Vampire tap

A vampire tap (also called a piercing tap) is a device for physically connecting a station, typically a computer, to a network that used 10BASE5 cabling. This device clamped onto and "bit" into the cable (hence the name "vampire"), inserting a probe through a hole drilled using a special tool through the outer shielding to contact the inner conductor, while other spikes bit into the outer conductor.

The vampire tap usually had an integrated AUI (Attachment Unit Interface) in the form of a DA-15 connector, from which a short multicore cable connected to the network card in the station (host computer).

Vampire taps allowed new connections to be made on a given physical cable while the cable was in use. This allowed administrators to expand bus topology network sections without interrupting communications. Without a vampire tap, the cable had to be cut and connectors had to be attached to both ends.

See also

• Network tap
• Insulation-displacement connector

References

1. Tap
2. 10BASE5
3. Ethernet
4. Network tap
5. Vampire (disambiguation)
6. Medium Attachment Unit
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
8. Classic Ethernet
9. TCP offload engine
10. IDC (electrical connector)
11. The Southern Vampire Mysteries
12. Medium-dependent interface
13. List of vampire video games
14. The Fearless Vampire Killers
15. Ethernet physical layer
16. Blade: The Series
17. Zoë Tapper
18. Zoey Deutch
19. The Case Study of Vanitas
20. Phoebe Tonkin