[plug] Problem with NE2000 card using thin coax.

[David Buddrige]

Thanks for the offer 8-)  I've got terminators set up - I'll explain better
what the situ is...  8-)

[terminator]--+--------------------------+--------------------------+---[terminator]


|
|                                                              |
[linux-proxy 192.168.1.1]                      [win95
192.168.1.2]                                [ win95 192.168.1.3  ]
 Computer Name: Proxy                     Computer Name:
bruce                            Computer Name: Keith


I know, i know - they're win95 boxes - ok the heresy is 'cause computer
"bruce" has a Voodoo Banche (4 games) that isn't linux supported (yet -
though 3dfx r working on it).  keith isn't super interested in linux yet
(bruce thinks it's pretty neat though).

Given that my two brothers live at home - and there's one phone line in/out -
it sort'a made sense for them to share a dial-up account rather than
seperately pay for one.   They messed about with various win95 based proxying
software - but since:

a. Bruce has wanted to learn linux, samba, squid and other such software for
some time
b. Windows net sharing software has disadvantages in being payware,
unreliable, windows based, etc,etc.

We decided it'd be a great idea to set up a linux box to do the job. Bruce's
had a 486dx-4-100 set aside for the job for some time -  but it only had
200mb hard-drive - however yesterday, keith got a 4gb hard-drive for his
machine, so he gave bruce his 250mb hard-drive - hence the new linux-proxy
obtained 2 x hard-drives which I installed with redhat 5.2 + squid + samba.

Now, we had a couple 'o ne2000 cards - we installed one which was plug 'n
pray - but our prayers remained unanswered.  We installed another (older
card), and were able to get it talking to redhat.

The reason I think that the problem lies with not being able to get it to
send data via the coax is because I have the identical problem at home - I've
a situation like this:


             internet
                 |
       [modem-2-internet]
                 |
[my-linux-box-with-squid-running]
[my-wife's-win95-box]

192.168.1.1
192.168.1.11

|
|
                   +----------- cat 5 cross-over-cable ---------+

I did this because I'd originally obtained a length of coax + 2 T pieces + 2
Terminators, and set them up to talk together but they refused.  As soon as I
put the cross-over-cable in however they were talking away without a
problem.  (Both my network cards were 2nd hand too)

I'll be following Tom's suggestion and "using the source" to figure out if we
can force it (I'd considered slapping together some c code to toggle - ie. a
utilitiy I was going to call "togglecard" taking parameters such as "--utp"
or "--coax" or somesuch.... ;-)   ) -- I actually scanned the net today
trying to track down enough internal specs on ne2000 cards to see what
network registry  i'd need to toggle - but couldn't find it...

Cheers everyone for their help so far... 8-)

David Buddrige.


Bob Ogden wrote:

> Sounds like you need to terminate the coax at each end. I have some
> terminators here if you need some, just let me know.
>
> HTH.
>
> In <36DBF47B.A047512E at q-net.net.au>, on 02/Mar/99
>    at 10:23 PM,(+0800 GMT)
> David Buddrige <buddrige at q-net.net.au> said:
>
> > Hi all,
>
> > Got a bit of a problem with ne2000 network cards...
>
> > My brother has obtained a number of ne2000 compatible network cards -
> > one of which we have put into a 486DX-4-100 which will be a proxy server
> > to allow both of my brothers to browse the web simultaenously..
>
> > They have a computer each on their desks (in two different rooms in the
> > house) - networked together using thin coax cabling.
>
> > However it seems their prior owners used cat5 twisted pair cable - I've
> > got the network card working just fine usnig redhat 5.2 - the machine
> > recognises the card - and it can ping itself - but the other two
> > machines on the same stretch of coax (maybe 10 meters length in total)
> > cannot ping the machine (nor can the linux machine ping it).
>
> > Given that we obtained these cards second hand - we don't have the disks
> > to go with them - and in any case we want to configure it under linux
> > (the machine is installed with 100% linux - no dos partitions at all).
> > Does anyone know how to get the things to use their thin coax port
> > rather than the utp port?  (I've actually had the exact problem at my
> > own place - I wound up networking the two computer I wanted to connect
> > using a twisted-pair cross-over-cable - I've not been able to get the
> > cards configured to use the cat5 conenctor to work over thin coax....
>
> > Has anyone seen this before and have a solution? - I've been scanning
> > usenet / hotbot, but no luck so far... 8-(
>
> > Thanks heaps in advance... 8-)
>
> > David Buddrige
> > buddrige at q-net.net.au
>
> --
> /-- Bob Ogden  bob at contact.omen.com.au --------------/
> /  -... --- -...   --- --. -.. . -.       Finger  for PGP key -----/
>
> Does your system break in 304 days?