Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!apple!agate!shelby!lindy!rt-jqj.Stanford.EDU!jqj
From: jqj@rt-jqj.Stanford.EDU (JQ Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: AppleTalk Zones in Chooser
Message-ID: <8885@lindy.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 10 Apr 90 16:56:12 GMT
References: <28399@ubvax.UB.Com> <431@mck-csc.UUCP> <3174@oakhill.UUCP>
Sender: root@lindy.Stanford.EDU (Rooter)
Reply-To: jqj@rt-jqj.Stanford.EDU (JQ Johnson)
Lines: 23

Tom Johnson (tomj@oakhill.UUCP) writes:

>you should try to keep the number of users/zone down to somewhere on the
>order of 32.  While this implies that you will have something like 100 zones,
>it does NOT necessarily mean you must have 100 zone names. If you
>give two gateways (with different IP numbers) the same NAME, this name will
>only show up once.  We do this here (50 zones names, about 100 zones, and
about 3000 machines).

It should be noted that, more precisely, several Appletalk NETWORKS may be
in the same ZONE.  In the above example, there were in fact only 50 zones
but 100 networks.  The soft limit of 32 or so nodes per network only applies 
to Localtalk cabling, by the way; it is quite reasonable to have more nodes 
on an individual Ethertalk (phase I) network.  Think of zones as primarily
administrative entities, and networks as primarily network topological 
entities.

JQ Johnson                              voice: 415-723-3078
Manager, Special Projects               Internet: jqj@jessica.stanford.edu
Networking and Communications Systems
Pine Hall Rm 125-A 
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4122