Okay, next question!

[HomerJSimpson]

SO, now I've got my old Packard Hell 120 (Up one bin at 133) with 48Mb EDO RAM and my Superpower 233MMX (Up one bin at 266 w/ voltage pushed .1 from 2.8v to 2.9v)and 64Mb Fast Page RAM. Everything is real smooth and humming nicely (Hey, I'm a slow old guy too). Now the question is; how do I hook them together?

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This is the Internet? Where's all the beer?

[richamies]

Hook them up together? As in a kinda mini-network type thing? Null modem cable and Windows 9x's Direct Cable Connection software.

Not sure if that was what you were after so let me know http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif.

[HomerJSimpson]

Ah, I see! What's a "null modem"? And, is that software on Win98SE?

[This message has been edited by HomerJSimpson (edited 01-16-2000).]

[Eli]

A null modem cable is a special serial cable that allows you to use programs such as the old dos Interlink or W9x's Direct Cable Connection to create a makeshift network. This can be done with either a serial null modem cable or a parallel Interlink cable (much faster). It's still very slow, somewhat tempermental, and really isn't true networking. However, a lot of games do support the serial null modem cable for multiplayer gaming. The best way to connect the computers is with a couple of network cards and an appropriate cable. That's a much faster and more stable solution, although a bit more expensive. Good luck.

[chipbgt]

................D'OH!

sorry I have nothing to add, but I couldn't resist http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[HomerJSimpson]

So....If I have a couple of LAN adaptors just lying around and some of that nifty 8 wire telephone-style wiring and connectors I can just hook these two puppies together and watch 'em fly?

[HomerJSimpson]

Or........................maybe two of these thingies that have like, TV cable connectors and hook 'em up with the cable? Then tell windozzzzzzzzzzzz...........HUH?

[Mattyb]

Homer J. Simpson,
You actually can connect two adapter cards via one 8 pin cable. One exception you have to cross wires before hand. Hold the cable like a snake behind the head of connector, cable running away from you, tit down. There are eight little pins from left to right.

1= Tx+
2= Tx-
3= Rx+
4= does not apply
5= does not apply
6= Rx-
7= does not apply
8= does not apply

What you need to do is to cross match pins on adapters in this order:

Adapter A Adapter B

Pin no.1 to Pin no.3
Pin no.2 to pin no.6
Pin no.3 to pin no.1
Pin no.6 to pin no.2

You can acomplish this by cutting cable somewhere along it and splice wires appropriately.
This is how you connect two adapters together without a concentrator. Beware not to use cable on a concentrator since you spliced it. I have used this with two ReadyLlink Enet32-PCI Ethernet Network adapters and it runs smoothly without a hitch. Good luck!

Mattyb

[Axel]

A few notes to Matt's description of a cross-connect cable -

Make the cable as short as is confortable for your setting - The shorter it is, the better the link performance will be.

If you have an option - cut a bona fide CAT5 cable and splice it. The CAT5 is a cable quality specification used for LAN's and should be stenciled on the side of the cable all along it's length.

Next, once you have the NIC's installed in the systems with the latest drivers, etc. etc., you'll have to set them up. I recommend TCP/IP as the best protocol for your little mini-LAN.

You'll need to assign I.P. addresses in the TCP/IP properties and such to make all of this work and you'll end up with a 2 computer 10BaseT LAN at home.

Should you wish to add an additional system or peripheral, you'll need to buy a mini-hub - 4 or 5 ports

Should you wish to get into a lot more detail on the cross-connect cable, check out the Lucent Technologies web site - they had a pretty good write-up in it I used to make a cross-connect block.

[This message has been edited by Axel (edited 01-18-2000).]

[Banti]

Homer,
If you have the option. Go out and buy a cross-over cable. They are pretty cheap. You can pick them up at your local computer store. If they do not know waht you are talking about, you have my permission to headbutt them into submission. Once you cut open a Cat5 cable it is no longer cat5.

Banti

[alx098]

Yes, I agree with Banti - the quality of cross-over cable at the store would be much better than the one you could possibly make. Moreover, it's just not worth the truble - go and buy one at the PC store.

[HomerJSimpson]

Okay, now to throw some more sh_t in the game. I've got a unit called a LanRover/4e.
On the back of this unit are 4 twentyfive pin male connectors, labeled 1-4. There are also three other connectors: 10baseT - Thick (looks like a game port) - and Thin (Looks like a cable connector and a little switch that enables one or the other of the three.
Questions: Are the 25 pin ports serial or parallel? If I only want to connect the two computers together do I use this unit or is the unit only for connecting multiple units to the internet and not each other? Why can't I connect the computers direct to each other using a serial or parallel port connection?

[This message has been edited by HomerJSimpson (edited 01-18-2000).]

[Mattyb]

You can connect your computers directly through a parallel or a serial. You have to have the software ie.. Laplink. I'm sure someone out there nows a better program than laplink. There are several ways to connect the two computers, the question is what are you connecting them for? What are you trying to accompish? Play games? Transfer data? Some more info? I would have to agree with buying a new cross-cable but it sounds like you want to save money to connect the two.

Mattyb

[HomerJSimpson]

Kewl. Just want to increase the potential of; storage, computing power, fun, experimentation, having more than one terminal online simultaneously etceteras, etceteras. Also, does the serial connection go from serial port to serial port? I think I've got cables that go for either serial or parallel. (I work in a computer recycling warehouse.) Oh yeah, anybody want some real cheap stuff? http://www.scrapcomputers.com

[This message has been edited by HomerJSimpson (edited 01-18-2000).]

[Mntsnow]

It would seem to me you have the correct answers http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Mntsnow

[Mattyb]

Homer, Windows 98 comes with a program called Direct-Cable. Normally the program is listed under programs/assecories/communications/Direct Cable Connection. This program connects computers through a direct cable connection either parallel or serial. You need a cable with male ends on both sides and the program is self explanatory. You can use the Help menu also. Click start/help/ then click index tab and type connections, Direct Cable. This will tell you how its done. Its a good way to experiment and mess around. You need two computers both with Windows 98. There are other earlier programs by windows like: windows 3.1/dos 6.22 use interlink, windows 95 came with RAS, and Windows 98 uses Direct Cable Connection. Good luck!

Mattyb

[HomerJSimpson]

Thanks Matty, that was a very clear answer and an elegant solution, thanks to Windozzzzzzzzzzzzz...................HUH? Oh yeah. Running Win98SE on both units. Just did a little upgrading on the PackardHell today--added 512kb L2 cache and a Pentium166. Tried to run it at 200 but, without a cooling fan it went unstable in about 10 minutes. Set it back to 166 and it's running smoothly now.