networking questions

[colombin]

I am going to connect a pentium 75 together with a pII 400 and a ppro 166MMX I have three cards do I need a hubb or will two coax cable solve the problem?

[aab101]

Hi--if they're ethernet cards (10 or 10/100 MBps), you need a hub. You'll then use patch cords to connect each of the network cards into the hub.

[mfurdyk]

if all of the cards allow co-ax, you can use it...but co-ax is slower http://www.hardwarecentral.com/discussion/wink.gif

[tfarley]

Coax also requires termination at each end

[Geoff]

Two words about coax: Forget It. Coax sucks http://www.hardwarecentral.com/discussion/smile.gif

[Marsman]

Yep, I know coax isn't top of the line nowadays, but it works great on my home network (except when copying huge files).
I've got a 486dx4 100 as a NT 4 server(!?!)
and two clients, a p2 450 & P150(o/c 200).
The server is just a file/print/inet server,
and it works great. I can play Quake 2 on the two clients at good speeds.
I got the NE1000(!) cards for free, so i just had to buy a few cables and terminators and that was it. This is just to say, for my needs, coax is fine. But if I had to build another network, I would go for UTP (If i had to buy, that is!)

[Tanner69]

Coax would work ok....but if you want future expandibility ethernet is probably better. You can get a cheap hub and UTP cable is pretty cheap.

[colombin]

so what you guys are suggestion is that I get a network card that's Ethernet compatible (are there some that aren't?) eg D-link 10/100. Then I get a hubb ( allowing 5 computers)and some cords (two?) and that should be it?

[JerryJ]

First of all, you must consider the following:
Size - Peer to Peer or Server Based. 10 or less computers go with Peer to Peer.

Cost - How much money do you want to spend? UTP CAT 5 is probably the best choice - 100MBps. Use Plenum grade if wiring above or below crawl spaces. About 3x the cost on a non-plenum UTP cable.

Consider this - 10Base 2 & 5 throughput is only 10MBps. 10BaseT is 100MBps.

Distance & Location - 10Base2 @ 185 meters or 607 feet, 10Base5 @ 500 meters or 1640 feet and 10BaseT @ 100 meters or 328 feet. If your NIC's are 10MBps you can still use UTP CAT5. When you have the funds, get a decent 100MBps NIC.

I would highly recommend a 10/100MBps 4 port Hub like D-Link.



[This message has been edited by JerryJ (edited 02-26-99).]