>> >For two hosts, you can use 10Base-T or 100Base-TX cards without a hub
>> >using a crossover cable, as well. It's a lot less messy than coax,
>> >and support for coax is going the way of the dodo. Of course, coax
>> >won't do 100 Mbit/s at all.
>> >
>> > -hpa
>>
>> Problem with the crossover cable is that it only works for two machines.
>> While coax may not be the latest and greatest it definately works perfectly
>> well for many if not most people, providing you do not have a large number
>> of machines on the network.
>
>Well the subject does say 'two hosts'. Furthermore, I think that unless
>you get refuse for free, a hub and cables and 10/100 cards is cheaper then
>thinnet and tees and terms and crap ne2000 cards. The cross cable solution
>scales well. (two 10 + hub/cards/cables = many 10. Two 100 + h/c/c = many
>10 or with a slightly more expensive hub = many 100.)..
For 2 hosts, UTP is in now way the cheapest. The network cards
are the same price regardless, so count them out. That leaves
the cost comparison between:
A UTP crosslink cable, and an RG58 thinwire cable, and 2
terminators. Terminators are about $1-$2 each, and you only need
2 regardless of the number of machines. The cable is likely to
be priced similarly to the UTP crosslink cable if you purchase a
ready made one, however if you buy the cable by the foot, and buy
the terminations yourself, you'll end up paying less than $5 and
then you just need to strip the wires and twist. With a homemade
UTP cable, you'd need a crimp tool, and they don't come cheap -
not in terms of what we're discussing anyways.
If you scale the situation to 3 machines, again the cards are the
same, but with coax, you just need another $5 cable. With UTP
you need a hub or switch, and another cable. The cost of a hub
IMHO is not worth it for a small home network.
Really, it depends on the EXACT specifics of the situation. It
depends on the projected expansion of the network as well. I
would say to anyone planning on having 10 machines or less in
their home, to go with a coax network if they want to save money.
It is just as fast unless you spend a bundle on a switch, or go
100mbit.
The problems with coax don't particularly manifest themselves
much in a home environment as they do say in a school lab where
people steal terminators, etc... Bringing one machine off the
network at home is usually no big deal. I just unplug the T from
the card, and my network sings merrily along.
If someone doesn't mind spending the cash for a hub and whatnot,
then I'd say, go for it. It does scale better to larger
networks, but that isn't likely to matter much in the home
anyways. Coax is certainly good for the home still. I get
approx 700kbps through my NE2k's on my coax network.
In order to specifically address the original poster's problem,
I'd like to know:
1) What role do the 2 computers that you want to connect together
have to each other? Are they just simple machines, perhaps
some surfing, etc.., or are they going to be calculating the
origins of the universe?
2) Will you be adding more machines later? Or is just 2 all you
want?
3) What operating systems will each machine be running? Or will
you be multi booting them?
4) How important is the cost of your network to you? Do you want
a cheap solution that works good, or do you want to spend a bit
more and get something that will allow you to compete with NASA
beowulf clusters for the top 100 supercomputer list?
-- Mike A. Harris - Computer Consultant - Linux advocateLinux software galore: http://freshmeat.net
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/