10base2 / 10baseT (again)

OK, next question. I've acquired a few Asante FriendlyNet Thin Adaptors. These are little boxes about the size and shape of old Mac transceivers -- about 4" long, 2" wide, 1 1/4" thick. One end has an RJ45; the other has a BNC sticking out each side: ____________________ _ | | { } | |_|_|_ | | | _ _ _| | | | | |____________________| {_} Inside is a standard 5V-9V DC-DC converter, a standard ethernet 3-section transformer, and a perfectly ordinary DP8392 ethernet transceiver IC and the usual discrete components (diode, a few resistors, etc) I associate with an ethernet coax driver. So on the face of it, it looks like a line-powered 10baseT to 10base2 converter. Oh yes, one other thing: the BNCs are self-terminating; they have an extra contact set into the centre insulation (with nothing plugged in, there's 50 ohms across core and screen; with two plugs in, it's open-circuit). But it doesn't seem to work -- so what is it really? If it's any clue, they came from someone who's into Apple Macs. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York