Hi Len;

    And thanks for your input. Yes, just today I tested from connector PCB
point to connector PCB point with the wire connected to ensure the cable et al

was in good order.
    Also, I did use TCP/IP protocols today, and used "net diag" in a DOS
window as per someone else's suggestion. I set one system as the diagnostic
server, and then ran "net diag" on the other system. No luck. I also tried it
the other way. Is this the manner in which you were suggesting I ping one IP
number to the other? I get the impression you might have another suggestion.
    I do live in what might be considered the wilds; I have moose, wolves,
deer and bears living all around my house in Northern Ontario. However, I do
live only half a hour from the nearest town and if I wait, the people I got
these cards from will sooner or later have another two I can try. I had hoped
to avoid that, but if need be...
    It took me a minute, but I did realize that Robert Prickett was giving me
the same diagram back, only reversed compared to my own. I had a detailed
diagram provided by another list member, so I realized that Robert, and my
cable, were both correct. Thanks again.

Bill

Len Warner wrote:

> >    And thanks to everyone who replied. Although my problem still
> >exists, I have learned along the way and have possibly narrowed the
> >range of possibilities. However, I am still stumped.
> >    I have <enormous snip>
>
> Ok, you've tried everything,
> --- so the problem must be something else :-)
>
> Here are some off-the-wall ideas:
>
> * Have you probed the cable end-to-end with an ohmmeter or
> continuity checker in case the contacts have crimped badly?
>
> * Have you looked into the NIC RJ45 sockets to make sure those
> little contact springs are lined up correctly and not bent?
> (You might check the continuity to the PCB traces too, in case
> someone has given those secondhand cards a tough time.)
>
> * Have you tried configuring both cards to TCP/IP and attempted
> to PING one's IP number from the other machine? That should
> bypass all that inscrutable Win95 networking stuff.
>
> * Have you tried borrowing a pair of working cards and cable
> from someone else (assuming you don't live in the wilds)?
> When I had a Novell protocol problem on not-quite-PC-clone
> workstations with missing documentation, I didn't solve it
> until I got a pair of identical cards that had a diagnostic
> which exchanged and counted packets: then I knew it wasn't
> a hardware interconnect problem.
>
> By the way, Bill Lee and Robert Prickett are arguing about
> _the_same_ cable connections:
>
> Bill has described the cable with the RJ45 connector
> "Clip to bottom, Wire to right", whereas Robert uses
> the official numbering, which corresponds to
> "Clip to bottom, Wire to LEFT"
> (numbering from top to bottom of view in both cases).
>
> Since both Bill and Robert show both ends of the cable
> this makes no difference to the connection routing.
>
> The Hardware Book page HWB\co_Ethernet10BaseT.html has
> a pretty picture of a RJ45 with Robert's numbering.
>
> Len Warner <[log in to unmask]> WWW Pager http://wwp.mirabilis.com/10120933