[ale] Win98 <-> Linux network

[David Boardman]

Just to keep this in one thread:

the cables have been verified as good - I brought the exact same setup (cables and
all) to work, hooked up two WinNT boxes and it worked.

> I got one.  When you use the crossover cable, the drivers in both machines may
> be sensing that they can duplex and do so accordingly.  If you take away the
> crossover cable and wire up the hub, one driver or the other (or both) may not
> be changing to half-duplex.  Try wiring up the hub and rebooting both machines
> (although I suppose you could just take down the Linux machine's interface and
> bring it back up).

I guess I don't understand ethernet all that well, but I thought that the
machines/ethernet cards would keep trying to negotiate with different parameters
without having to reboot or whatnot.  Can you explain what the duplex might have
to do with it?  Doesn't one machine try to transmit a packet, and if there was no
collision detected, it considers itself done?  Do Windows and Linux have some sort
of low-level differences on how they control the ethernet cards that might be
affecting this?
    Just curious here, but say I had a 10base-T in one machine and a 100base-T in
the other.  This combo shouldn't have worked with the crossover cable, right?  I
know that my hub is 10base-T only.

Dave


>
>
> - Jeff
>
> David Boardman <david.boardman at arris-i.com> on 04/28/99 10:04:41 AM
>
> To:   ale at ale.org
> cc:    (bcc: Jeff Hubbs/Tower)
>
> Subject:  [ale] Win98 <-> Linux network
>
> I've got a puzzling question:
>
> I'm setting up a small home network.  I've got two boxes:  One is
> Windows 98, the other is RedHat 5.2 Linux.  They both have 10Base-T
> ethernet cards.
>
> Here's the weird part:  If I connect the two PC's directly with a
> 10Base-T *crossover* cable (as opposed to going through a hub, with
> straight through wires), I can ping either PC no problem.
>
> If I use straight through ethernet cables, and connect them up to my
> hub, I *cannot* get the two to ping each other.  I have verified that
> the hub works because I (today) brought it to work and connected up two
> WinNT boxes together with the same exact config. I'm using at home and
> they can ping each other no problem.
>
> Any suggestions???
>
> Dave