opentable

December 4, 2010 1:38 PM

What do I need to know about installing a cat-5 cord in order to run opentable? Their documentation is a bit light on details...

It seems that all I do is run a cat-5 Ethernet cord from my pre-existing dsl router to the host station. In me experience nothing is as simple as it seems, so, am I missing something? I'd like to not pay someone to do this if it's something I can do myself.

posted by elwoodwiles to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Yeah, it's probably that simple, assuming the host station has a network device to begin with, and if the machine was purchased in the last 7-8 years or so, and wasn't extreme bargain-basement, it probably does. You may have to configure the host station to use DHCP, but assuming the machine we're talking about runs Windows, it comes that way right out of the box.

The bottom line: Just try it and see what happens. Plugging a cat-5 cable into a PC and a DSL router is staggeringly unlikely to break anything physical, so there's no harm in trying.
posted by deadmessenger at 1:59 PM on December 4, 2010

Response by poster: Oh, just to clarify open table is this. And the host stand is where the host stands.
posted by elwoodwiles at 2:37 PM on December 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

Not everything with an RJ-45 connector is ethernet. Point of sale systems, among other industries, are notorious for making non-standard use of various ports. So be sure it's an actual ethernet port before you start plugging stuff into it.
posted by wkearney99 at 6:56 PM on December 4, 2010

Slight derail, but you should read this before signing up with Open Table.

http://incanto.biz/2010/10/22/is-opentable-worth-it/
posted by intermod at 8:09 PM on December 4, 2010

To me, it sounds like they're trying to say that in order to use open table in your restaurant, the host station requires a computer with an internet connection. I have no first hand experience with this though.
posted by soplerfo at 5:44 AM on December 5, 2010

Best answer: A CAT5 cable is just the technical name for a type of network cable - it's the standard ethernet network cable that everything uses these days. Basically, by running a network cable from that LAN port on your DSL router to an ethernet network port on your PC (any PC from the ohh, last 8 years should have one as standard) it will connect to your DSL that way, rather than via wireless - it will get a DHCP address automatically from your router, and you should be all set with a more reliable, faster connection.

Just in case your PC isn't set to use DHCP over ethernet, here's a quick guide for XP. If you're running something else, it's easy enough to find a guide for that OS too, just let us know.
posted by ArkhanJG at 12:26 PM on December 5, 2010