Neworking Computers Via Floppy Drive?

Mikey asks: "I remember seeing somewhere a device which looks like a diskette with wires at the back to connect to another computer. The reason I am asking is because the Cyprus Stock Exchange only allows access to its terminals via diskette. `If there is indeed a device which makes a connection between one computer and another via the floppy?"

Comments

i doubt it

[xjesus]

I highly doubt that something like this has been made, but i'm not saying it couldn't. The throughput rate of floppies is VERY slow. The amount of effort it would take to get a complementery read/write head to mate up to the internal heads, while still thin enough to fit through the disk slot would be a pain.

You'd be much better of doing the ole Laplink via the parallel (or serial) port. Or you could always just get a stack of floppies.

Re:i doubt it

[Gothmolly]

That's kilo_BITS_ not kilo_BYTES_. 10BT is an order of magnitude faster.

Re:i doubt it

[dutky]

The "thruoughput rate" of floppies is actually on the order of 500KB/sec, which isn't so bad compared to some popular networking media (10BaseT is only able to achieve about 600-700KB/sec once you have factored in protocol and collision overhaad).

Since other devices have been designed to adapt the floppy drive to alternative media (I'm thinking of memory sticks and the like) there shouldn't be too much problem doing the same thing for a networking medium.

The real problem would likely be how to present the interface to the rest of the system: would you use a new disk driver which would translate the local networking API or would the device itself present the network as a set of files on a virtual floppy disk? Either way you have some big headaches if you are going to support more than a few target systems.

Re:i doubt it

[embobo]

There is no way that floppies have a throughput rate of 500KB/sec. If that were the case you could write a 1.44MB floppy in 3 seconds.

For example, using the generic floppy drive on a FreeBSD box I get 7709 bytes/sec:

$ dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024 count=1024
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1048576 bytes transferred in 136.025992 secs (7709 bytes/sec)

Re:i doubt it

[xjesus]

i had forgoten about those memory stick adapters. I did a quick search to learn a bit about them. First off you can't get them for less than $50. Secondly, thier transfer rate is "up to 240 Kb/s". 240 Kbits/sec is FAR different from 10Mbits/sec (even after accounting for overhead). It also appears that it takes propriatary software in order to get the host system to recognize the disk. This goes along with your comment of how to write the interface for the aformentioned ask slashdot question. Yes, it would be a pain to develop if only to use occassionly on a few systems. I guess we need a little more info from Mikey as to why he needs to be transfering files with these computers, what applications is he using, etc.

Re:i doubt it

[ecloud]

Hmmm, I thought it was around 150 kbytes/sec raw throughput, about the same as a 1X CD drive. But dd is probably taking a lot of precautions (verifying, maybe). It certainly seems to notice when a disk has bad tracks.

DOS systems seem to be able to write to floppies faster than anything else. I think the controller hardware can make a difference too; my very first XT had a floppy controller that seemed a lot faster to me than other systems of that era. It was critical because there wasn't a hard drive. :-)

Re:yes...

[xjesus]

although the popular term "sneaker-net" implies feet.

I've done it once...

[1337-p0z3r]

At my previous job, doing Pro/ENGINEER design work for a client, there were 3 of us in one room working on the same project (a dehumidifier). Of course, it would have been WAY too easy to give us network access right from the beginning. So we had what we called our "Sneaker Network". That is, compress, put it on a floppy, walk over to the other guy, let him copy and unzip, and ditto with the 3rd guy. Needless to say keeping track of various revisions was a pain in the ass.

For the cost of an 8 port 10 mbit hub, some $20 network cards and some wires, don't you think that would be a better solution??

"There's a party," she said,
"We'll sing and we'll dance,
It's come as you are."

SmartDisk FlashPath

[CritterNYC]

It isn't networking, but it will allow you to get more than a floppy's worth of information out of a system at a time. SmartDisk makes a product called the FlashPath, which allows you to read and write to smart media or sony memory sticks through a PC's floppy drive. In short, you'd be able to read/write up to 64mb of data at a time (and soon, 128mb). It does require a driver to be installed in the PC to be used, but it will allow you to get more data in and out without any hardware modifications at all... just a quick driver install (and yes, the driver will fit on a floppy and is available for Win9x/NT/2000, Mac and Linux here).

Oh yeah, it'll run you US$89.95 at the SmartDisk store with a 16Mb SmartMedia card, or you can head over to PriceScan's Digital Film Readers section and find one for under US$60 without a card.

Some day I hope to have a .plan.

mwahahahaha

[BlueJay465]

the sneakernet [?] reigns again!

Arrggghh - Cyprus!

[shippo]

It would be Cyprus.

I once had a request from a UK company for someone to link the two Cyprus sales offices, one in the Greek area, the other in the Turkish area. We had to install a link between the two with a pair of routers, but no-one was allowed to speak to both offices. The routers were already on site, but no-one had got round to configuring them properly. It was planned to route other protocols over them as well, meaning a lot of extra configuration. To fufill the contract we had to send one engineer to one site, configure that router, then send someone else to the other site to do the same, and then hope that everything worked.

Under the bizarre constraints of this contract, I don't think anyone put in a bid. Would you?

IP over SneakerNet?

[ptbrown]

Good thing the two computers were close to each other or the TTL would expire while you ran between the offices.

It's no longer called "Sneakernet"

[unitron]

In order to accomodate the need for the obligatory three-letter-acronym, it is now known as bipedal transfer mode, i.e BTP.