Need help with building database

[Brian]

I am writing a database to keep track of Network Equipment.
Table Equip_1
ID,Node,Card,Slot,Port,Channel
Table Equip_2
ID,Card,Port
Table Equip_3
ID,Shelf,Card,Port
As you can see no piece of equipment is the same.
They all connect to DSX panels
Table DSX
ID,RR,Shelf,Port

then connections are made between the equipment by crosswiring from one
DSX to another.
Equip_1:1,1,1,5,1,1 -> DSX:1,303.03,15,3 -> DSX:2,303.03,17,22 ->
Equip_2:1,1,1

I am having trouble figuring out how to design this relationship. I
want to be able to pull up information in the following manner:

Look at Equip X and see what is connected to it
Look at DSX ###.## Shelf # and see what is connected to it
Look at the connections between Equip X and Equip Y
Look at the connections between DSX ###.## Shelf # and Dsx ###.## SHelf
#
etc

I have tried putting the dsx info in the same table as the equip since
the connection between the equip and it's own dsx will never change but
can figure out haw to connect the tables from there.

I have tried making a new table call crossdsx which shows what connects
to what but the fact that each equipment has different fields makes it
not work.

Possible connections could be
a-b,a-c,b-c,a-a,b-b,c-c

Please help, any advice is appreciated.

[lesperancer]

so you have 3 types of equipment, so you could use one table with an
'equipment type' field
tblEquipment
equipmentID autonumber
equipmentType (ie. 1, 2, 3)
Node (1)
Card (1) (2) (3)
Slot (1)
Port (1) (2) (3)
Channel (1)
shelf (3)

tblDSX
dsxID
RR
shelf
port

so in tblEquipment we have 2 rows of data

equipmentID 7 9 (can be anything)
equipmentType 1 2
Node 1
Card 1 1
Slot 5 1
Port 1
Channel 1
shelf

and tblDSX has 2 rows
dsxID 1 2
RR 303.03 303.03
shelf 15 17
port 3 22

so now we can have many pieces equipment connected to many DSX's, so we
need another table

tblDsxEquipment, with 2 rows of data
dsxId 1 2
equipmentId 7 9
dsxCrossWireId 2 1

so now we have equipment (7) wired to dsx (1), crosswired to dsx (2)
wired to equipment (9)
and to answer your queries (air-code)

Look at Equip X and see what is connected to it
select b.equipmentId
from tblDsxEquipment as a INNER JOIN tblDsxEquipment as b on
a.dsxCrossWireId = b.dsxId
where a.equipmentId = 7

Look at DSX ###.## Shelf # and see what is connected to it
select a.equipmentId
from tblDsxEquipment as a inner join tblDsx as b on a.dsxId =
b.dsxId
where b.RR = 303.03 and b.shelf = 15

Look at the connections between Equip X and Equip Y
select b.equipmentId
from tblDsxEquipment as a INNER JOIN tblDsxEquipment as b on
a.dsxCrossWireId = b.dsxId
where a.equipmentId = 7 and b.equipmentId = 9

Look at the connections between DSX ###.## Shelf # and Dsx ###.## SHelf

select a.equipmentId , b.equipmentId
from tblDsxEquipment as a inner join tblDsx as b on a.dsxId =
b.dsxId
where b.RR = 303.03 and b.shelf = 15 and a.RR = 303.03 and a.shelf
= 17