On 15 Mar 99, at 6:51, Michael Beechey wrote: > I'm putting together a small network, for classroom use, no essential > data transfer, maximum distance to hub 5 meters ( about 15 feet), > using cheap NE2000 clone cards, 15 machine max. > > My question is whether in the above situation there would be a great > difference between using the RJ-245 10Base-T connection and cabling, > and the BNC 10Base2 port. Do cheap hubs have both connections? Can I > combine cable types? Cheap hubs generally offer only RJ-45 ports. Recall that a hub imposes a "star" physical topology on Ethernet's logical "bus" topology. 10Base2 is a physical bus, so the hubs that provide any 10Base2 connectors provide only one -- allowing you to connect a 10Base2 bus into an otherwise 10BaseT star. [I recently picked up one of these on sale for $35 -- I want to migrate my central machines to 10BaseT, but won't be replacing the longest co-ax runs for some time. I think "D-Link" was the manufacturer.] In my experience, 10BaseT is easier to work with than 10Base2. Cable problems rarely affect more than a single machine, and are easily remedied -- co-ax cable problems will take out the entire segment. For classroom use, I would definitely go 10BaseT. You may find that two "cascaded" 8-port hubs are cheaper than a single one with 16 ports. David G PCBUILD maintains many useful files for download on our web site - visit our download page at: http://nospin.com/pc/files.html