Maybe I can settle all the disputes you guys seem to be having. You can only use this if you have a dial up shell account, which is basically restricted to universities. No, you can't use it with AOL, etc, or even most ISPs. Similar programs exist for most calculators (85 and 92 and maybe 86, I dunno). The emulated 80x25 screen isn't really necessary because I believe UNIX programs are made to fit any screen size, and you can tell it how big your screen is with the stty command. I don't know the exact syntax, check the man page (if you don't know how to do stuff like that and aren't willing to learn, a UNIX account wouldn't be of much use to you anyway.
Now, the reason you need a graphlink is this. Graphlinks transmit at exactly 9600 baud. Homemade links transmit as fast as possible, and therefore they never transmit at an exact baudrate...it varies with the battery strength. Since a stable and standard baudrate is necessary to maintain a serial connection, you need to use a TI-Graphlink, there's no two ways about it. Internal modems don't have the required kind of connectors, so you can only use external ones.
I hope this helps.

The 80x25 screen is definitley necessary. The stty command may make the unix OS fit it's output in a single TI-83 screen (like when using "ls" or whatever), but other programs like the lynx web browser or the pine email program will either not listen to it or give you an error.

Well, I understand the thing about the official Graph-Links setting the speed to 9600 baud, but can't the same thing be done with homemade links? I remember reading somewhere that the lack of the "speed limit" with the homemade links was done on purpose as an advantage, so it should be possible to keep that limit there. Right?

~ StingArmy

The lack of a "speed limit" on the homemade link cables is a side effect of the direct data transmission they use. There are no mediating components between the calc and the comp; just the cord. The computer can then translate the data, much faster than the calc could ever send it.

The Graph-Link uses RS-232 at 9600bps, a little slower than the calc could spit out at its maximum. External devices (e.g., a modem) require serial (RS-232) input to operate; without the data conversion provided by a Graph-Link, the modem would just receive garbage.

I hooked up my 83 to the graphlink (com 2) (irq3 3) and my interal 36.6 modem is on (com 1) (irq 4) I can type back and forth to my calc using hyper term but when I type AT on the calc, nothing happens! why is this?

The AT command dials the modem when the HyperTerminal is connected to the COM port with the modem connected to it. Otherwise, nothing.

I agree that this is very impressive, but for Pete's sake WHY???? The only reason you would be using you calculator instead of a PC to do something like this is if you where in class, and most classrooms don't have phone jacks for students to go surf the web! As if the teacher wouldn't notice the phone cord, anyway. If you want something to do during class, play a game or something.

Although it isn't cheap (but who said wireless internet access would be? =), you can use a stashed away cellular phone or a HAM+TNC server. The cell phone would rack up a large bill. The HAM+TNC is free air time, but costs around $450 to setup (ie, if you don't have that already, it's probably not worth it).

I myself, would use a cellular phone. I have a job, so it's not a problem for me. If you don't have the money, you could always use it *with* a wire, but in a place without a computer (like a hotel room). A laptop or palmpilot would cost a lot of money. Using a calculator that you already have plus a free program sounds like a nice alternative to me.

Hehehhehe.... Never thought of using it with a TNC :) that would kick A$$. In one hand you have the mic to your HF Rig, in the other you calculator chasing DX :>

73

Yeah, that's great. BUT HOW would it be done?
Is there anywhere a TIDXer hopeful could go to get laymens terms how-to about setting such a thing up? For that matter does annyone intend to organize this pile of letters into something that could be quikly found and referanced by all TI users?

Or, you could just wait for Bluetooth (2.6 GHz Wireless net protocol)...

After noticing all the obvious disadvantages of this program, I began wondering if there were any other possible ways of connecting your calc to the internet. For example, would it somehow be possible to develop a program which would take calculator commands sent through the graph link and send them through tcp/ip? With this you could do things such as play a game, such as tetris, against someone else on the internet.

Feel free to contradict me in any way, I have no knowledge of assembly and I have limited knowledge of c++, so I'm probably wrong.

Since many people don't have a dial-in unix account availiable (which will be me when I leave for college in a week =), I was thinking of making a server-type program (so you would dial to *your* computer instead of your isp) that would run on your PC using the internet access that it already has (which means your home PC would have to be online). The server-type-program-thingy would connect you to a unix server of your choice (get a free unix shell at www.freeshells.com) and that way people with AOL or LAN connections could still use Telnet83.

That's an improvement, but is there any way to do this using tcp/ip somehow? For example, you make a client program which receives the calc's commands and transmits them over the internet to a receiving calc. That would be much, much easier than having to dial in using anything. Although there wouldn't be any applications for the calc if you did that, then people could start developing gaming networks such as mplayer or kali to find people to play 2 player calc games (that sentence was a little rough :) That way there would actually be a reason to use your calc on the internet.

Well, that of course is the next step. As soon as I finish Telnet83 and release the source so it gets ported to all platforms, I was thinking about writing a wannabe "PPP" API.

You would dial your PC which is running the "TI PPP server" or whatever. Any developer could write an internet app using the API. They could connect to sites, send packets, etc. Developers would make a call to my API and it would send the request to the server on the PC which would in-turn, relay it to the internet.

This means, that internet apps such as a graphical web browser or irc client could be made instead of using the traditional unix text based applications. Who knows, maybe we'll see Netscape83 or Mirc83?! =)

Netscape probably won't mind being on the calculator, because they released their source code anyway. Microsoft on the other hand will probably sue the pants off of anyone if they riffed explorer though. Then again, maybe their lawyers are busy enough as it is fighting the Department of Justice. Who'd want to pay 150 dollars for a 220 megabyte web browser when we'll be able to get one free on the calculator!

My school has ethernet connections in every room connected to a T3 internet access. If I could do text web browsing on my TI-85, that'd be great! I'm wondering if specialized devices, similar in concept to that the Expander was developed, to allow a connection between the calc and ethernet or phone. Such a device could also have memory for conversion and storage of web pages into chunks that the calc can handle. Hell, if the official TI-Graph link costs some insane amount like $50, I'd spend $50 on such a device.

Just brainstorming.

Speaking of the Expander, I was wondering where I could get one? Is there a webpage I could visit? Is it compatible with any calc, or just certain ones? Does the 82 fall under the compatible calcs?

So as to show some relivence, is the source availble so someone could port this? And how much effort is involved with porting?

Also I someone reference Windows with this, is it compatible with MacOS, or only windows? If only windows how much would it take for someone to port it to the Mac?

well... looks like there's a bit of inflammatory content here.

I'd like to say the following to Justin: Thanks for taking your time for producing and releasing this. Even as a TI-86 owner, I can say that your program shows a true effort towards that of true innovation. I wish you luck with the final release and the subsequent operations, etc.

To the bigots and supremacists that have polluted these comments:

Your attitude in general has made things such as the public Internet a shame to use. Your discrimination via ISP/machine usage have given us all a bad name. In all, we've sadly had to resort to the unsaid policy of leaving the innovation up to the true innovators.

My calc freezes up when I type something in =(

Be sure you have a link of some sort plugged into the calculator. If you don't, then when you press a key, the calc will freeze until you do plug something in. This will be fixed when I add a timeout to the send routine in the next version.

If you have a graphlink plugged in and it's crashing, then it may be your ROM version. I've heard of a few people who have had it crash on their TI-83 when they press a key. I'm not exactly sure of the cause. I'm hoping that as I improve the program, this error will dissappear.