On  5 Sep 98 at 23:10, Kevin Michael Guest wrote:

> I'm writing a Database using MS Access for the storage and
> retrieval of pallets in a warehouse and need to test it in a
> multi-user enviroment.

  I'm not positive that MS Access handles multi-user very well, but I
guess that's what your testing is going to find out.

> I have a desktop and access to a laptop both of which have MS
> Access installed, however I need to link them together by means of
> a simple network. I would like to do this as cheaply as possible.
>
> I believe a cheap ISA card and the cheapest PCMCIA card I can find
> should do the trick.
>
> Wants the difference between an ISA card and an ISA Combi Card ?

  There are three interfaces commonly found on 10Mbps Ethernet cards:

1. RJ-45 (UTP/STP)
  Like a telephone jack (RJ-11), but bigger.  There are two options
for connecting this way:  A cross-over cable (two machines only), or
connect each machine to a hub (costs extra...).  Prefered cabling is
"Category 5"; cross-over cable is a standard item.

2. BNC
  Like TV cable, but with locking connectors.  Each NIC (Network
Interface Card) takes a "T" connector (may be included) to the cable,
with a terminating resistor at each end of the cable.  [I don't think
I've seen this in PCMCIA, but that's no guarantee.]

3. AUI
  A DB-15 connector, to which must be attached an external
"transceiver" module.  BNC and RJ-45 are using transceivers already
built in on the NIC, so you'd rarely use this for anything.

  A "Combo" card will provide at least RJ-45 and BNC connectors, and
probably AUI as well.  Other cards may only provide one or two
connectors (if 2, the second is probably AUI).

> Does 10MB/Sec sound fine for this type of test ?

  Note that this is 10Mb/sec -- megaBITS, not megabytes.  So it's a
fraction of the maximum ISA bus throughput, and 400 times the speed
of a 28.8 modem.  That's about where you want to be.
  100Mbps/PCI cards may be a better investment for the future, but
BNC is not an option at that speed.

> Do all network cards require terminating when at the end of a link ?

  [BNC only] It isn't the card, it's the *cable* that must be
terminated.  All cards are connected to the cable by "T" connectors.

  I've recently been fitting out my home (BNC) network with PCI combo
cards from D-Link, which are about $8 apiece.  These are replacing
ISA NE-2000 [a particular early card] clones.

David G

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