You could look out for an original IBM 8228 MAU (Multistation Access Unit). These have 8 workstation ports and a pair of RI/RO (Ring In-Ring Out) ports, and is a passive device (did not need AC power). Alternatively, you could look out for an IBM 8230 CAU and LAM (or the Madge equivalent). However, these are quite bulky. All the above use the big IBM connectors with type-1 cabling. Cat 5 cables with RJ45 connectors can be used as long as you use a balun. I have never encountered a tokenring NIC that only had RJ45 connectors; there was always a DB9 connector. Also, you don't need any "token ring starter upper". The first station that inserts into the ring generates the token. All stations must use the same ring speed (either 4Mbps or 16Mbps). The first station that joins the ring must be set to a fixed speed; subsequent stations inserting into the ring can be set to autosense the ring speed. If the EISA TR NIC you have is indeed a 100Mbps device, it will only do 100Mbps TR when connected to a 100Mbps TR switch, and these seem to be fairly rare. For moderate to high network loads, a 4Mbps TR network would run rings ;-) around an equivalent 10Mbps Ethernet network. For simple TCP/IP connectivity between a TR and ethernet network, setup a Linux box with any IBM TR nic based on the "tropic" chipset or a Madge NIC (Linux drivers availble from their website) and your choice of supported ethernet NIC, and setup IP routing. Regards Glen, Teo Zenios wrote: 486 machines can use my router/cable modem? Jim wrote: