🚀 go-pugleaf

In article Frank@mindlink.bc.ca (Frank I. Reiter) writes:
>In a recent column in OST James Gaskin suggests that system administrators
>should be converting ethernets from coax to 10BaseT and *not* investing
>anything more in coax.  

hmm, how nice of OST.  don't suppose they mentioned that you should kill
your unix boxes and put up OS/2, NT or Netware?  or even better, putting in
an AS/400, cause it so easy to get one, "just point and order".

>I put two questions to the readers of this group:
>
>1) Do you concur with Mr. Gaskin that coax is dead or dying?

for new buildings, dead, except for the possibiliy of backbone pulls of
thick coax to connect wiring centres, but then you might consider fiber.
'
for existing buildings, if you are pulling new cable, pull UTP.  you
will probably save some money on media.  you will spend it later in hubs.

twisted pair gives you more options, ethernet, token ring, CDDI (copper version
of FDDI), etc.

as far as converting coax to twisted pair, it's your call. if what you have
works, keep it.  you can connect 10baseT and thinnet networks.

>2) What options are available for small (less than a dozen nodes) networks
>currently running coax and wanting to move to 10BaseT?  For example, I
>understand that 10BaseT topology has all nodes wired to hubs - are there hubs
>available which are cost effective for small networks?

hubs come in many sizes, 4, 8, 12, 16 port stan alone, racks which take 8/12,
16 port cards, etc.
another selection you can make is "manageable" hubs.  hubs with SNMP management
tend to be almost double the cost (my experience) but worth it.

i find that coax is cool for tabletop/workbecnch testing, or workgroups that
have reasonable airspace around them.

having UTP throughout the building now allows us to wire 10baseT, Starlan1,
tokenring, RS232 and other stuffwith the same wire.  life is much better.

-- 
[ Jim Mercer   Reptilian Research  merce@iguana.reptiles.org  +1 416-506-0654 ]
[                      longer life through colder blood                       ]