On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 01:44:11 -0400, JohnM wrote:

Can I assume I can hook comuters with various Windows OS's together with
ethernet cards and coax? If so, will a Win95 OS pretty well know what to
do assuming I can get the thing to recognize the hardware or is it going
to be a real pain to make work?

What sort of cable do these cards need? The same a TV uses by any chance?

First, ethernet hasn't used coax in over 10 years - it's all CAT5 these
days - that's RJ45 connectors, that look just like a telephone modular
plug, but 8 contacts wide.

Second, I used to have a W95 computer, and never got it to recognize
the network, even though the card installed. When I upgraded to W98,
it worked fine, however. Now I use Linux on the "server" and all of the
workstations have Win2000.

To hook just two computers together, you get a "crossover cable".
The ethernet adapter in the computer expects to plug into a hub,
switch, or router - kinda like when there were external modems,
the modem was DCE (data communications equipment) and the computer
was DTE (data terminal equipment), so to connect two computers
by serial, you had to use a "null modem". A crossover cable is
like that for an ethernet connection with only the two computers.
For more computers, you need a hub or a switch, or a full-on
router.

Good Luck!
Rich