Old PowerBook and Dell laptop - crossover cable woes

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,comp.sys.mac.comm,comp.sys.mac.portables (More info?)

Possibly a defective crossover cable? They communicate OK with each other when
plugged into a regular network, so the cable is the only difference. If you
need to connect them together outside the confines of your regular network, and
a different crossover cable doesn't resolve the problem, get yourself a cheap
4-port 10/100 hub and connect them together thru the hub.

One other possibility... When connected via crossover cable, how are they
obtaining their IP addresses? Remember, there is not DHCP server to assign IP
addresses in a crossover cable setup. If they do not have fixed IP addresses
and sensible subnet mask when connected via crossover, configure them both with
fixed IP and subnet, and try again... Ben Myers

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 16:08:09 GMT, anon <anon@mac.com> wrote:

>Got a weird problem.
>
>Wallstreet Powerbook (233mhz, 30g drive, 384 ram, OSX 10.2.8) and Dell
>Inspiron 4100 (1.13ghz, 30g drive, 256 ram, XP Home), hooking them up
>with a crossover cable, I can get them to barely ping each other, but
>with high packet loss - 25 to 75 percent loss.
>
>They can see each other in their respective network setups, and if I set
>up the powerbook as a mapped network drive from the XP machine, it tries
>to hook up, but fails 90 percent of the time. Same if I try it from the
>Powerbook's end. If they do manage to negotiate, the connection fails
>anytime you try to transfer a file.
>
>BTW, when these two machines are on my regular hub as clients
>(straight-thru ethernet cable), they see each other fine, network and
>transfer files beautifully; I even have the Powerbook set up as a mapped
>network drive, working as a file server to the Dell. Can get to the XP
>machine from the Powerbook no problem. They work normally.
>
>I saw on a show that more modern macs were able to auto-sense when they
>needed a crossover cable, and switched themselves so they do not need it
>somehow, so on an off chance that OSX gave my Powerbook this ability I
>tried a straight-thru cable between the two - no dice. Nothing when I
>tried that.
>
>What do you suppose is happening?
>
>Thanks for any help!

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,comp.sys.mac.comm,comp.sys.mac.portables (More info?)

In comp.sys.mac.comm anon <anon@mac.com> wrote:
> Got a weird problem.

> Wallstreet Powerbook (233mhz, 30g drive, 384 ram, OSX 10.2.8) and Dell
> Inspiron 4100 (1.13ghz, 30g drive, 256 ram, XP Home), hooking them up
> with a crossover cable, I can get them to barely ping each other, but
> with high packet loss - 25 to 75 percent loss.

> They can see each other in their respective network setups, and if I set
> up the powerbook as a mapped network drive from the XP machine, it tries
> to hook up, but fails 90 percent of the time. Same if I try it from the
> Powerbook's end. If they do manage to negotiate, the connection fails
> anytime you try to transfer a file.

> BTW, when these two machines are on my regular hub as clients
> (straight-thru ethernet cable), they see each other fine, network and
> transfer files beautifully; I even have the Powerbook set up as a mapped
> network drive, working as a file server to the Dell. Can get to the XP
> machine from the Powerbook no problem. They work normally.

> I saw on a show that more modern macs were able to auto-sense when they
> needed a crossover cable, and switched themselves so they do not need it
> somehow, so on an off chance that OSX gave my Powerbook this ability I
> tried a straight-thru cable between the two - no dice. Nothing when I
> tried that.

> What do you suppose is happening?

> Thanks for any help!

The PB 233 is old enough that it does not have autosensing on the
ethernet port that will always negotiate full/half-duplex connections
properly with more modern ethernet ports. The high packet loss rate
is an usual symptom of mismatch between the two ends of the cable. I
would suggest ssticking with using the hub, that forces both laptop
ethernet ports to the same state. The ability to auto-sense is built
into the port hardware, upgrading the OS will not add capabilities to
older hardware that does not support them.

Joe

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,comp.sys.mac.comm,comp.sys.mac.portables (More info?)

"Joe Heimann" <heimann@ecs.umass.edu> wrote in message
news:420bdd09@news-1.oit.umass.edu...
> In comp.sys.mac.comm anon <anon@mac.com> wrote:
>> Got a weird problem.
>
>> Wallstreet Powerbook (233mhz, 30g drive, 384 ram, OSX 10.2.8) and Dell
>> Inspiron 4100 (1.13ghz, 30g drive, 256 ram, XP Home), hooking them up
>> with a crossover cable, I can get them to barely ping each other, but
>> with high packet loss - 25 to 75 percent loss.
>
>> They can see each other in their respective network setups, and if I set
>> up the powerbook as a mapped network drive from the XP machine, it tries
>> to hook up, but fails 90 percent of the time. Same if I try it from the
>> Powerbook's end. If they do manage to negotiate, the connection fails
>> anytime you try to transfer a file.
>
>> BTW, when these two machines are on my regular hub as clients
>> (straight-thru ethernet cable), they see each other fine, network and
>> transfer files beautifully; I even have the Powerbook set up as a mapped
>> network drive, working as a file server to the Dell. Can get to the XP
>> machine from the Powerbook no problem. They work normally.
>
>> I saw on a show that more modern macs were able to auto-sense when they
>> needed a crossover cable, and switched themselves so they do not need it
>> somehow, so on an off chance that OSX gave my Powerbook this ability I
>> tried a straight-thru cable between the two - no dice. Nothing when I
>> tried that.
>
>> What do you suppose is happening?
>
>> Thanks for any help!
>
> The PB 233 is old enough that it does not have autosensing on the
> ethernet port that will always negotiate full/half-duplex connections
> properly with more modern ethernet ports. The high packet loss rate
> is an usual symptom of mismatch between the two ends of the cable. I
> would suggest ssticking with using the hub, that forces both laptop
> ethernet ports to the same state. The ability to auto-sense is built
> into the port hardware, upgrading the OS will not add capabilities to
> older hardware that does not support them.
>
> Joe
>

You could also force 1/2 or full in the settings.

Tom

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell,comp.sys.mac.comm,comp.sys.mac.portables (More info?)

In article <anon-882BB6.12084510022005@news-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca>,
anon <anon@mac.com> wrote:

> What do you suppose is happening?

It's not working well. The Wallstreet doesn't know how to auto-sense
squat. Remember, it's not even 100Mb. Use a hub or switch. This isn't
a weird problem; it's just to be expected.

--
Nobody knows Particle Man.