Old BNC network will not respond to CAT5

[theoneill]

I have 3 machines networked using BNC coax cabling. Each machine has a Realtek RTL8029 PCI NIC. These are combo cards which means I should be able to replace the coax with CAT5, right? I wired up CAT5 cable to each machine through a Netgear 10/100 switch. The lights all come on on the switch, but I have no network. The master (server) is Windows 2000 Pro and each of the clients are Windows 95. The bindings are set at half-duplex. I tried the cables and the switch on a seperate network to validate the new components and all worked fine. Any ideas?

 

[JeffPatterson]

You don't mention how old the network cards are. I used to Admin a combination ethernet network and there was a time 5-6 years ago that required my linksys and d-link cards to be reconfigured for either BNC or RJ45. I couldn't just plug it in. Finding the original driver disk got to be such a pain that we just started buying new cards instead of trying to reconfigure the old ones.

Jeff

 

[bcastner]

I agree with Jeff that one step appears to be missing. These older combo boards are no Plug and Play compliant for Win2k and XP, and you need to 'force' them.

1. Advice about using them:

http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxpne2k.htm

2. Visit the Realtek site. They have a diagnostic/advanced setup utility that may prove to be key, as well as newer drivers:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?series=16&Software=True

 

[theoneill]

I have no idea how old the cards are. The system is in since 1999 (the Win2k machine was added recently replacing an older server and it looks like they used the old NIC). The fact that they installed a coax network on Win95 as late as 99 would suggest that the supplier was offloading some old equipment.

 

[JeffPatterson]

Sounds like drivers might just be your problem. I had to really fight to find the correct drivers for the cards I was using. At the time I never checked the internet to see if drivers were available. It might be easier and cheaper to buy new cards (

http://www.cdw.com/shop/search/Results.aspx?key=NIC&platform=all&x=0&y=0)

for an example. Locally you can buy NIC for under $10.00. I suspect the labor savings will more then justify the purchase.

Good Luck

 

[theoneill]

New cards is where I was heading myself. This particular network works as a point-of-sale operation, which leaves me with limited maintenance windows. No problem for me to go after closing but getting the owner to hang around is a problem. I was hoping it might be a simple setting somewhere, but I guess we wouldn't be doing this if it was easy!

 

[Serbtastic]

It might be a simple setting. Check the configuration of the card, and ensure it hasn't been forced to use BNC. Right click on Network Neighborhood, click properties, and then click your NIC. Check in the settings and see what media type is selected.

Let me know if this works for you.