PartyNet - What you need before the party
What
you need before the party | Connecting
your machine | Troubleshooting
| Special cases
Please remember that The NetCrew does not
sell, loan, or rent any network related hardware at the partysite.
Make sure that you read this section carefully before leaving for ASSEMBLY '02,
or you will be very frustrated (and network-less) upon arrival.
This point cannot be stressed enough since every year individuals arrive without
the necessary equipment. All the information you will need to have a great
time at this year's party is described in detail below.
Hardware and Cables
In short, you will need an Ethernet network card
with a RJ45 connector and a TP (Twisted Pair) patch cable of about 10
meters in length. If you are not sure what this means, read on. If you
think you do, you should probably read the rest of this section anyway.
Just in case.
Network card
There has been a major change since 1999 - COAXIAL
CABLE IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED. There is a very real chance that the
network card you have is useless this year. So, if you have a network
card that has only a connector labeled 'BNC' (see picture below),
you should buy a new one that has a connector labeled 'RJ45 Connector'
.
Certain older network cards (like the one in
the picture above) have both a coaxial and a RJ45 connector. These will
work fine. Most if not all network cards that are no more than a few
years old should have a RJ45 connector. However, if you know your
network card is old, or you bought it used, please make sure to check
whether it has a RJ45 connector or not.
If your network card has the connector labeled
'AUI' (in the picture above), it is possible to use a TP transceiver
like this:
to enable you to access the party network. Be
warned: A transceiver is very likely just as expensive as a new network
card, so you might as well buy an entirely new card. The new card will
be far superior to the old card and contain the transceiver combination
anyway.
Once you have the proper network card in your
hand, do yourself a favor and install it into your machine before leaving
for Asm'2k. At the party, you do not want to realize that you forgot
your screwdriver (or driver disk) home. As well, it tends to be
rather dark at the partysite so it is highly unlikely you could see
the insides of the computer (or even the computer itself!) any way.
Coaxial
Unlike ASSEMBLY '99, each table will have a switch
instead of a hub. This means there will no longer be a coaxial connector
at each table, which means that this year you cannot use your coaxial
connector for anything
Cables
Every attendee will need a 10 meter long TP
patch cord. Please make sure to not arrive at the partyplace
with a cable that is too short - the switch to which your cable will be
connected is physically attached to the table. This means that if your
cable is not long enough to cover the distance between your computer and
the switch, there is very little that can be done. TP does *not* work
like coaxial - it is not possible to attach your computer to the computer
next to you.
A TP cable has a connector like this in each
end:
When buying one, make sure you are choosing a
cable meant for connecting a computer to a switch. An 'X' or 'cross'
cable (meant for connecting a switch to a switch or a computer to a
computer) will not work.
Drivers
The driver you will need for your card depends
on what operating system you are running. This documents does not intend
to cover all of them - those enlightened among us using *nix based OS's
are expected to cope on their own.
But whatever your OS, this general rule applies:
Make sure to obtain and install the driver you
need before coming to the party.
The partyplace is dark and loud, the guy next to
you probably does not know anymore more about installing network drivers
than you do and the NetCrew is busy and probably cannot get to you for
a few hours. Trust me, you will be much happier if you already have the
network card in your machine and the drivers properly installed when you
arrive.
Installing a network driver into Windows
Plug'n'Play cards
Installing these should be trivial since Windows
should detect them automatically. As a rule, it is always better to use
the driver that came with the network card and not the one that came with
Windows. Hence, when Windows boots up and gives the 'Windows has detected
new hardware' window, always choose 'Have Disk' if you have it.
All reasonably recent cards should fall under this
category.
Non-Plug'n'Play cards
These are a bit harder, and there really is no
comprehensive way to describe the installation. We can give a few pointers
though:
Try the 'Add New Hardware' option in 'Control Panel',
and when prompted choose to let Windows search for the hardware.
If it does not work (which is usually the case
with older network cards), make sure you know the exact make and model
of your card in advance and try to find it from the list. Selecting a
"well this is pretty close" usually does not do the trick, but
if you cannot find your card you might as well try a close match. If you
can browse the Internet, search the card manufacturer's website
for the proper driver.
Once you have the correct driver installed, it
is time to make its settings match the ones for your network card. Again,
there is no comprehensive way to do this. What you are trying to do is
to change the driver settings in Windows to match your hardware's.
There are two ways to set the hardware settings.
The older (better) way is using the dipswitches in the card itself. It
may or may not be trivial to change the settings - some cards dipswitch
settings are impossible to figure out without a manual.
If you are unlucky, your network card requires
a 'special software' that is used to set the hardware settings. It usually
only runs in DOS, and chances are that you do not have it and you cannot
find it anywhere.
Before starting to fiddle with the hardware settings
you should check whether you can use the ones that are set already. If
you are lucky, there are no conflicts with any other hardware you have.
Then all you will need to do is set the driver to use them. You can find
the hardware settings with the steps described above.
Usually, the IO address is wrong if Windows shows
the network card as inoperational in 'Control Panel' / 'System'.
If Windows shows the card as operational, but network
just does not work, you probably have the wrong IRQ.
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