WiFi for Solaris 2.6/7?

[oktology]

I am about to get my hands on a SPARCbook (!!!), and I am trying to find out if there’s any way to do WiFi on Solaris 2.6 or 7. Obviously it won’t be built in, but I’m hoping there’s a latter-day driver or the such.

Am I SOL?

 

[Svenska]

I don't know if Solaris 2.6 or 2.7 ever supported WiFi, but even if they did, you'd be out of luck with modern encryption standards.

Instead, you can attach a modern ESP8266 or ESP32-based device (e.g. https://github.com/dhansel/WifiModem) and use it as a dial-up connection. Alternatively, you can attach an Ethernet-WiFi bridge for higher speeds. Neither require your Solaris system to understand the WiFi protocol.

 

[MrImprovement]

I am about to get my hands on a SPARCbook (!!!), and I am trying to find out if there’s any way to do WiFi on Solaris 2.6 or 7. Obviously it won’t be built in, but I’m hoping there’s a latter-day driver or the such.

Am I SOL?

Does the SPARCbook have PCMCIA ports? If so I recall there was a driver for the original 11Mbps Wifi cards from Lucent and possibly Cisco PCMCIA cards.

 

[oktology]

and use it as a dial-up connection.

I was unaware the ESP32 WiFi modems could do SLIP/PPP; the one I have I think only does telnet?

 

[ajacocks]

There are also devices that can be wifi bridges, and attach to the ethernet built into the sparcbook.

For instance (I have no specific experience with this device):

https://www.amazon.com/Davicom-DM9051NP-Adapter-WiFi-2-Ethernet-Evaluation/dp/B09HQF8S44

You can also build your own, this one uses a Raspberry Pi:

Easy Raspberry Pi WiFi Bridge

Setup a simple WiFi bridge with the Pi.

pimylifeup.com

- Alex

 

[Chuck(G)]

I use a simple TP-Link range expander on several of my rack-mounted rigs. Cheap, just connect with a patch cable.

 

[Svenska]

I was unaware the ESP32 WiFi modems could do SLIP/PPP; the one I have I think only does telnet?

Yes, but telnet provides you a shell connection on which you can run slirp.

But there are other projects, for example this one: https://github.com/ssshake/vintage-computer-wifi-modem
This one supports PPP, raw TCP, Telnet and HTTP connections.

This project provides a SLIP connection: https://github.com/martin-ger/esp_slip_router

Unfortunately, the approach limits the speed to your serial throughput. The Amiga world has a device called "plipbox" (Ethernet only, not WiFi) which provides a PLIP interface. I haven't found a project for this specifically, but it should be possible to go that route, too.

 

[tokenalt]

I guess the question is are you looking for something portable so you can take your SPARCbook to a coffee shop and use the public WiFi or do you just want to use the machine on the other side of your house and not have to run an Ethernet cable down the hall. Which solution is best kind of depends on just how portable you need it to be.