Will Honea wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:
 WH> Mike, I've seen lots of good info from you, so maybe you can
 WH> help me out.  I've got a no-name NE2000 compatible combo
 WH> card in a machine my daughter will take to school.  It runs
 WH> fine in a Connect peer-to-peer net using thin (coax) wires. 
 WH> The dorms at school are wired for a Novell network and
 WH> require a thick Ethernet connection.  The question I have
 WH> involves the connectors - and a possible mismatch.  The card
 WH> has a DB15 connector rather than the phone type 8-pin job.  
 WH> 1. Does this indicate a potential problem matching to the
 WH> net? 
 WH> 2. If not, do you know the mapping of the DB15 to the 8-pin
 WH> (I can make cables).  Alternately, do you know if
 WH> translating cables are readily available.  Also, those thick
 WH> cables appear to be common twisted pair cable or is that a
 WH> special cable?
You are misunderstanding some of the terms.  There are basically three types 
of Ethernet connector:
-- Thick, also called DIX or AUI: this uses RG-213 coax, about 0.4 inch 
diameter, and each workstation is tapped onto this big cable with a drop that 
terminates in a 15-pin D connector.
-- Thin, also called cheapernet: this uses RG-58 coax, about 0.2 inch 
diameter, and each workstation is tapped in with a T connector using BNC.
-- UTP, also called 10Base-T: this uses twisted pair wiring that looks 
something like telephone wiring, in a star topology with 8-pin RJ-45.
Thick is pretty much obsolete.  Your NE-2000 card apparently has a BNC 
connector for Thin and an AUI connector for Thick.  The dorm apparently has 
an RJ-45 connector for UTP, not Thick.  While you could buy a transciever for 
about $35 which would adapt the card to the jack, it would be cheaper and 
easier to replace the card entirely.  Interfacing an AUI connector to an 
RJ-45 connector is not just a matter of cabling.
What you want is a nice NE-2000 clone which has both Thin and UTP connectors, 
what is commonly known as an Ethernet "combo" card.  You don't care about 
Thick at all.  I have seen such cards for as little as $20, and you can get 
really nice ones for about $30.
 WH> 3. Any special tricks to get the Novell client software
 WH> running with Warp?
You might be happier with Connect, especially since the installation is a lot 
easier and faster for the NetWare client.  Also, very few colleges would run 
Novell, but I suppose it's possible.  By far, most colleges would run TCP/IP, 
in which case you would definitely want Connect.
 
-- Mike
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