Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mailrus!ames!pacbell!belltec!lance
From: lance@belltec.UUCP (Lance Norskog)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: Simple thin ethernet question
Summary: Comments
Message-ID: <383@belltec.UUCP>
Date: 26 Jul 89 20:08:14 GMT
References: <2946@ukecc.engr.uky.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Bell Technologies, Fremont, CA
Lines: 47

In article <2946@ukecc.engr.uky.edu>, agollum@engr.uky.edu (Kenneth Herron) writes:
> Hello,
> 
> our company is moving into new offices, and we're having the thin
> ethernet prewired along with the phone lines.  
>
> ...
> 
> My question is quite simple:  all the docs we have on installing the
> cables show both halves of the cable running right up to the back of the
> computer, and the T connector attaching directly to the network card
> in the PC.  Does it HAVE to be this way?  Can we keep the main cable 
> and the T in the wall and run a short piece of cable to the network card?
> How long can this stub piece be?  Assuming we can't do this,
> any suggestions for doing this wiring aesthetically?
> 
> Many thanks in advance,
> Kenneth Herron

I have two comments to make about your questions:
	
	1) No, you can't run a stub from the tee to the computer.
           I'd tell you why, but I flunked analog electronics.
	   Ethernet pushes electrical cable to the outer limits
	   of its usefulness.

	2) You have picked a bad time to ask advice from the net.
	   If you run thin Ethernet, aka rg-58, through the wall, you'll be
	   sorry.  Morning, noon and night.  You'll go to the Justice
	   of the Peace and change your name to Job.  Thin Ethernet is 
	   unreliable (in particular the connectors) and was designed
	   as a cheap alternative to Ethernet.  It is only suitable for
	   connecting one or more computers in the same room.

Ethernet through the wall should today be thick Ethernet (big yellow cable)
or tranceiver cables.  You should put a 4-, 8-, or 16-port multiport 
transceiver in each room which has more than one computer.

Ethernet through the wall tomorrow should probably be done with the
Ethernet-over-Twisty-Pair standard that is working it's way out of the womb.
(Ignore all recommendations about Twisty Ethernet until it's a standard,
and standard equipment has been shipping for at least 6 months so that the
industry can discover the gotchas by living with them.)
	
Lance Norskog
Sales Engineer
Streamlined Networks