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Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 10:46:40 -0500
From: rhh@ct.picker.com (Randall Hopper)
To: dkeller@psln.com (Daniel Keller)
Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG (FreeBSD Questions Mailing List)
Subject: Re: Advice on simple network
References: <199701202304.PAA17187@psln1.psln.com>
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In-Reply-To: <199701202304.PAA17187@psln1.psln.com>; from Daniel Keller on Jan 20, 1997 15:43:46 -0800
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Daniel Keller:
 |Something in the near future I will be getting a new PC. For educational
 |purposes I would like to setup a network with our 2 computers, for printer
 |sharing and transferring file, ect. How should I set this up? Should I use
 |2 Ethernet cards? This also has to be compatible with Win95. Any advice is
 |appreciated.

I have the same situation and have had fun playing around with it.  I've
had 115200 baud SLIP, PLIP, and Ethernet all three going between them at
different times.  I eventually ended up with ethernet because I got tired
of the download times associated with SLIP, and PLIP dogs FreeBSD badly for
saturating transfers (no support for EPP/ECP there).

For SLIP, you just need a NULL-modem adapter and a straight-through serial
cable -- easy to make and cheap at hamfests/computerfests, and Radio Shack
has them if nothing else.

For PLIP, just need the equivalent for parallel.  Look for a LapLink cable
at your local computer store.  

For Ethernet, just need a couple ethernet boards and a cable.  I'd suggest
getting boards that have both 10Base2 (RG-58 coax cable) and 10BaseT (RJ-45
"twisted pair" cable).  With 2 computers, the cheapest way to connect with
ethernet is with an RJ-45 cross-over cable.  That way you don't need a hub.
If you put a third computer on (or if you plan to sometime)a, you can switch
to coax (a little more expensive) and still not need a hub.

I'm currently running a cheapo NE2000 card on FreeBSD 2.1 (ed driver) on
one PC, and an NE2100 compatible card (Allied Telesyn AT1500BT) (lnc
driver) on the other PC.

Have fun!

Randall Hopper