Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!phri!roy From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip Subject: Re: Thick or Thin Keywords: thinnet, thicknet, costs, transceivers, xcvrs Message-ID: <4028@phri.UUCP> Date: 4 Oct 89 14:22:07 GMT References: <42457@sgi.sgi.com> <2781@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY) Lines: 31 In <2781@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> andy@gollum.hcf.jhu.edu (Andy Poling) writes: > We still use thicknet for the "backbone" (inter-building cabling) and for > some "building risers" for [...] greater (perceived at least) durability > under the sometimes adverse conditions encountered I suppose the thick trunk cable is pretty tough, and the way the typical vampire tap xciever connects to the cable is pretty good, but the stupid D-15 connectors for the xciever drop cable is a disaster. The xciever ends don't give us any trouble because they are hidden away in a ceiling or wall where nobody can touch them, and we have the drop cable firmly lashed to the trunk cable with 2 or 3 nylon cable ties to keep them from shifting. On the other hand, the connection from the xciever cable to the workstations is our single most common cause of network failures. You just can't take a stiff heavy cable and expect it to stay attached to a flimsy slide-lock widget, especialy where the cable and/or the workstation are capable of being moved by accident. The Sun 3/50 is about the worst in this respect. We've totally given up on thick cable for PC's too. Our DEC, Kinetics, and TCL gear seem to have somewhat better designed slides, but still suffer from the inherent absurdity of the basic design. Our UB gear has the slide locks replaced with screws. It makes for a non-standard cable, but at least it doesn't fall out (this is, by the way, about the only good thing I can think to say about our UB ethernet bridges). We have a few machines in one office suite on thin (with a DEC DESPR thick-to-thin repeater) and have never had any trouble with the connections at all. -- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu "The connector is the network"