[H-GEN] network boggle

[Hilton Travis]

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Hi Nikolai,

Nikolai Lusan, on Sunday, 25 March 2001 3:28 PM,
channelled the following:
>
> Greetings all,
>
> I seem to be having a slight networking problem. I
> am putting together a netwrok for a friend (one
> windowsME box, one 9x box and a linux box with
> masqdialer and stuff to route) and have found a
> siuation I haven't seen before that has lead to a
> couple of questions:
>      a) Is there a change in spec for 10BaseT to
>         100BaseT? (I know it uses cat-5 cable
>         still but is there a spec change in how
>         the cable is used)

Yes, there are minor changes, but basically any Cat5 cable wired
correctly according to 10BaseT will work fine with 100BaseTX.  Just make
sure the lengths and 3-4-5 rule are complied with.

>      b) Would there be a reason that 10BaseT cards
>         couldn't communicate via a 100Mbs hub?

Quite a good one.  10BaseT and 100BaseTX are very different standards.
Plugging a 10BaseT NIC into a 100BaseTX card and expecting it to work is
like growing an orchard of orange trees and expecting apples to appear
from the fruit - it just ain't gonna happen.

> The problem that sparked these questions is that I
> have two cards on the network that are ISA and
> limited to 10Mbs that, while they apear to be
> working, will not even turn on a link light on the
> hub. Both cards are detected by their OSes and are
> not causing any problems on that side (inserting
> two new cards verified that), it is not the cables
> and all hub ports are working(confirmed with the
> one working card). No specs came with the hub and
> I only noticed today that the sticker on the back
> lists it as a Base100 TX hub.

You'll need to upgrade the cards, or downgrade the hub (I'd choose the
former).

> Thoughts, help or simply a smack in head for being
> stupid will be accepted :)

<smack>:–)</smack>

Regards,
Hilton


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