IPC Networking

From: Dan Wright <dtwright_at_uiuc.edu>
Date: Mon May 13 15:37:38 2002

Mark Tapley said:
>
> I think they do; the one I built (matching instructions given
> previously) does, with a caveat: I've used it to connect two (OT, sorry!)
> Mac Powerbook 3400's. The two machines in question have to have Appletalk
> changed to use ethernet within a few seconds of one another - otherwise
> they each assume they are on a "dead" network and will not recognize the
> other machine when it comes up. This may be a unique feature of the
> Powerbooks. It is *not* a problem when the two machines are successively
> hooked into a hub - even minutes apart - so I don't think it's a problem
> with the Appletalk implementation, but I don't know.
> Anyone else with more experience on this? Do hubs do any
> keep-aliving for their ports, or recheck periodically for connections? Do
> other two-node networks need "pinging" from both ends simultaneously to
> bring up?

A cross-over cable will ALWAYS work to network 2 10bT hosts. Usually for 2
100bTx hosts, as well, unless they have weird auto-negotiation issues. The
appletalk behaviour you describe above is due to the fact that 10bT hubs
maintain a link signal on all ports all the time, so as soon as you plug a
machine in it sees a link. When you're connecting 2 machines directly, they
have to be on before the link signal is present which is why appletalk doesn't
show the network till they're both on. You'd see the same effect with your
hub if you turned it off -- the machines plugged into the hub would complain
that the appletalk network went away.

> - Mark
>
- Dan Wright
(dtwright_at_uiuc.edu)
(http://www.uiuc.edu/~dtwright)

-] ------------------------------ [-] -------------------------------- [-
``Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with holy dread,
  For he on honeydew hath fed, / and drunk the milk of Paradise.''
       Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan
Received on Mon May 13 2002 - 15:37:38 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:35:23 BST