sup im new
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segasaturndude
- Posts: 147
- Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:21 pm
sup im new
hello fellow people of sega saturn league im new here, my name is taylor and im a big fan of sega saturn. im going to be buying a saturn and a netlink within a few weeks so ill be able to go online and surf the net. i have a question about the netlink adaptor, do you require dial-up or can you just connect a phone line to it?
Welcome to the Real world, Sega Saturn 
Welcome to the League!
Clarification on xDerekRx's note:
If you want to use the web browser, you need a dial-up ISP. For NetLink gaming, however, you only need a working analog phone line.
(When I say analog, I mean no Vonage, Digital Phone, Skype, MagicJack, or any other similar services. It's extremely rare for the NetLink to work through one of those.)
Clarification on xDerekRx's note:
If you want to use the web browser, you need a dial-up ISP. For NetLink gaming, however, you only need a working analog phone line.
(When I say analog, I mean no Vonage, Digital Phone, Skype, MagicJack, or any other similar services. It's extremely rare for the NetLink to work through one of those.)
I have my Saturns, I have some of my games, I have a RasPi. Gotta put all this stuff together!
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segasaturndude
- Posts: 147
- Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:21 pm
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segasaturndude
- Posts: 147
- Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:21 pm
i would like to do both if possble, and to anwser your question i have digital phone service, but i will ask my cable service to get the analog service going, when i moved into my trailer which i live in now has analog phone jacks but the comcast guy said to get it running it would cost $50 more then the digital phone service. so once i get my check i will have comcast reinable it
Welcome to the Real world, Sega Saturn
I personally feel that the browser is fun to mess around with for a few minutes, but after that it's not really worth it. Most websites don't work well on the Saturn anymore, as the PlanetWeb Browser was written for the internet as it was more than a decade ago. Things like Flash and Java don't work, and some of the newer image types won't load. Large images won't finish loading. And it's really slow, thanks to the dial-up.
You'd have to check with your ISP to see if they offer dial-up service. I'll also mention that not all dial-up services are compatible with the Saturn. I've seen lists from some services of systems that their dial-up won't support, but the Saturn often isn't important enough to make it to those lists, even when it doesn't work.
Some dial-up ISP's require you to have special software to access their service... if this is the case, you might not be able to use the Saturn with that ISP.
You'd have to check with your ISP to see if they offer dial-up service. I'll also mention that not all dial-up services are compatible with the Saturn. I've seen lists from some services of systems that their dial-up won't support, but the Saturn often isn't important enough to make it to those lists, even when it doesn't work.
Some dial-up ISP's require you to have special software to access their service... if this is the case, you might not be able to use the Saturn with that ISP.
I have my Saturns, I have some of my games, I have a RasPi. Gotta put all this stuff together!
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Trip Mercy
- Posts: 47
- Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2009 3:26 am
- Location: Texas
Yes but a BBA is 150-200$. DC is more advanced hardware and technology so its obvious it would be better but the BBAs price is really the main thing that holds you back.Trip Mercy wrote:Yeah, but if you get a bba for a dreamcast it makes a slightly better browser than the Saturn
Netlink Games Owned:
-Duke Nukem 3D
-Sega Rally
-Bomberman
-Virtua On
-Daytona CCE Netlink Edition
If you wanna play just give me a holla!
-Duke Nukem 3D
-Sega Rally
-Bomberman
-Virtua On
-Daytona CCE Netlink Edition
If you wanna play just give me a holla!
Ultimately, though, I don't think it's worth it to use the DC or the Saturn as a browser. It's fun to try out, but I wouldn't use it much. For one, my TV's picture is nowhere near as sharp as my monitor. Two, there are just too many sites that use technology that those old browsers don't support. Three, even with the Broadband Adapter, your surfing probably isn't going to be fast. Transferring the data is only part of the slowdown; the other part is processing it, and a lot of webpages out there are somewhat resource-intensive nowadays. The older consoles aren't quite up to the task.
I have my Saturns, I have some of my games, I have a RasPi. Gotta put all this stuff together!
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segasaturndude
- Posts: 147
- Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:21 pm
i remember mentioning this in another post on here but im a really big late 1980's to late 1990's audio/video equipment enthusiest as well as the gaming systems of that era. im going to be buying a early 1990's sony trinitron console tv this sunday, which will look sick when i get the sega saturn. plus im buying me fisher tower speakers, and a fisher rack stereo unit with the cabinet
Welcome to the Real world, Sega Saturn
Welcome to the forums, man. Awhile ago I did a free ISP tutorial for the NetLink:
http://saturnleague.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=262
It should still work. I've only used it a couple times because like the others have said, once you try it out once there's really no other incentive since most sites can't hack it. I like to load up some old GeoCities sites with all those animated gifs for a really fun nostalgia kick.
http://saturnleague.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=262
It should still work. I've only used it a couple times because like the others have said, once you try it out once there's really no other incentive since most sites can't hack it. I like to load up some old GeoCities sites with all those animated gifs for a really fun nostalgia kick.
That's fly.
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segasaturndude
- Posts: 147
- Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:21 pm
Nearly everyone asks this question at one point or another.
The Sega Saturn will almost never work with a digital phone line because the the Saturn is not very tolerant of latency.
The web browser will work fine on a digital phone line, because, unlike a Sega Saturn game, the internet does not require your Saturn to be in perfect synchronization with it.
An analog phone line during the 90's was more or less a direct connection to the other end of the line. Long distances would still cause latency, but in most situations, your connection with the other person was almost instantaneous.
Latency is when your connection is less instantaneous. Because an analog phone connection was so close to instantaneous, it was possible to require very strict synchronization between the two Sega Saturn systems in order to maintain a game. If, however, this synchronization slipped, the games would pause to try and resync, or, in the worst situations, would disconnect because they were unable to restore their synchronization.
Digital phone lines, are, by their very nature, a very latent connection. On today's high-speed connections with high-speed hardware, the delays are usually unnoticeable, but to a system sensitive to such delays, such as the Sega Saturn's NetLink modem, these delays are usually inexcusable. In a digital connection are multiple slowdown points -
-The first Netlink modem converts its digital signal to analog and transmits it over a phone line.
-The phone line is plugged into a digital converter box. There are different models from different providers, but all essentially convert the analog sound into a digital signal. There is a potential for data loss here, as sometimes analog sounds that a modem might produce are filtered out of the final compressed digital signal in order to save bandwidth. This, later, can make it difficult for the receiving NetLink to understand what the first was trying to communicate, and may result in data needing to be resent one or more times, slowing down the connection. At the very least, there is time required to convert and compress the analog waveform into a digital signal and retransmit it.
-The digital signal is retransmitted over your home network (another slowdown point) to a high-speed broadband modem, and from there, to your Internet Service Provider and then onto the Internet. The internet, in the scheme of things, is a very large, relatively slow (in terms of telecommunications, anyway), asynchronous network. Remember that the Saturn requires synchronous connections.
-From the internet, the compressed digital signal is then sent to a station that will either: A) convert that signal into an analog one and send it along an analog phone line to the receiving house, or B) transmit it through the receiver's ISP, through their broadband modem, through their digital converter, along an analog phone line, and then back into their Saturn's NetLink, slowing the connection down even more.
A human might not notice all these delays, as they could occur in less than a blink of an eye. But to a machine, all those little delays add up, and can make a VERY significant delay in getting their information to the other modem.
The Sega Saturn will almost never work with a digital phone line because the the Saturn is not very tolerant of latency.
The web browser will work fine on a digital phone line, because, unlike a Sega Saturn game, the internet does not require your Saturn to be in perfect synchronization with it.
An analog phone line during the 90's was more or less a direct connection to the other end of the line. Long distances would still cause latency, but in most situations, your connection with the other person was almost instantaneous.
Latency is when your connection is less instantaneous. Because an analog phone connection was so close to instantaneous, it was possible to require very strict synchronization between the two Sega Saturn systems in order to maintain a game. If, however, this synchronization slipped, the games would pause to try and resync, or, in the worst situations, would disconnect because they were unable to restore their synchronization.
Digital phone lines, are, by their very nature, a very latent connection. On today's high-speed connections with high-speed hardware, the delays are usually unnoticeable, but to a system sensitive to such delays, such as the Sega Saturn's NetLink modem, these delays are usually inexcusable. In a digital connection are multiple slowdown points -
-The first Netlink modem converts its digital signal to analog and transmits it over a phone line.
-The phone line is plugged into a digital converter box. There are different models from different providers, but all essentially convert the analog sound into a digital signal. There is a potential for data loss here, as sometimes analog sounds that a modem might produce are filtered out of the final compressed digital signal in order to save bandwidth. This, later, can make it difficult for the receiving NetLink to understand what the first was trying to communicate, and may result in data needing to be resent one or more times, slowing down the connection. At the very least, there is time required to convert and compress the analog waveform into a digital signal and retransmit it.
-The digital signal is retransmitted over your home network (another slowdown point) to a high-speed broadband modem, and from there, to your Internet Service Provider and then onto the Internet. The internet, in the scheme of things, is a very large, relatively slow (in terms of telecommunications, anyway), asynchronous network. Remember that the Saturn requires synchronous connections.
-From the internet, the compressed digital signal is then sent to a station that will either: A) convert that signal into an analog one and send it along an analog phone line to the receiving house, or B) transmit it through the receiver's ISP, through their broadband modem, through their digital converter, along an analog phone line, and then back into their Saturn's NetLink, slowing the connection down even more.
A human might not notice all these delays, as they could occur in less than a blink of an eye. But to a machine, all those little delays add up, and can make a VERY significant delay in getting their information to the other modem.
I have my Saturns, I have some of my games, I have a RasPi. Gotta put all this stuff together!
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JerryTerrifying
- Posts: 541
- Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:25 pm
- Location: Dayton, OH
- Contact: