Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Helpful Hints for First-Time Ethernet Installers

The one thing that the helpful hints on home networking didn't tell me (because it was too obvious) is that you can't just connect a Cat5 Cable between two machines. Like the old days of Serial /Null Modem Cables, you have to flip the signals or they won't work. That means a Crossover Cable to connect two machines or (more usually) an Ethernet Hub or Switch between or among them.

You can't believe how long it took for me to figure this out before Annoyances.org told me.