Re: Internet and the QL
Posted: Sun May 19, 2019 10:35 pm
I find it exaggerated to say that TCP/IP is useless without encryption. It can still be used for LAN connections, internet connections from QL to QL, and many websites.Dave wrote:A real TCP/IP card is only useful if we have access to an encryption engine.
From my experience with QLwIP I see the largest problem in the requirement of encryption for email server connections. (Which does not even make too much real sense, as long as the contents is usually cleartext.)
Encryption/decryption does not solve the next problem:Dave wrote:It would take a QL several days to encrypt or decrypt a single packet.
It would take similarly long to render a webpage (in the hypothetical assumption the QL had a graphical browser).
But what kind of encrypted internet data would you process on a QL? (Except text email which would still make sense on slow machines.)Dave wrote:The stack needs to be run on a fast external device that can handle encryption in real time.
I see a difficulty in "outsourcing" TCP/IP: It leads to the emulation route, moves development away from the native side. Eventually it is no longer clear why we do not emulate the rest of the QL side also, if the network coprocessor has much more processing power anyway...