jaffe@hoss.unl.edu (David Jaffe) (08/16/90)
Could someone please explain what is involved in connecting an 80386 running xenix to an ethernet cable? Down the hall from me is a "thick" ethernet cable. (I don't know what the "thick" means.) I have heard of various devices for tapping into the cable: dspr's, ethernet boards, ... . What device do I need and how much does it cost? For some other machines, this seems to depend on the difference between thick and thin. What software do I need? David Jaffe (jaffe@hoss.unl.edu) Department of Mathematics and Statistics University of Nebraska, Lincoln
chip@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Chip Rosenthal) (08/18/90)
In article <1990Aug15.221258.13776@hoss.unl.edu> jaffe@hoss.unl.edu (David Jaffe) writes: >Could someone please explain what is involved in connecting an >80386 running xenix to an ethernet cable? Down the hall from me is >a "thick" ethernet cable. (I don't know what the "thick" means.) >I have heard of various devices for tapping into the cable: dspr's, >ethernet boards, ... . Errr...ahhh....Which XENIX? SCO? What's on the ethernet? TCP/IP? I'm going to assume the question is, "How can I get my SCO XENIX system to talk TCP/IP on this network?" I hope I'm not wasting my time... Ethernet was originally specified to run on a relatively expensive coaxial cable. The idea was that you would tap into this coax with a transceiver and run another cable, the "transceiver cable", between the transceiver and the communications device. The transceiver cable contains four twisted pairs, enclosed in a shield, and terminated in DB-15 connectors. To reduce the cost of Ethernet networks, a thin-wire, or so-called "cheapernet" version was introduced. This uses a much less expensive RG-58 coaxial cable. Generally, the transceiver function would now be integrated into the communications device, and you tap into the coax with a simple T-connector which mates with a BNC receptacle on the communications device. Excluding other technologies such as twisted pair, the peecee ethernet cards I've seen have connection for a transceiver cable, and at least an option for an on-board thin-wire transceiver. For example, I believe the Excelan card is offered with or without the thin-wire transceiver, but always includes the DB-15 connector for a transceiver cable. The Western Digital 8003E has both. For your setup, you will need: (1) a transceiver to tap into the Ethernet cable, (2) a transceiver cable to run to the peecee, (3) an Ethernet card, and (4) I guess some software support might be nice. :-) As far as (1) and (2)...talk to your network manager. You'll want to use whatever is standard for your facility -- if the fates are smiling, he or she might already have a transceiver and cable you can use. Numbers (3) and (4) are intimately related. From here, there are two approaches: the smart way and the dumb way, and it's possible the dumb way is your best bet! In the first case, there are a number of vendors who sell an intelligent ethernet card (i.e. it has on on-board CPU) and bundle drivers with it. In the second case, you can get a dumb ethernet card from somebody like Western Digital or 3Com and purchase the software support for it. An example of the first approach would be the Excelan LAN Workplace for XENIX/386. An example of the second approach would be a WD8003 card with SCO's TCP/IP software. I have used the Excelan package in the past. For the most part, it works, but I wasn't crazy about it. My three biggest gripes were: (1) the socket library has an archaic interface and thus porting stuff was a hassle, (2) the smtp was a botch and I had to run smail3.1 instead (wherefore hassle #1 comes into play), and (3) although all the basic utilities were there (telnet, ftp, etc.) a lot of the other stuff I wanted wasn't. (This is based on 8-month old knowledge. If there has been some major improvements since then I hope somebody will correct me.) I've got an 8003E sitting on my cabinet waiting to go into chinacat. I thinking about using SCO's TCP/IP, but frankly I'm not looking forward to it. I've got two concerns. First, their license server which was implemented with broadcast packets is rude and evil. Second, I think it's overpriced: Streams System $195 + TCP/IP Runtime $595 + TCP/IP Development $395 = $1185. You can get this down to $690 if you don't care about development. Other possibilities: CMC (800-968-4262) intelligent board & SW Network Research Corp. (800-541-9508) SW for 3COM/WD cards Racal Interlan (800-526-8225) intelligent board & SW Spider Systems (Scotland, 031 554 9424) SW, environment unknown Streamlined Networks (415-659-1450) SW, environment unknown The Wollongong Group (800-USA-UNIX) I think it's both HW & SW I have no experience with these other names. If anybody out there does, I'd be interested in hearing about it. -- Chip Rosenthal | You aren't some icon carved out chip@chinacat.Unicom.COM | of soap, sent down here to clean Unicom Systems Development, 512-482-8260 | up my reputation. -John Hiatt
ronald@robobar.co.uk (Ronald S H Khoo) (08/20/90)
In article <1487@chinacat.Unicom.COM> chip@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Chip Rosenthal) writes: > First, their license server which was > implemented with broadcast packets is rude and evil. It's not as bad as it used to be, Chip: /* begin quote from sosco!/usr/spool/uucppublic/SLS/lng227.ltr ---------------- | | SLS lng227 also contains a new /etc/cpd daemon that only checks for copy | protection violations on bootup, as opposed to a periodic check which | presents an unwanted network load. | |_ end quote from sosco!/usr/spool/uucppublic/SLS/lng227.ltr -----------------*/ Given that they're stuck with the Lachman stuff till they find the time to write their own :-) I think that's probably fair enough.... > Second, I think it's overpriced: [ ... deleted ] = $1185. Very true, but is there a cheaper alternative ? If there is, I WANT TO KNOW!! I must admit that lack of a FFS (and no chance to add NFS) on Xenix has forced me to consider moving to SCO Unix (ho hum) but if there's a cheaper TCP/IP alternative there as well, do post ! (and please don't say "run KA9Q" :-) -- Eunet: Ronald.Khoo@robobar.Co.Uk Phone: +44 81 991 1142 Fax: +44 81 998 8343 Paper: Robobar Ltd. 22 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx., UB6 7JD ENGLAND.
klaus@cnix.uucp (klaus u schallhorn) (08/20/90)
I'm planning something similar within the next few weeks/months. Are you in fact saying that I have to fork out in addition to "runtime", "text" and "development" in order to have an intel box join an ethernet use with some suns? If so, I guess it won't be long until SCO charges extra for their rc* scripts? klaus.