Setting up a network and sharing internet

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2005 at 06:08:03AM -0400, Scott Allen wrote:
> Points below mosly for educational purposes:
> 
> Actually, there are cable-only methods for more than two machines, 
> called
> 10-base2 or 10-base5. They link 10M ethernet over a coaxial cable 
> without
> hubs.

I don't think I have ever seen 10base-5 myself.  Few places seemed to
want single segments of 10mbit ethernet running for up to 500m.  200m
was plenty for most, and much cheaper to wire too given 10base-2 was
much more common and the wire much cheaper.

Of course it was a bit of a pain that to add machines you have to split
the cable, put in a T and add it to the new machine, causing an
interruption in the network.

> The are small differences between using a crossover cable or a 
> hub/switch, which can slighty affect the way the systems behave.
> 1) With a hub you will get a half-duplex connection. With a switch or 
> crossover it will likely be full-duplex. As already noted in another 
> posting in this thread, the difference is generally insignificant.
> 2) The hub/switch will usually always be powered up. Therefore when 
> one machine is powered off or disconnected, the network connection on 
> the other machine will still be "alive". With a crossover, when one 
> machine is powered off or disconnected, the other may see a dead 
> ethernet link. (I say "may" because some machines will keep the 
> ethernet active using standby power when "off" to allow for power up 
> control via ethernet). This may result in more or different error 
> messages, logs, etc. between one or the other method.

I think the ability to add and remove machines at will, nice cheap
twisted pair wire, not having to run the network around through each
machine, but instead having a central point to connect to just makes way
more sense, and I sure don't miss 10base-2 at all.

Lennart Sorensen
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