Ethernet Crossover cable

I'm trying to connect two Amigas together without going through my router. I'm using a "crossover" cable and fixed addressing on each machine.

I set the Internet prefs in each machine to "no gateway" and connected the machines together, but I can't get them to recognise each other.

Each machine has the other's name in its "hosts" file, and when I type "ping <name>", it pings the right address but gets no response. Same thing happens when I ping the absolute address.

The LEDs on the RJ-45 connectors are lit on each machine, so the connection is good.

What am I missing?

@tonyw
I am not able to answer directly
I solved the communication between 2 SAM using two Netgear
WNCE2001

It is worth the investment, as you still remain connected to the internet

@tony
No ping can only mean or bad cable/connection (still), or you just setup addresses a bit wrong. Try to delete everything, and just for first one 192.168.0.1 / 255.255.255.0 / no gateway and for second one 192.168.0.2 / 255.255.255.0 / no gateway, save/reboot, and if still no ping then its pretty possible HW problem still (cable, ports, connectors, anything).

@tonyw

I am not sure why you use "no gateway". You need at least a default route, otherwise the IP stack wouldn't know where to send packets to.

I'd use the other one as default gateway on each machine.

machine1 ip = 1.1.1.1, gateway = 2.2.2.2
machine2 ip = 2.2.2.2, gateway = 1.1.1.1

@thomas

Quote:

No, it's only used if the IP is outside the subnet.

eg, this works without a default gateway:

Amiga1 IP 192.168.11.1
Subnet 255.255.255.0

Amiga2 IP 192.168.11.2
Subnet 255.255.255.0

Whereas your example would need a default gateway. Personally I'd make sure they are on the same subnet, it makes things easier.

to make a crossover cable:

There are two "normal" ways to make a cable,
labeled 568A and 568B. If both ends of the cable use the same
pattern (either one, I usually use B) then it is a normal cable.

If you use A at one end and B at the other, it becomes a crossover cable.

one of many references:
http://pinouts.ru/NetworkCables/Ether ... StraightThru_pinout.shtml

endless detail:
The description given above is OK for 10/100, but there is some debate as to it's proper use for Gigabit ethernet. However, Gig Ethernet ports are almost universally auto-sensing, so a normal straight cable should work fine.

:)

@all

Thanks for the responses. More detail:

The cable is a commercial one, black, labelled "crossover cable". I have two of them and they behave the same way. I think they came with routers years ago. They are standard CAT5e cable.

With the cable plugged in, the LED on the Ethernet connector lights up green at each end, so I'm sure the connection is OK.

One machine is 192.168.1.20, the other is 192.168.1.30. I have tried entering no gateway address at all and entering the address of the other machine (at each end). Neither seems to work.

I always do a warm reboot after any change.

These machines normally sit on the LAN with fixed addressing, a gateway address of 192.168.1.1 and a net mask of 255.255.255.0. To get them to work as a pair, I have changed only the gateway address, rebooted, then tried to talk to the other.

Maybe I have to change something else as well?

@tonyw

The "crossover" cables are to connect one computer to other directly, if you connect the computers entirely by a router, use a "normal" ethernet cable.

Thanks, that's what I'm doing.

@tonyw
Quote:

if ping to another ip in local networks when you just have right ips (192.168.1.30 and 192.168.1.20 is ok) and right mask on both (255.255.255.0 is ok too) didn't work, then its deeper than tcp/ip stack: drivers, hw, anything else. Gateways not need it for tests, as tcp/ip in one subnet works without gateways because of how tcp/ip stacks works on all oses.

@tonyw

Maybe the cable is broken, this should work.

I'm sorry to nag about the cable again but...
Can you see the colors on the wires and verify that this cable really has a pair swapped?

The cable is labelled:
"568A-TO-568B"
"CROSS-OVER"

When I hold the ends together (as though they were in a double-sided adaptor), I can see that the pairs line up, although each individual pair seems to be reversed.
So:
Green/white at one end connects to white/green at the other;
Orange/white to white/orange;
Blue/white to white/blue; and
Brown/white to white/brown.

I have not not yet confirmed that with a meter.

The LED on the Ethernet socket shows the loop current in the RX pair. If you connect an "ordinary" cable between two machines, you connect RX to RX and TX to TX, so neither LED lights on either machine.

When I connect this cross-over cable to my two machines, the LED lights up at each end, so I am confident that the cable is correct.

Later today I'll check it with a meter to make sure.

@tonyw
Can each computer ping itself?

@logicalheart

You mean ping 127.0.0.1? Yes, of course. If you mean its own address, not without a loopback cable.

Each computer works fine on the LAN as well. I was merely trying to bypass the router so that I could do some backups (on the X-1000) of stuff on the A1-XE.

I want to back up all my A1-XE stuff onto an NTFS-formatted external drive, but not at USB 1.1 speeds. So I was trying to access the A1-XE through Samba from the X-1000, and to copy the stuff to the USB drive from there.

Why do you want to bypass the router? I am quite sure that the router seperates your local network from the internet and not your local computers from each other. The LAN part of the router acts as a usual hub/switch. So you already have a permanent connection between your two Amigas. Why do you want to cut this?

@tonyw

That is not a crossover cable.The right one should look like this one:

http://www.seguridadwireless.org/inde ... tle=Archivo:Crossover.PNG

@Ami603

It's the same thing that LyleHaze and I, talks before.

@thomas

I want to bypass the router because I'm debugging an ethernet driver at the same time. With my normal LAN connections, I get a lot of "faulty" packets (don't ask me what makes them faulty) and there is a suspicion that these faulty packets are causing problems with the device driver at one end.

I hoped that the situation might change if I could bypass the router. The router is probably ten years old now. I also want to run a backup at full speed without slowing down my wife's work on her machines.

@ami603:

Maybe I read the colours wrongly - it's hard to see inside a moulded connector, as you know. I'll check the connections properly with a meter very soon, but other problems are a little more imperative right now.