> Subject: Coax sizes for 'thicknet' type Ethernet

> Does anybody remember what size coaxial cable, that was used for the
> backbone for AUI type Ethernet?

Various people have explained what the medium is for 10base5
("thicknet"), which I assume is what you want.  I'm writing in response
to the "AUI != 10base5" point, in particular in response to your reply
to Greg Woods:

> In this context, I meant the coaxial cable that the AUI devices,
> example the ST-500 from Cabletron, would attach to.

Not all AUI devices attach to coaxial cable; I have three that
terminate in RJ45-type connectors (10baseT)...and of those that do use
coaxial cable, not all use 10base5 co-ax; I have a few more AUI devices
that have 10base2 ("thinnet") connectors.  And yes, I've seen several
that attach to 10base5 co-ax too.

This note is largely another attempt to keep people from confusing AUI
with thicknet.  (Unfortunately NetBSD's use of "media" in places like
ifconfig(8) doesn't help; sometimes it really does refer to networking
media, sometimes also to the way the medium is used, and sometimes to
the connector(!) rather than the networking medium.  Even the manpage
propagates this confusion; it says, in part, "Setting the media type to
``10base5'' or ``AUI'' would change the currently active connector to
the AUI port.  Setting it to ``10baseT'' or ``UTP'' would activate
twisted pair.".  10base5 and UTP really are media types (though UTP is
arguably overbroad); AUI is a connector, and 10baseT is not just UTP
but a specific way of using UTP.)

Unfortunately, given the state of networking hardware, I'm not sure how
fixable this last is - which is probably more or less why it happened
in the first place.

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
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