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To: Howard R. Hansen who wrote (1071)	6/4/1998 8:20:00 PM
From: Dave Hanson	Respond to of 14778

Thanks for the clarification, Howard. Perhaps I initially caused this confusion. Your explanation is right on, and may help clear up matters further for Street Walker and others.

To: Howard R. Hansen who wrote (1071)	6/4/1998 8:20:00 PM
From: Spots	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14778

>> I am using the words ethernet and network interchangeably in this context. I'm not sure what that means. Network interfaces (NICs or mobo chips) are protocol-specific. Surely we are actually talking about ethernet here. I can't imagine token ring, for instance. You can't just interchange anything with anything, you know. Now various link level protocols are possible (10baseT, 10base2, 5base2, 100baseTX, etc). My guess is these are 10baseT/100baseTx on the mobos. Nothing else makes sense to me in the current environment. BTW, terms: 10baseT is 10mb unshielded twisted pair (the 10 is mbits, the T is twisted pair). 10base2 is thin coax (10 mbits, two-conductor coax. These use BNC connectors). 5base2 is thick net coax, which is still 10mb but can have a much longer run than thin coax. I guess I don't know where the 5 comes from. It uses 15-pin sockets. 10baseT uses RJ45, as does 100baseT and 100baseTx. 10 baseT can run over category 3 or higher UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cable. 100baseT and 100baseTX require category 5 or higher UTP. This distinction used to be important, but now if you got to the store and buy anything less than cat 5, you're getting obsolete stuff and you should tell your supplier to, well, stuff it. 100baseT is an older protocol; 100baseTX is the current 100mb standard (you can tell that by looking at the 100baseT cards in my pcs <G>). Both require category 5 cable, though. Cable categories are determined by the shielding and electrical characteristics of the cable. Cat 3 has xx capacitance and inductance per meter; cat 4 yy; cat 5 zz, etc. I don't know the specs, but each category has higher standards (lower impedance and resonance, etc). When you get into the 100mbit range, you get a lot of signal reflection and attenuation from the cable itself, so these things become important. As a side note, DON'T try to use one of those flat ribbon cables with RJ45 connectors in place of UTP cables. The T in UTP is for TWISTED, which is a very important characteristic of the cable. Sorry, wrote a book when I intended to write a note. Outta here. Spots