap the standard 38 year old fan with a more modern Noctua. I really want to put it on a UPS too.)

The machine is basically stock. It has a jrIDE adapter, a 720KB floppy drive (not really needed for this), and a Xircom PE3 adapter on the parallel port. The parallel port was modified to be bi-directional to help the TCP/IP speeds. The rest of the machine is the same .. ye olde 8088 running at 4.77Mhz.

-Mike

Reply 1 of 11, by chrismeyer6

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Nice job that's a fun sounding project. I had two PCJrs when I was younger I really miss them and wish I hadn't sold them off had a lot of fun playing dos games on it.

Reply 2 of 11, by maxtherabbit

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I was able to connect to this from a 286 running windows 3.1 and NCSA Mosaic 1.0

Reply 4 of 11, by mbbrutman

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That page is a joke, right? I read the code they posted but I can't tell if they really wrote something in assembly language that works or if the data statements are just for show.

Edit: Definitely a joke. Read the BASIC code they have posted. 😀

Reply 5 of 11, by ThinkpadIL

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mbbrutman wrote on 2022-06-03, 22:57:

That page is a joke, right? I read the code they posted but I can't tell if they really wrote something in assembly language that works or if the data statements are just for show.

Edit: Definitely a joke. Read the BASIC code they have posted. 😀

It is definitely a joke. If there might be a way to make some kind of server from this machine, there is no way to make use of cassette tape as graphic files storage device. 🙂

Reply 6 of 11, by ThinkpadIL

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By the way, if you'll give more information how to set up a server on PCjr, it will be fun to try it on HP 200LX - a fanless pocketsize version of PC XT machine. 🙂

Reply 9 of 11, by mbbrutman

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Up to 750 hours now ...

Except for possibly running out of disk space or losing power, I'm not too worried about it running indefinitely.

Reply 10 of 11, by doogie

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I gave it a "beep". 😀 I love these projects - good job.

Reply 11 of 11, by Shnur

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Nice project! interesting if somebody could launch server on NES 😀

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