So I recently picked up a few items that were apparently used to allow internet acces via a Net Yaroze kit. The guy had previously sold the Net Yaroze to a friend but totally forgot about these items that were in his loft and gave me a call when he found them. The items which were included are below - Net Products (Netstation) - From the research I did into this product it appears to be a set-top internet access box with would allow internet via your TV and phone line. NTL had Netchannel set up for this product but it has been closed for a long time and NTL no longer exist. MagicXpress Modem - Pretty much what it says on the tin Audio/ Video Selector Net Yaroze Access Card and Communication Cable At the time this guy was a passionate homebrew developer and Sony called him to test this out (Or so the story goes), they provided him with all of the equipment below and he is in the process of trying to find the paperwork which was sent from Sony to back this up. I have tried to find information that connects the products in some form or another but have only drawn blanks thus far and wondered if anyone knew anything about it really. :shrug:
ntl: still exist in th UK. They merely have a 30 year right to use Virgin branding, but it is very much the same firm just a temporary fascia. I'm not sure the NetStation would have been Yaroze-specific. It is probably just the WebTV ISP service they offered at the time and ntl: may have been the preferred partner for whatever backdoor monetary reason. We didn't get an ntl: set top box until 2001 though - it looks similar but not the same. WTB the access card and maybe serial cable for my experiments Not today though Shiggsy just cleaned me out EDIT: Also found this http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/AfterAcorn/NetProducts.html
That is so awesome! A friend of mine owns the only set top box in existence (that he knows of) which is fully loaded with an Acorn RISC OS operating system. There were so many neat ideas planned for set top boxes. So what are you going to do with it? Would it be possible to somehow set up some kind of false server for it to connect to?
Are you sure this connects the Net Yaroze to the internet? I never heard of that functionality before. I know there was a web community and special site, but I was under the belief that it was just a website that could be accessed from a computer. We'd have to see the paperwork. I would not trust him on his word.
I know the set-top box was not specifically designed for the Yaroze but he is adament that this is what it was used for. When I collected it the NY communication cable was GLUED into the back of the Net Products box (as were all of the other cables for that matter). I will keep on at him about the paperwork but I have no reason to doubt him. I have had things from him previously and am still quite gutted I missed out on the Yaroze itself. Twimfy: I am unsure really what I can do with it. I don't have a Yaroze kit myself and don't really want to buy one for the sake of this. I just thought I'd see if anyone had heard of anything like this in the past or maybe had also been asked to test a similar product. I suppose if some has a Yaroze and would like to loan these items for a while to see if anything can be done?!?! :shrug:
Does it come with any discs? I suppose theoretically it could be connected to a modem and download stuff, but you'd need software to do it.
Thanks for posting the images and information! Post more information if you get any of it working! I can't believe it seems possible PSX online! Nice find! -Disjaukifa
I got everything that is in the photographs (plus power supplies for the set-top box and the modem). I agree that there must have been more to it but at the moment I am just trying to piece together what might have been from the little information I have. The fact that the communication cable was GLUED into the netproducts box would indicate that it was used, somehow, for this.
There still doesn't seem to be anything strange about that, unless it came with a browser, or he was attmpting to code his own. It is probably unlikey though as that black box is basically a home computer of sorts (probably acorn?) and you need the communications cable to send the programs from it to the Yaroze. If you have a modded PSX or other means to run CD-R and a serial cable/mod for it, pop the access card in, hook everything up and I'll upload the Yaroze boot disc for you to have a play with. I had already uploaded the SDK
What memory card? He doesn't have one posted... It is a Yaroze access card! EDIT: kiff any chance you can open up the access card and take pics of the front and back of the PCB? Cheers!
Sorry to derail, but one of these. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Online_Media_Set_Top_Box Not sure how rare they are as we had 100s running the OS you describe at my old secondary school in the 90s. We used them to launch a thin client Terminal Services session with an NT4 server...
