What is a "Micro-repeater"? + Other questions about hubs and such

[Limey6413]

Ok, Heres the story, I live in a dorm room with one rj45 jack. If you have more than one computer in the room, they loan you a hub. I got this hub, it has 4 ports on it, and when I plug one into the wall jack and the other into my other 2 computers, it works fine, splitting the connection. I bought a 16 port XLNT designs QuickEther hub. No matter how I connect it to the wall jack OR the little hub, it shows no link on that port. I've tried it in port one, and in port 16. if I just plug the 2 computers in, they see each other, but of course, no internet connection. Also, on the back of my hub, there are 2 connectors, a 25 pin and a 9 pin.... what are these for? and on the LCD panel in front, I can set all types of things, like I can set and IP address? Why would I want to do that? I dont know, please, someone make sense of this!!

thanks,
Limey6413

 

[cavingjan]

It sounds like the old hub has an uplink port and your new one doesn't.
If you don't have an uplink port, you will just need to get a crossover cable to plug the new hub into the wall jack. Also, some hubs have a button to switch a port (1 or 16 - model dependant) into an uplink port. Give a look see for this too.