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Home networking
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27-01-2002 2:17am#1
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Originally posted by dempseyt
I'm going buying a new PC with a 3Com 3C905CX Network card.
A few questions:
1) What the f*** is WOL and what difference will it make if it's in or not?
Wakeup On LAN. It means that if a special packet is sent to your computer it can turn it on. I still have to find free software for actually sending the packet mind you.. anyone else know where to get some ?
2) Hubs, are they needed for two PCs?
No. You will need a crossover cable. This is a special cable where the transmit and recieve wires are swapped over. ( for CAT5 cables )3) Network OS should i get one i.e. Novell Netware?
Ah.. no. Windows has plenty of home network support. It will allow you to share files/filders/printers over the network without additional software.4)Is there any difference in using coaxial and RJ45
Co-Axial is an older cable. It runs at a maximun of 10Mbit. RJ45/CAT5 runs can run at up to 100Mbit, which is what your 3com network card runs at.
Using CAT5 cable, you need a hub when you have more than 2 pc's.
Using Co-Ax cable, you connect the cable to a T piece connected to the network card and run the same cable onto each pc connecting them as you go. The first and last pc have a small terminator ( a 50 ohm resistor ) to dampen the signal.
Irrespective of that however, your card does not have support for co-ax. ( i didn't actually check, i am assuming ).That's all I can think of..........for the moment!!!
Come back for more !
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Originally posted by dempseyt
Ya, the network card only has RJ45 connection.
?
this is goodOriginally posted by dempseyt
RJ45 and CAT5 are the same thing...?
not exactly.
the rj45 bit is the connector. it looks like a telephone connector, except it has 8 shiney metal connectors instead of the phone a phone has. which is how we get 4 twisted pairs. cat 5 is just a catagory or standard of cable and uses 4 twisted pair of unshielded wires (er, i think) im probably completely wrong, someone will correct me, they always do
anyway, one is the connector, the other is the wireOriginally posted by dempseyt
I can get a crossover cable at most computer shops e.g. compustore?
should do. of course, should doesnt always means do 0 -
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Go into Peats or (shudders) Maplins and have them make up a CAT5 (or CAT5e if you've a tiny bit extra cash) cross-over cable.
There are generally 4 pins in 100MBit and 10MBit cards (though there are 100MBit cards that use all 8 wires but they can run over CAT3 cable so a company doesn't have to upgrade all that expensive wiring (the labour's expensive, not teh cable)).
one pair is the recieveing pair (positive and negative) and one is the transmitting pair (again positive and negative wires).
A hub will do all the 'crossing over' inside for 'straight' cables.
A Cross over cable merely makes sure the packet being transmitted from card A goes into the receiving pins of card B. As you would expect.
Generally its PinA1 -> PinB3/PinB1 -> PinA3 and PinA2 -> PinB6/PinB3 -> PinA6, where A and B represent the cards and 1,2,3 and 6 are the pin numbers.
If you hold the card up to teh light and look at the socket it should be clear which ones are which.
If you can find a cheap (~€15-20) crimpers somewhere (for RJ45 and RJ11 phone cable if possible) they would be a decent investment as you can use this new found knowledge to help others
Shops will charge a bit to do this work, even though it takes all of 5 mins for someone familiar with it.
Don't even bother asking compustore. The poor dears' heads may explode. "Cable?" "What version do you have?" "Have you rang tech support?" "I'm afraid that's too technical for your little head young lad".
aside..........
I'd be interested in getting some sort of voice comms working voer the LAN. Any chance of something simple, free and effective?0 -
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I was ordering a number of items from IT Boutique and I asked them to send me a crossover cable as well. The guy said he didn't have any in stock but that he would make me one, nice guy! Unfortunately when I got the cable and tried to use it, it didn't work, on closer inspection I saw that he didn't "crossover" the wires on each end. He got very upset on the phone when I told him he obviously didn't know what a crossover cable was and that he tried to sell me a normal CAT5 cable.
Moral of the Story: Make sure the thing works before you pay for it.
P.S. Months later and I still don't have a crossover cable. Not many shops stock them, your best bet is to get a friend who knows what there doing to make you one.
viking0 -
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why bother with a crossover cable... i mean unless you make it yourself you have to rely on some lamer trying to do it and its not great quality then is it..
Damned newbies. The only thing sadder than ignorance, is the public display of ignorance.
I'm in Galway, moonlighting in Dublin from time to time.
3 Meter crossover cable. Say, a fiver, delivered.
Satisfaction guaranteed.0 -
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True. I eman what you really want is fibre optic 10Gig ethernet
Jaden is perfectly right. For two PCs a cross over is the way to go. Less lag (and there is a bit of lag created in a hub) then a hub. And you can use Full-Duplex, effectively letting you transfer 100Mbits one way and a full 100MBits the other at the same time, therefore doubling your throughput.
N00bs (like i can talk
).
I'm still using 10Base2 at home (no cash, can't leave the cable setup for long periods - runnign across main hall in the house) and its fine. If I need to back up stuff on the old PC I remove the hard drive and plug it into the new one. Only for large file trnasfers too mind.
[EDIT]Just read Saruman's post.
I can see you have good intentions, and some strong opinions, but please don't state the bloody obvious.
Of course a 'NETWORK ENGINEER' will say a hub is better. They're never going to have to deal with just hooking up 2 PCs. That's whay they're called NETWORK ENGINEERS. Any tom, dick or jane off the street could rig a basic netowrk in 30 mins if shown how. Trained Gibbons (not orangutangs mind) could do it in 45 mins
Also, the Xp kicks the arse off a P4 at the same speed, and benchmarking is a subjective, rather then objective, process as a benchmark is trying to compare two disimilar CPUs as like-for-like.
For 2 PCs a Crossover made from CAT5 is the business. Cheap, and if you have 100MBit NICs, takes full advantage of the card.
A 100Mbit hub (not even switched) would set the average Joe Soapwater back about €60-70, compared with €10 max for a cross over cable. Buy a switched hub later on if needed.
I know a good few people involved with networking who would post on this to back me up if they weren't so busy drinking.
[/EDIT]0 -
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Actually would that give you similar performance to a dedicated switch?
I forget the specs on 2.1 PCi, but there's a fair whack of bandwidth to go round (as long as the rough figure I have in my head is in MBytes/sec and not MBits).
I have 2 or three boxes at home that could do the trick for a LAN.....and good few spare NICs.
That's fairly class, i it works well with low latency
What sort of cpu is in the router-box?0 -
Of course The (Cisco Certified) Cigarette Smoking Man is rightOriginally posted by Saruman
The Cigarette Smoking Man is correct of course.. do i care? of course not.. Does dempseyt need a 100mbs network? nope he does not need a hub either but thats not the point.. i would prefer one and i know plenty of network engineers who will agree..
BTW no "Network Engineer" would ever recommend a hub, they'd use a switch.
Anyway, when was the last time you ever heard of a Network Engineer coming in to connect two PCs in some bloke bedroom :rolleyes:0 -
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Originally posted by SyxPak
Actually would that give you similar performance to a dedicated switch?
I forget the specs on 2.1 PCi, but there's a fair whack of bandwidth to go round (as long as the rough figure I have in my head is in MBytes/sec and not MBits).
I have 2 or three boxes at home that could do the trick for a LAN.....and good few spare NICs.
That's fairly class, i it works well with low latency
What sort of cpu is in the router-box?
well i'm very proud of my little router but i didnt want to go into to much detail unless anyone showed an interest.
It's a salvaged desktop oem pc. It's 266 Mhz pentium 2 with 64mb ram and a 10gb hard disk. it has on board 10/100 ethernet and sound. It has 2 pci 3com 10/100 ethernet cards and and isa modem. if i had more pci slots i would have put in more cards - there's no limit to the number of card's the software can handle.
as for the software . it's running mandrake linux 8.1. I have 8 gb's of mp3's on it which play automatically to my subwoofer whenever i turn it on. it share's its modem conection to any pc conneted to it (with DHCP). i use vnc to access it's desktop remotely. it runs samba to share files with my linux box and with anyone who bring a windows box to my house. all in all quite a lot more functional that a hub or a router.
If you want details on how i set up linux to do all this i suggest you ask me on the unix board as this is a bit OT.0 -
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