27 Oct
1998
27 Oct
'98
10:50 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, 28 October 1998 9:55
Subject: Re: Microvaxen bits etc.
more.
Short answer is no. They don't. Not around here anyway.
Most network cards produced these days don't have AUI ports on them.
Unfortunately all my big (and some smaller) Digital boxen only have
an AUI on their ethernet adapters.
>>While
I'm at it, AUI-10Base2(or t) transceivers are also getting rare,
Odd.. Why on earth should those be rare? Or don't people use AUI ports any
You _might_ be able to raid the 10 base T interface
chip, or the
10 base 2 transceiver chip + isolated PSU + transformers off a PC
ethernet card, make a PCB, and build your own transceiver. A lot of cards
(at least the old cards I hack about with) use standard chips like the
83C92 (10 base 2) or 83C94 (10 base T). The data sheets for the chips
give the application circuits, and most of the bits can probably be
raided off old ethernet cards.
If I get desperate enough. I have no shortage of 10Base2 + AUI 16 bit PC
cards.
I'm really gonna have to find a pinout for the AUI connectors. And how to
connect them.
I have found a source for new txcvrs in Adelaide (finally) but it's rather
more than I had
intended to pay, when a s/h one would do.
If you can find some old 10 base 5 transceivers (thickwire), then by
changing the connector, they'll often work on 10 base 2 networks. It's
not 'official', but it seems to be OK.
Probably, but they are pretty rare as well.
IIRC, I think the difference is only in the signal level injected into
the cable, it's somewhat lower for thick cable due to the lower loss of the
RG8. Modern
ethernet transceivers are rather more sensitive, so unless you had maxed out
the distance to
the full 180 meters or thereabouts, it should work just fine.
Cheers
Geoff
Computer Room Internet Cafe
Port Pirie
South Australia.
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
(My other home)
27 Oct
27 Oct
11:17 a.m.
On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Computer Room Internet Cafe wrote:
I'm really gonna have to find a pinout for the AUI
connectors. And how to
connect them.
Pin Function
----------------
1 control in circuit shield
2 control in circuit A
3 data out circuit A
4 data in circuit shield
5 data in circuit A
6 voltage common
7 ???
8 control out circuit shield
9 control in circuit B
10 data out circuit B
11 data out circuit shield
12 data in circuit B
13 voltage +
14 voltage shield
15 ???
....to the best of my knowledge, anyway...
11:22 a.m.
Geoff, e-mail me privately. These trancievers are $24.99US each from datacom
warehouse. I can order some for you and send them via slow boat (4-6 weeks 6
bucks US to ship) or air (4-7 days) (16 bucks US shipping)
(these numbers are quoted for 2 pounds and a small package, but trancievers
are small. :)
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vote Meadocrat! Bill and Opus in 2000 - Who ELSE is there?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
12:29 p.m.
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1:02 p.m.
On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
Yes, a lot of them are 10 base T only. Even though
(IMHO) 10 base 2 makes
more sense for a small home network (no need to have a hub) and BNC plugs
are a lot easier to wire than those RJ45 things.
Unless you're talking about two nodes (computers) side by side I'd have to
disagree. Trying to run coax throughout your house is a right pain in the
ass, is conducive to bad cabling (cables get stepped on, pulled, etc) and
and doesn't allow a structured cabling design. Plus if there's a break in
the cable your hwole network can go down. 10baseT on the other hand
allows you to isolate failures to one node, the cables are as easy to
crimp once you get the hang of it (and actually become EASIER once you get
good at it) and you don't have to worry about running a black coax cable
around corners, over door frames, etc. And 4-port hubs can be had for
less than $50 these days. A worthwhile investment for having a more
stable, cleaner network. Plus you can always take advantage of 10 times
the bandwidth later on (with 100baseT, providing you used Category 5
cabling). With Coax you are stuck at 10Mbps. And 100baseT network cards
can be had for under $40 if you order by mail.
Again, coax is good for multiple computers on a rack for instance, side by
side. But the drawback is still low bandwidth.
Of course, this assumes your machine can use 100baseT. Old machines like
your PERQs and PDP11's would be quite happy with 10baseT.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 09/21/98]
28 Oct
28 Oct
5:10 a.m.
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7:27 a.m.
Anyway, with 10 base T, there may be a dozen cable
coming out from the
room where the bub is to other machines in the house. With 10 base 2,
there's normally only one coax cable.
Comprimise! The hamfests these days seem to be littered with Cabletron
10base2 hubs (miniMMACs). Anyway, at work we have been ripping out all of
the 10base2 and replacing it with 10baseT. We have had too many problems
with the coax - problems causing whole segments to go away, and other
nasty things. Anyway, a great deal of the old stuff is going home with me.
I think I may now have the greatest collection of 10base2 transcievers
ever assembled (kind of like that guy that collects floppy jackets).
Anyway, the hubs can fail.
Not as much as 10base2 old cabling!
Since when have any _classic_ computers had 100Mbps
network ports? Heck,
I'm looking out for any original 3Mbps stuff :-)
Fibre! (real networking)
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
8:16 a.m.
Anyway, the hubs can fail.
Not as much as 10base2 old cabling! > Since when have any _classic_ computers had
100Mbps network ports? Heck,
> I'm looking out for any original 3Mbps stuff :-)
I've never seen 3mpbs stuff, not even for VAXen, but I have seen 1Mb StarLAN
stuff from AT&T (who also made 10Mbps StarLAN, a not-entirely-10base-T-
compatible twisted-pair cabling standard).
Fibre! (real networking)
I've got two 10Base-T hubs in my house with 10Base-FL converters, linked
by a single fibre pair connecting the basement and computer room. The
upstairs hub also has 10Base-2, and is serving my older coax-only machines.
The 10Base-FL stuff is all going with me to the new place to interconnect
the house and the quonset hut, as soon as I can get my hands on some fibre
to bury. I might be able to get some surplus from a friend who owns an ISP
that just upgraded their NOC. They have about 150 feet left over.
Now all I need is some fibre-short-haul modems to back up the Ethernet.
-ethan
10:04 a.m.
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8:28 a.m.
On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, William Donzelli wrote:
Sounds like you may have mismatched cable segments, cables bent at angles
exceeding the spec, possibly non-standard cabling, etc. Still, removing
the coax is a good move. Your life will be made much, much easier.
I agree! I've never had a hub fail. On the other hand I've had coax
cables fail spontaneously (maybe because I didn't go thru the trouble of
soldering them :) However, I see Tony's point about 20 years from now
trying to replace a failed ASIC in a hub. By that time though, good luck
finding RG-58 coax either.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 09/21/98]
Anyway, with
10 base T, there may be a dozen cable coming out from the
room where the bub is to other machines in the house. With 10 base 2,
there's normally only one coax cable.
Comprimise! The hamfests these days seem to be littered with Cabletron
10base2 hubs (miniMMACs). Anyway, at work we have been ripping out all of
the 10base2 and replacing it with 10baseT. We have had too many problems
with the coax - problems causing whole segments to go away, and other
nasty things. Anyway, a great deal of the old stuff is going home with me. I think I may now have the greatest collection of
10base2 transcievers
ever assembled (kind of like that guy that collects floppy jackets).
Cool, get pictures of all of them and start a web site!
Anyway, the
hubs can fail.
Not as much as 10base2 old cabling!
10:16 a.m.
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30 Oct
30 Oct
12:22 a.m.
I agree! I've never had a hub fail. On the other
hand I've had coax
cables fail spontaneously (maybe because I didn't go thru the trouble of
soldering them :) However, I see Tony's point about 20 years from now
trying to replace a failed ASIC in a hub. By that time though, good luck
finding RG-58 coax either.
RG-58/U will be around for a long time. Fifty years old already...
I am still trying to find out what "RG" stands for - that is what the
military named coax starting in 1942. "UG" as well (for connectors - the
familiar BNC "T" is actually a UG-274A/U)...
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
28 Oct
28 Oct
10:01 a.m.
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30 Oct
30 Oct
12:57 a.m.
But I've not found an affordable source of fibre
yet...
Wow, another thing RCS/RI has LOTS of! Need any? Otherwise is goes on
Ebay!
Sorry to be so blatently commercial about this stuff, but RCS/RI is in a
bit of a financial crunch. We need to spend decent monet to upgrade our
facilities (i.e., purchase LOTS of shelving units!).
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
5:57 a.m.
New subject: Fibre
I've got some Sun SBUS cards (spendy) that I'd sell.
Dan
On Fri, 30 Oct 1998, William Donzelli wrote:
No... not
eBay! I'm in the market for fibre and accessories. What have
you got?
We have quite a bit of dual ST to ST fibre, in lengths of 20 to 35 meters.
I think we have a few 10baseFL transcievers as well.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
28 Oct
28 Oct
7:29 a.m.
At 07:10 PM 10/28/98 +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
In the $80-$100 range, the hubs can have a BNC on the back, too,
allowing you to easily mix network types.
- John
around corners, over door frames, etc. And
4-port hubs can be had for
less than $50 these days. A worthwhile investment for having a more
_4_ port hubs??? Surely you jest :-). Us workstation types have 4
machines per desk with ethernet ports :-).
8:23 a.m.
On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
Ok, an 8- or even 16-port hub can be had for around $100 or less.
The Coax is no harder to install than twisted pair.
It's no more likely
to be stepped on and there are proper wallplates etc if you're worried
about it getting pulled. And I find the strain relief on the BNC to be a
lot better than that on an RJ45.
I don't. Its far easier for a coax to get pulled out of the BNC connector
than it is for a twisted-pair cable to be pulled out of an RJ-45.
Hmm.. Fitting a plug on a piece of twisted pair behind
a machine rack is
not fun. 8 wires to get into the right channels, brown and orange colours
to tell apart, no thank you.
The BNC was _designed_ to be trivial to fit, actually. The best way to do
it is to use a solder type plug and ignore the instructions :-). Then :
Put the nut and rubber washer over the cable. Remove about 3/4" of the
outer covering. Fan out the braid, put the T-shapped ferrule over the
inner insulator and push it down inside the braid. Trim off the braid
around the outside of the ferrule, cut the inner insulation (but not the
inner wire) flush with the end of the ferrule (use a sharp knife for
this), pull off the inner insulation, tin the centre wire. Put on the
little disk insulator, cut the inner wire a couple of mm beyond that, put
the pin on, solder in place. Put the outer insulator and plug body on the
end of that, slide up the nut/washer and tighten it all up.
So you're saying its easier to work with a soldering iron, solder, a pair
of dykes, a knife and a 3-piece BNC connector behind a machine rack, as
opposed to a one-piece RJ-45 that requires one tool to cut, strip and
crimp? Wow. You ARE a glutton for punishment.
It took longer to type that than it does to do it.
I can crimp a BNC connector in a few seconds with the right tool, and I
don't bother with the soldering. Crimping seems to do the trick quite
nicely.
A couple of tips. Get the right cable and plugs. There
are several sizes
of BNC plug (not just 50 Ohm and 75 OHm - acutally different sizes of
ferrule, etc) to fit different cables. A lot of hassles start when you
use the wrong plug. Also get a couple of the special flat spanners for
tightening up the plugs. A lot easier than trying to use pliers.
And don't use any cable other than RG-58A/U or RG-58C/U for thinnet. If
you use anything else (i.e. straight RG-58) you're going to start running
into trouble if you begin to add nodes or have long distances in between
nodes.
Anyway, with 10 base T, there may be a dozen cable
coming out from the
room where the bub is to other machines in the house. With 10 base 2,
there's normally only one coax cable.
Like I said, as long as you are connecting computers that are within a few
feet of each other then coax is a good choice.
around
corners, over door frames, etc. And 4-port hubs can be had for
less than $50 these days. A worthwhile investment for having a more
_4_ port hubs??? Surely you jest :-). Us workstation types have 4
machines per desk with ethernet ports :-). Since when have any _classic_ computers had 100Mbps
network ports? Heck,
I'm looking out for any original 3Mbps stuff :-)
Which reminds me. 10 base 2 is on-topic here (over 10 years old). I am
not so sure about 10 base T
Well, ten years from now you'll regret using coax when you want to plug
that Pentium II with a PCI 100baseT ethernet card onto your network :)
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 09/21/98]
Of course, this assumes your machine can use
100baseT. Old machines like
your PERQs and PDP11's would be quite happy with 10baseT.
I thought this was classiccmp.... 
8:44 a.m.
For a small (up to 30 node) network I *prefer* the 10base 2 coaxial setup, since
there's no fooling with hubs. Tees, terminators, and ready made cabling of various
lengths are relatively inexpensive from places like CNA ( http://www.cnaweb.com/ )
and others and there's generally no chance of messing it up. UTP cat 5 cabling for
the 10baseT systems is very easy to work with as well but the cost of hubs
generally kicks that in the butt. While I have a crimper for just about any coaxial
(twinax, BNC, etc) as well as modular connector (RJ11 to RJ45) I prefer to get
ready made cabling where it will work. Obviously if you're running coax or cat 5
cables through conduit to wall plates and all you will have to crimp at least one
end on but generally most people with home or small business networks don't sweat
this at all and leave it exposed. As for the damage factor, every setup is differet
and the ways to protect it are generally the job of the installer, just like it is
when installing phone wiring. Cable ties, clips, etc are all available to neatly
bundle the finished setup and keep the cabling out of harm's way. If you do get a
bad end just repair it whether it's twinax, coax, cat 5, twisted pair, etc. My
biggest pain is in installing those :"IBM Data" type connectors on the end of 4
wire ethernet data cabling. It should be easy but dependant upon the gauge of the
internal conductors, you may have a bit of a time making the insulation
displacement contacts accept the wires without breaking them.
Summary: Use what works best for you and your project. If you want to be a biog
burly hairy guy and make every one of your own connections, then do it. Otherwise
get factory done ones, just as cheap in many cases.
Now if someone could make twinaxial connectors as easy to assemble as others we'd
be set on S/34-38 and AS/400 systems!
Sam Ismail wrote:
On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
Ok, an 8- or even 16-port hub can be had for around $100 or less.
The Coax is no harder to install than twisted
pair. It's no more likely
to be stepped on and there are proper wallplates etc if you're worried
about it getting pulled. And I find the strain relief on the BNC to be a
lot better than that on an RJ45.
I don't. Its far easier for a coax to get pulled out of the BNC connector
than it is for a twisted-pair cable to be pulled out of an RJ-45.
Hmm.. Fitting a plug on a piece of twisted pair
behind a machine rack is
not fun. 8 wires to get into the right channels, brown and orange colours
to tell apart, no thank you.
The BNC was _designed_ to be trivial to fit, actually. The best way to do
it is to use a solder type plug and ignore the instructions :-). Then :
Put the nut and rubber washer over the cable. Remove about 3/4" of the
outer covering. Fan out the braid, put the T-shapped ferrule over the
inner insulator and push it down inside the braid. Trim off the braid
around the outside of the ferrule, cut the inner insulation (but not the
inner wire) flush with the end of the ferrule (use a sharp knife for
this), pull off the inner insulation, tin the centre wire. Put on the
little disk insulator, cut the inner wire a couple of mm beyond that, put
the pin on, solder in place. Put the outer insulator and plug body on the
end of that, slide up the nut/washer and tighten it all up.
So you're saying its easier to work with a soldering iron, solder, a pair
of dykes, a knife and a 3-piece BNC connector behind a machine rack, as
opposed to a one-piece RJ-45 that requires one tool to cut, strip and
crimp? Wow. You ARE a glutton for punishment.
It took longer to type that than it does to do
it.
I can crimp a BNC connector in a few seconds with the right tool, and I
don't bother with the soldering. Crimping seems to do the trick quite
nicely.
A couple of tips. Get the right cable and plugs.
There are several sizes
of BNC plug (not just 50 Ohm and 75 OHm - acutally different sizes of
ferrule, etc) to fit different cables. A lot of hassles start when you
use the wrong plug. Also get a couple of the special flat spanners for
tightening up the plugs. A lot easier than trying to use pliers.
And don't use any cable other than RG-58A/U or RG-58C/U for thinnet. If
you use anything else (i.e. straight RG-58) you're going to start running
into trouble if you begin to add nodes or have long distances in between
nodes.
Anyway, with 10 base T, there may be a dozen
cable coming out from the
room where the bub is to other machines in the house. With 10 base 2,
there's normally only one coax cable.
Like I said, as long as you are connecting computers that are within a few
feet of each other then coax is a good choice.
around
corners, over door frames, etc. And 4-port hubs can be had for
less than $50 these days. A worthwhile investment for having a more
_4_ port hubs??? Surely you jest :-). Us workstation types have 4
machines per desk with ethernet ports :-). Since when have any _classic_ computers had
100Mbps network ports? Heck,
I'm looking out for any original 3Mbps stuff :-)
Which reminds me. 10 base 2 is on-topic here (over 10 years old). I am
not so sure about 10 base T
Well, ten years from now you'll regret using coax when you want to plug
that Pentium II with a PCI 100baseT ethernet card onto your network :)
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 09/21/98] Of course, this assumes your machine can use
100baseT. Old machines like
your PERQs and PDP11's would be quite happy with 10baseT.
I thought this was classiccmp.... 
9:06 a.m.
At 04:44 PM 10/28/98 -0600, you wrote:
UTP cat 5 cabling for
the 10baseT systems is very easy to work with as well but the cost of hubs
generally kicks that in the butt. While I have a crimper for just about
any coaxial
(twinax, BNC, etc) as well as modular connector (RJ11
to RJ45) I prefer to
get
ready made cabling where it will work. Obviously if
you're running coax or
cat 5
cables through conduit to wall plates and all you will
have to crimp at
least one
end on but generally most people with home or small
business networks
don't sweat
this at all and leave it exposed.
[snip]
Personally, I prefer Cat5 over coax mainly because I'm part owner of an
ISP/Computer store and we invested in a high-dollar Cat5 crimping tool.
When I build my house next year, every room will have (at least) 1 cat5
jack... why? Because I also have a top-notch punchdown tool... but I didn't
pay much for it. Got it at a garage sale... for 20 cents! (Lady of the
house had the sale... Man of the house worked for the phone company...)
Now, if you're talking _Distance_... ethernet is not the way to go. I have
no idea how far Token Ring can run, but I believe the standard for 2.5
Megabit ArcNet is 1 kilometer between active hubs... and coax. That's what
I'm going to hook up the garage and rental home with. (And yes, my Arcnet
equipment is over 10 years old...)
Besides, I surely trust coax over Cat5 for less-than-pristine conditions
(like outdoor, and in Upper Michigan, that counts!).
Just MHO,
"Merch"
As for the damage factor, every setup is differet
and the ways to protect it are generally the job of the
installer, just
like it is
when installing phone wiring. Cable ties, clips, etc
are all available to
neatly
bundle the finished setup and keep the cabling out of
harm's way. If you
do get a
bad end just repair it whether it's twinax, coax,
cat 5, twisted pair,
etc. My
biggest pain is in installing those :"IBM
Data" type connectors on the end
of 4
wire ethernet data cabling. It should be easy but
dependant upon the gauge
of the
internal conductors, you may have a bit of a time
making the insulation
displacement contacts accept the wires without breaking them.
Summary: Use what works best for you and your project. If you want to be a
biog
burly hairy guy and make every one of your own
connections, then do it.
Otherwise
get factory done ones, just as cheap in many cases.
Now if someone could make twinaxial connectors as easy to assemble as
others
we'd
be set on S/34-38 and AS/400 systems!
Sam Ismail wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
>
> > The Coax is no harder to install than twisted pair. It's no more likely
> > to be stepped on and there are proper wallplates etc if you're worried
> > about it getting pulled. And I find the strain relief on the BNC to be a
> > lot better than that on an RJ45.
>
> I don't. Its far easier for a coax to get pulled out of the BNC connector
> than it is for a twisted-pair cable to be pulled out of an RJ-45.
>
> > Hmm.. Fitting a plug on a piece of twisted pair behind a machine rack is
> > not fun. 8 wires to get into the right channels, brown and orange colours
> > to tell apart, no thank you.
> >
> > The BNC was _designed_ to be trivial to fit, actually. The best way to do
> > it is to use a solder type plug and ignore the instructions :-). Then :
> >
> > Put the nut and rubber washer over the cable. Remove about 3/4" of the
> > outer covering. Fan out the braid, put the T-shapped ferrule over the
> > inner insulator and push it down inside the braid. Trim off the braid
> > around the outside of the ferrule, cut the inner insulation (but not the
> > inner wire) flush with the end of the ferrule (use a sharp knife for
> > this), pull off the inner insulation, tin the centre wire. Put on the
> > little disk insulator, cut the inner wire a couple of mm beyond that, put
> > the pin on, solder in place. Put the outer insulator and plug body on the
> > end of that, slide up the nut/washer and tighten it all up.
>
> So you're saying its easier to work with a soldering iron, solder, a pair
> of dykes, a knife and a 3-piece BNC connector behind a machine rack, as
> opposed to a one-piece RJ-45 that requires one tool to cut, strip and
> crimp? Wow. You ARE a glutton for punishment.
>
> > It took longer to type that than it does to do it.
>
> I can crimp a BNC connector in a few seconds with the right tool, and I
> don't bother with the soldering. Crimping seems to do the trick quite
> nicely.
>
> > A couple of tips. Get the right cable and plugs. There are several sizes
> > of BNC plug (not just 50 Ohm and 75 OHm - acutally different sizes of
> > ferrule, etc) to fit different cables. A lot of hassles start when you
> > use the wrong plug. Also get a couple of the special flat spanners for
> > tightening up the plugs. A lot easier than trying to use pliers.
>
> And don't use any cable other than RG-58A/U or RG-58C/U for thinnet. If
> you use anything else (i.e. straight RG-58) you're going to start running
> into trouble if you begin to add nodes or have long distances in between
> nodes.
>
> > Anyway, with 10 base T, there may be a dozen cable coming out from the
> > room where the bub is to other machines in the house. With 10 base 2,
> > there's normally only one coax cable.
>
> Like I said, as long as you are connecting computers that are within a few
> feet of each other then coax is a good choice.
>
> > > around corners, over door frames, etc. And 4-port hubs can be had for
> > > less than $50 these days. A worthwhile investment for having a more
> >
> > _4_ port hubs??? Surely you jest :-). Us workstation types have 4
> > machines per desk with ethernet ports :-).
>
> Ok, an 8- or even 16-port hub can be had for around $100 or less.
>
> > Since when have any _classic_ computers had 100Mbps network ports? Heck,
> > I'm looking out for any original 3Mbps stuff :-)
> >
> > Which reminds me. 10 base 2 is on-topic here (over 10 years old). I am
> > not so sure about 10 base T
> >
> > > Of course, this assumes your machine can use 100baseT. Old machines
like
> > > your PERQs and PDP11's would be
quite happy with 10baseT.
> > >
> >
> > I thought this was classiccmp....
>
> Well, ten years from now you'll regret using coax when you want to plug
> that Pentium II with a PCI 100baseT ethernet card onto your network :)
>
> Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>> Ever onward.
>
>> Coming in 1999:
Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
>> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
>> [Last web site update: 09/21/98]
>
>
>
8:52 a.m.
Regarding 10base2 failures....
I'd like to mention that I've had 10base2 throughout my apartment
for some 10+ years now, and never had a failure of the physical
network. I've had one or two transceivers fail, but that was it.
Even at work, I'm using the same 10base2 cabling I've used since
about the 1980 time-frame when I was working on network
device drivers for RT-11.
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
10:11 a.m.
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11:32 a.m.
On Thu, 29 Oct 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
Aside from the color issue, which is a true concern if you're color blind,
crimping an RJ-45 onto a Cat5 cable is not difficult with a little
practice. I can make cables that are indistinguishable from factory made
in just a few moments these days. Getting the colours right takes just a
little review if you haven't done it recently, but if you do it all the
time its a no-brainer. I agree about the brown/orange problem.
So I still maintain I'd rather crimp than have to drag a soldering iron up
into a crawl space or something.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 09/21/98]
So you're
saying its easier to work with a soldering iron, solder, a pair
of dykes, a knife and a 3-piece BNC connector behind a machine rack, as
opposed to a one-piece RJ-45 that requires one tool to cut, strip and
crimp? Wow. You ARE a glutton for punishment.
Yes, I find it a lot easier. The problem with the RJ45 is getting the
wires in the right order, keeping the pairs twisted right up to the
connector when so doing, indentifying the different colours of wire
(whoever put brown and orange in the same cable deserves to be LARTed
:-)). Actuallty doing the crimp is trivial. 
29 Oct
29 Oct
4:40 a.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
You guys are both lucky. I inherited 600' of _bright orange_ (day-glo)
10Base2 cable that my wife will barely allow in the *garage*...
good at it)
and you don't have to worry about running a black coax cable
Who said anything about a black cable? I use yellow cable for ethernet as
God intended :-).
7:26 a.m.
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9331
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25 comments
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A_Finney＠public.com -
aaron＠wfi-inc.com -
adept＠Mcs.Net -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
dastar＠ncal.verio.com -
erd＠infinet.com -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
jim＠calico.litterbox.com -
mbg＠world.std.com -
netcafe＠pirie.mtx.net.au -
rhblake＠bigfoot.com -
william＠ans.net -
zmerch＠30below.com