On 10 Jun 99, at 18:21, Martin Trevorn wrote:

> I'm a programmer, new to linux but I have a good background with Windows 95.
> I would like to experiment 3 thing with linux at home.
>
<snip>
>
> So now, I nead recommendation for hardware needed to implement this network,
> I mean Network card and hube. I'me very novice with network hardware. I'me
> not sure if I will go to 10Mh or 100Mh network speed and I need some ISA and
> some PCI device. Give me you advice.
>
> I don't wan to spend to much, so what should I buy?.

  ISA is pretty much up against a hard limit of 64 Mbps -- or, more likely,
even less.  I wouldn't expect to be seeing any 100 Mbps ISA network cards.
And I don't recall ever seeing any NICs in VLB format, so your 486 machine(s)
probably have to live with that same limitation.

  So I think you're looking at 10Mbps for these older machines -- you can
probably fit them with NICs for $10-20 apiece.  Going with 10-BaseT (RJ-45
connectors) will require a *hub* (since you have more than two machines), but
small hubs are common in the $20-50 range, and you'll have options to upgrade
your network later just by replacing the hub with something fancier.

  [In my case, I already had some co-ax (10-Base2, BNC connectors) in place,
so on most of my machines I have 10Mbps combo cards that provide both RJ-45
and BNC connectors.  (These generally must be configured, and told which
connector to use....)  I got a hub that includes a BNC connector, and I'm
gradually migrating machines off the co-ax to their own RJ-45 port on the
hub.  You can probably skip directly to RJ-45 for everything.]

  You can get 10Mbps combo cards in PCI, but unless you need the BNC
connector, a 10/100 card is a better long-term investment.  A dual-speed hub
(about $200) will allow some of your machines to run 100Mbps, and someday
that might be all of your machines....

  If you search around some of the hacker websites, or the alt.2600
newsgroup, there's a document somebody wrote about setting up a network of
cheap Linux machines "in your garage" to experiment with.  You might find it
helpful.


David G

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