Wikibooks

Linux Networking/10base2 (thin coax) Ethernet Cabling

< Linux Networking
This page may need to be reviewed for quality.

10base2 (thin coax) Ethernet Cabling

edit

10base2 is an ethernet cabling standard that specifies the use of 52 ohm coaxial cable with a diameter of about 5 millimeters. There are a couple of important rules to remember when interconnecting machines with 10base2 cabling. The first is that you must use terminators at both ends of the cabling. A terminator is a 52 ohm resistor that helps to ensure that the signal is absorbed and not reflected when it reaches the end of the cable. Without a terminator at each end of the cabling you may find that the ethernet is unreliable or doesn't work at all. Normally you'd use `T pieces' to interconnect the machines, so that you end up with something that looks like: 

      |==========T=============T=============T==========T==========|
                 |             |             |          |
                 |             |             |          |
               -----         -----         -----      -----
               |   |         |   |         |   |      |   |
               -----         -----         -----      -----

where the `|' at either end represents a terminator, the `======' rep­ resents a length of coaxial cable with BNC plugs at either end and the `T' represents a `T piece' connector. You should keep the length of cable between the `T piece' and the actual ethernet card in the PC as short as possible, ideally the `T piece' will be plugged directly into the ethernet card.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Linux_Networking/10base2_(thin_coax)_Ethernet_Cabling"