>>>Are you using a HUB? If you link them together directly; it won't work.
>>
>>Not quite true; you need a UTP cross over cable, then it will work. It won't work with a standard UTP patch cable.
>True; very true. But the original post said "UTP" cable; not a cross-over. Unless you KNOW you have a crossover; you more likely have a regular patch cable...

You're right... I sometimes ask sales clerks at computer stores if they have crossover cables. If they give me a blank stare, that tells me one thing. If they say "Sure..." but they DON'T ask me what I intend to use it for, that tells me something else... If I play dumb and ask them what they're used for, on rare occasions they'll actually know. Not very often, though.

What's even worse is that in most cases, once it's out of its packet, it's impossible to tell the difference between a crossover cable and a regular patch cable. So people use them incorrectly and get the types of hardware or driver-level messages mentioned in the original post.

In most cases it's actually easier to buy a hub and standard patch cables than a crossover cable. I just wanted to make sure no-one got the misimpression that it's impossible to interconnect 2 10BASE-T PCs without a hub.