networking without a hub?

[Guest]

i am runnun win2k on one machine with 2 ethernet cards in it, and in the other computer i am runnung win98se with its own ethernet card. can i set up a network without using a hub? is that possible? can i set up one card as recieve and one as send or whatever? i have been searching everywhere and no answers, i know toms will come thru once again
thanks
-keepin it real-

dragon

 

[Guest]

of course you can network them. One NIC on your win2k box can be for a broadband connection and the other nic can just connect directly into the nic of your 98 machine using a crosswired networkig cable that you can pick up at any computer shop.

 

[Guest]

ahh [-peep-], so i bought the wrong cable? i bought 100 feet of cat 5 cabling! i cant use that? and what configurations do i have to do, for it to work
thanks

dragon

 

[Guest]

cat5 cable is what you want, but the stuff you got is most probably straight through cable. If you dont want to use a hub then you need the crosswired stuff, which i'm not sure you can even get in 100foot segments unless you made one yourself. Crosswired cabling has a higher noise floor and thus is not as effective as straight through in longer segments. All you have to do with the crosswired stuff is plug one end into the nic on your one box, and the other into the nic of your other. Then you just have to configure your network. You can also rewire that cable, but I don't know if you want to bother with that. Off the top of my head i cant remember how the wires should go, but you can find that information on the net.

 

[hammerhead]

Good advice from flamehead.

I would really recommend using a hub if you can though. They are cheap and simple, just plug your cables in, there you go.

For a year or so I had 2 PC's networked with a crossover cable, originally with both running Win '98 then one upgraded to 2000.

Most of the time it worked fine but now and again I had probs with the PC's not seeing each other on the net.

Also Win '98 would pause for ages during boot-up, whether it detected the other PC or not.

After installing the hub all these problems vanished.

This of course is just my experience, maybe I was unlucky.

 

[scarecrow]

You should go with a hub. They are cheap enough and there is room for expansion if you get another computer. There is also less hastle and configuration involved.

<A HREF="http://www.seti.tomshardware.com" target="_new">Join The Tom's Hardware SETI@Home Team</A>

 

[Fltsimbuff]

Just a point I'd like to bring up for clarity... The 100ft. of cable that he bought ought to work just fine... All he needs to do is wire one end using Configuration A, and the other as B (Cross wire 1 over to 3, and 3 over to 1....then 2 over to 6, and 6 over to 2). This crosses the Transmitter of one card, over to the receiver on the other card, and vice versa. So, crossover cable doesn't matter so much in the cable itself, it has more to do with the way the ends are wired.

--Fltsimbuff