At 5:06 PM -0700 8/9/99, Bill Studenmund wrote:

>On Mon, 9 Aug 1999, Christopher P. Gill wrote:
>
> > I'm hoping that those of you with functioning IP-NAT setups can give me a
> > hand.  I'm running NetBSD 1.4 GENERIC kernel on a Quadra 800 40/500+520.
> > When this is working, I'll have my sn0 Etherface connected to my ADSL
> > modem/bridge, and my ae0 Etherface (Asante' MacCon) to the uplink port of
> > my local network hub.
>
>That sounds wrong. Were you abole to get the machines talking to the ae0
>at all with that setup?
>
>Usually the "uplink" port is intended to connect to another hub. Even if
>it's acting as a router, the ae0 interface should be connected to a normal
>hub port.

Right.  What the uplink port does is swap the send and recieve lines 
in the cable.  There is no difference between using a crossover cable 
on a regular port and an regular cable on an uplink port.  And, if 
you use a crossover cable on an uplink port, you make it behave like 
a regular port (you've swapped them twice, which is the same as not 
swapping them at all).  Sorry if this sounds confusing, this is the 
best way I can think of explaining without resorting to ASCII art.

Unless you have other hubs or switches you are cascading to/from, 
don't use that uplink port.  And remember a hub is just a multiport 
repeater (i.e. a packet coming in from one port is simply echoed to 
every other port, no processing or intelligence about it at all).

--
nathan raymond
webmaster <a href="http://www.everythingmac.com">everythingmac.com</a>