Betr.: Acorn Econet

Econet fileservers were called 'Filestores' which came in different 'levels', which is somewhat like a version number. Check http://www.heyrick.co.uk/econet/ for more information. There was an Econet interface card available for PC's, called 'Ecolink'. With this card I believe it was possible to hook an Econet to an Ethernet, and/or to set up a PC as a fileserver. I think it would be easier to set up an A310, A3000 or A3010 as a fileserver though. Another option which I've been working on is adding an Ethernet interface to an BBC, and writing a simple TCP/IP stack so that this BBC can act as an Econet-Ethernet bridge, but this project is still in the design stage :-) Some econet documents can be found here: http://www.retrocomputing-world.com/biblio/computer/acorn/docs.shtml Cheers, Eelco Does anyone have any experience with Acorn Econet (Acorn's low-cost, fairly low-speed network)? My newly-acquired Acorn Cambridge Workstation (ACW) has an Econet interface (I am told it's standard on these machines), and I'd like to hook it up to something. Digging in my junk box (well, more like junk room :-)), I've found a couple of Econet clock boxes (one Acorn, one SJ, these supply the data clock for the network), a terminator, various connector boxes, etc. Cabling shouldn't be a real problem either, I assume the right cable is 2 twisted pairs with an overall screen. I believe I need a fileserver (== a machine set up as such). Assume I have Beebs (with Econet interfaces), 6502 and Z80 second processors, A310 (but no backplane, therefore no expansion), A3000 (no expansion either), A3010 (in bits, but probably repairable), a couple of Systems (one with an Exonet interface), and not a lot else. I think I could find the Acorn SASI/SCSI host interface for the Beeb if pushed, and I have a Beeb with the Torch SCSI card and SCSIFS. Oh, and an Acorn Econet bridge, but that's fairly useless at the moment... Any ideas as to what I should use, and where to get the necessary software. Has anyone ever hacked a PC to work as an Econet fileserver? The hardware wouldn't be too bad, I think. Anything else I should be aware of? -tony