ArcNet and the Pursuit of Multiple Topologies

Tarsi wrote: I played around with ARCnet and enjoyed it immensely. The compnents are cheap and available and although it is slow, it is very forgiving. At one time I had an ethernet segment and an ARCnet segment with a Linux slackware box doing the routing between them! The ARCnet machines could access the internet through the Linux box! It was a hoot! As far as the cards cabling go some are star topology and some are linear topology and some have a jumper that enables you to switch between the two. The only caveat with the linear topology is that the ends have to be terminated. I found that regular old coax cable tv lines worked fine with the screw on bayonet fittings applied to the ends. The IBM PCLan looks interesting and sets of the adapters and the access unit (brand new) were available on Ebay not too long ago. By the way the Linux-Arcnet list is still there, if a little inactive, but they have a lot of information. Do a search on "Avery Pennarum" the author of the Linux driver. Practically everything you need to know is in the standard Linux kernels -- compile one with the ARCnet option enabled and then look for arcnet.txt This document even has jumper settings and specs for many of the common cards as well as instructions for routing and IP configuration. If you need an active hub to play with I might have one or two to spare. Also have some parallel port ARCnet adapters (alas only Netware drivers exist for these) which I never could get working. Also some microchannel ARCnet adapters. Contact me offlist if you need any of these. Kirk Scott ks(a)coastalnet.com