Most likely I have it, no matter what that "it" is regarding older network stuff. Email me directly with, hopefully, an idea of what exactly you need and I will look in my boxes. What I think they are talking about with the tap etc. is that you have the thick coax, then you have a thing that taps into the coax, and that "thing" typically has a AUI 15 pin connection with a cable to the AUI on your computer. Disconnecting the cable is what I think they mean.

Aaaack, and phoo. I just dug out three of them, wrote a nice bit, and had a computer crash. Short answer is that I have three boxes now sitting on my desk; digital DESTA, 3Com, and Cabletron, and they use a interchangible TAP that fits in the top of the unit. I have three kinds of TAP between them, a single BNC, a BNC T, and a N T. The TAP fits into the top of the unit making contact via 3 long pins that fit into a board edge header, and get secured via 2 screws through the front of the base unit. Leaving the TAP bottom open with the pins just sticking out doesn't sound very reasonable, but who am I to say it isn't. Maybe there is some kind of TAP cover for when the base removed? All three boxes have a AUI on the side. The digital and 3com a single LED, and the Cabletron a LanView set of 5 pwr, sqe, xmit, rcv, cln. Yes mine also say 802.3 My guess is that other variations exist, ie a vampire tap, that would be compatible with the lower units.

--- Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: Exactly. I have two Cabletron units and have seen DESTAs elsewhere. I have one of those and a single BNC. I interested in eventually locating at least one more vampire tap so I can put up that a of Thicknet to show folks how it _used_ to be done. It's unnecessary from a functional standpoint (I have lots of 10Base2 and 10BaseT transceivers), so it's ultra-low priority. I suppose I would be happy with a N-series connector adapater, but in the old days, I never saw anyone break Etherhose to put on an N-connector, so I guess I just don't think of that as the "right" way to do it. Wouldn't mind finding a nest of transceiver cables, though. A bunch of mine left attached to SPARC2s and SPARC IPXs because the AT&T transceivers I have a pile of, don't fit up against the case of the Sun boxes (kinda like certain SCSI cables). It was easier to give up the transceiver cables than find more tranceivers that fit directly. I have a few, but not as many as I have tranceivers, by half. ObHistory: I was suppose to get a nanosecond of 10Base5 cable with a genuine sticker bearing Grace Hopper's signature from DECUS for getting up and telling a war story about ignorant users in front of a huge crowd at a symposium in Anaheim (a reward for a) being willing to speak and b) having a story interesting enough to be worth telling), but they didn't produce the goods. :-( They used to sell these things along with coffee mugs, etc., as I recall. -ethan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

Tony Duell skrev: Jackposts? The kind of posts found on most D-sub connectors into which you fasten the cable with small screws? A lot of older ethernet equipment has got that kind of fastening mechanism, such as SMC cards and IIRC 3Com ones as well. -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6a. optimus@dec:foo$ make love make: don't know how to make love. Stop

I wouldn't know it if it bit me. ;) But, I go to some telecomm auctions, so if I very clearly understand what it is, I could look for one. These guys are sometimes local to me in Orange, CA, and they sell tons of telecomm. http://www.waltersassoc.com/ Also once I know what it is, I can ask a couple of the guys I know who are buyers at this type of auction. Cheers, Mike Ford

All I know about this is that back in the dark days my wife was doing network stuff she told me the most usefull tool she had were the tweezers on her swiss army knife for picking bits of the shield out of thick ethernet taps. Pick out the bits of wire.