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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!daily.bbnplanet.com!dtodd From: dtodd@bbn.com (David Todd) Newsgroups: sunya.cs.linux,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.openbsd.misc,comp.unix.netbsd.misc Subject: Re: Ethernet Date: 14 May 1997 14:27:33 GMT Organization: Bolt, Beranek, & Newman, Inc. Lines: 38 Distribution: world Message-ID: <5lci4l$9lq$1@daily.bbnplanet.com> References: <Pine.GSO.3.93.970513203003.21856A-100000@lilith.albany.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: mars.bbn.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:40841 comp.unix.bsd.openbsd.misc:86 To connect several computers to 10BaseT, one needs a hub. You plug theethernet ports into the hub, and bang, the computers all have the potential to talk, after some basic configuration. To coonect this home lan to an ISP and achieve full connectivity takes a bit more. First, you must have a machine that will act as a gateway. NetBSD/OpenBSD will do this with a simple kernel modification (assuming you know how to reconfigure and compile kernels. It's not hard, and is detailed in the *BSD FAQ.) Then you must either get an appropriate number of IP addresses from your ISP, or you must apply for them from the NIC, and arrange for your isp to provide routing to them. Unless you have a large number of machines (>50?), the former model is probably the prefereable one, as the NIC probably doesn't want to deal with extremely small domains. Routing will be a little wierd but with the right netmask you should be able to send things the right way. I suggest you take a look at the O'Reilly book "TCP/IP Network Administration". The various 10Base*'s are different only in their hardware. 10Base2 is "thinnet", using coax cables, 10Base5 is "thicknet" (I think) using larger coax and having longer cable runs. 10BaseT is Twisted pair, and is effectively superior, because it's cheaper, but moves data at the same speed. 100BaseT uses basically the same wiring as 10BaseT (though it must be of higher quality, generally) but moves 10 times faster, assuming your hubs and cards support it. If anyone out there knows of a better solution to this stuff, please include me in the reply. -- Hacksaw -- Hacksaw = David Charles Todd BBN = Hacksaw's Employer Hacksaw's Opinions != BBN's Opinions It's hard to (rec'' (e) ni'ze bee''ch)