>I need some networking information quickly. I just remodeled my home and >had the electricians put heavy wiring from my upstairs office to where I >want to have my portable downstairs. > >To date, I have only used appletalk to connect the machines and I want >to upgrade to ethernet. I generally know that what I need is a >"crossover" connection from one machine to another. That crossover cable >will be the long wire running upstairs. > >Both machines will have 10/100 Base T ethernet (I have yet to get the >card for my desktop mac). > >The electrician wants to know what jack to install (RJ45?) and how to >wire it as a crossover cable. >From that request, I'm going to assume that your electrician hasn't much (or any) experience working with data cabling - fair enough, since this isn't usually done by an electrician. I'd suggest that s/he use category-5 rated RJ45 jacks and cable and preferably wire all eight conductors, paying particular attention to the limits included in the instructions that come with the jack (not more than 1cm untwisted at each end). Using cat-5 cabling with cat-3 jacks or inexpertly installing the jacks is a common source of problems down the line, particularly if you plan to run 100Mbps. If your electrician is also building your patch cables, make sure they've done it before (bad patch cables are an even more common source of problems - the most common, in fact). Cables in walls should never be crossed over - again, just follow the colour coding instructions on the jack at each end (symmetrically) and you'll end up with a straight through connection. If you want a crossover cable between two devices (no hub), just buy one regular patch cable and one crossover patch cable. Combined with what's in the wall, you'll end up with a crossed cable connecting your two machines. This scheme means that later on when you want to add more devices you can simply install a passive hub (repeater) or switch at one end and use regular uncrossed patch cables for everything. The serial-line networking you were using before is actually called "Localtalk". You'll still be running the same network protocol, called Appletalk, over your nice new ethernet cables (the combination can be called "Ethertalk"). You can also usefully run TCP/IP over the same cable, for instance if you put Internet gateway software like IPNetRouter or Surfdoubler at one end. -- Marc Sira | [EMAIL PROTECTED] "If you can't play with words, what good are they?" ---------- Duo/2400 List, The friendliest place on the Net! A listserv for users and fans of Mac subportables. FAQ at <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/DuoListFAQ.shtml> Be sure to visit Mac2400! <http://www.sineware.com/mac2400> X-Router | Share your DSL or cable modem between multiple computers! Dr. Bott | <http://www.drbott.com/prod/MIH120.html> Midwest Mac Parts <http://www.midwestmac.com> | After-market parts for Macs. Fix your ticking dock for $59 w/ trade-in of PS. 888-356-1104 PowerBook Guy is | Click here! Everything PowerBook! | http://www.powerbookguy.com
