Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!!spurgeon From: spurgeon@.uucp (Charles E. Spurgeon) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans Subject: Re: Thick or Thin Ethernet? Message-ID: <42738@ut-emx.uucp> Date: 18 Jan 91 17:36:19 GMT References: <3832@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp Reply-To: spurgeon@atget.cc.utexas.edu.UUCP (Charles E. Spurgeon) Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas Lines: 42 In article bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) writes: >In article <3832@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> lairdkb@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Kyler Laird) writes: > ...BNC connections occassionally go bad or get knocked out. > >I have *far* fewer problems with well-made BNC cable ends than with >those infernal slidey-clippy bent sheet metal things that thick >Ethernet transceiver cables use to try to hold themselves to their >terminals. Thin, flexible cables with BNC connectors are much more >forgiving of equipment movement and cable abuse in users' offices. If >you decide you must go with thick transceiver cables, at least get >some of the modification kits to retrofit them with positive >screwdowns. We recently purchased some office transceiver cables from Cabletron, and I noticed that the sliding latch on these cables had been redesigned to the point where they work much better. (An office transceiver cable is a lighter weight, shorter distance version of the standard Ethernet transceiver cable.) It's too hard to show in ASCII graphics, but basically the ends of this new sliding latch assembly are physically attached to a raised edge of metal along both long sides of the latch. This means that the weakest portion of this assembly, and the one that used to bend easily, is now fixed in place. The result is that when this sliding latch is attached to a correctly assembled set of mating posts (located on the male end of the 15 pin connector) the connection is much more solid. I hasten to note that a "correctly assembled set of mating posts" can be hard to find on some equipment, notably Sun 3s. I was pleased to see this bit of engineering. The latch has a solid detent feel to the side-to-side motion now, and connections between these cables and transceivers are solid and don't give us any problems. Charles E. Spurgeon | spurgeon@emx.utexas.edu | University of Texas at Austin | ...!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!spurgeon| -------------------------------------------------------------------------