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From: andrew@jhereg.osa.com (Andrew C. Esh)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans,comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: 10BaseT installation
Message-ID: <1991Apr9.224333.13034@jhereg.osa.com>
Date: 9 Apr 91 22:43:33 GMT
Organization: Open Systems Architects, Inc., Mpls, MN
Lines: 56

Well, the boss put the kaibosh on the 10baseT soliloquy, so all I can do is
comment on what you folks are talking about. No paper. Something about
having to make money and selling information being our business, and all
that. I suppose I can say a few things though.

10baseT is easier to install, requires less experience to connectorize, and
is more fault tolerant than coax. It is not, as far as we can tell, being
hyped by the box builders to generate sales, since we see a legitimate
application for it.

If you are going to do-it-yourself, make sure you are using cable that is
really rated for 10baseT. I have seen so many wierdo cable type from
non-descript manufacturers that does no do the job. This cheap stuff is
exactly what the cable vendor and your boss with the checkbook are going to
choose for you, so be ready with information. Don't even settle for a
written guarantee from the cable vendor that it's good wire, since such a
guarantee can rarely cover all the trouble and downtime necessary to
replace bad cable.

Don't go over spec. You need a certain number of twists per foot, and you
can't run it further than 100 meters, so stick with it. Fudge, and you pay
the price, or more specifically, you pay people like me to come fix it.

Cards? We have had trouble with a certain vendor's card. My advice is: It's
still early in the game. A few vendors still have cards that don't cut it.
Get an in house demonstration from the vendor. They'll do it for free, if
they think you're going to buy some cards. Run some data back and forth
across them (a process I call flossing), and see if they work okay. The
same goes for hubs. Usually a vendor will let you have a demo unit for a
week. For PCs, you can use a 3c503 card with a small 10baseT transceiver
plugged into the AUI port, and it runs just fine. 10baseT transceivers are
getting smaller and cheaper. We have some that are about the size of a
deck of playing cards cut in half. They're great.

Be careful of EMI. About all I can say is that it gets into 10baseT more
than the other cable types. It comes from some interesting places, many of
which are common in an office environment.

Test equipment? Yes. Use a pair tester. Use a cable scanner. That's about
all I can say about that.

Want some philosophy? 10baseT, ThinNet, ThickNet, and Fiber are all here to
stay. They all have their applications, and none can completely replace any
of the others. Add 10baseT to you list of solutions to apply. Networking is
growing as we speak. There is a lot of work and discovery and development
out there waiting to happen. I started out in Software Engineering, but now
I have made the switch to networking, and I travel all seven layers of the
OSI stack. I love it.

Have fun ...

-- 
Andrew C. Esh			andrew@osa.com
Open Systems Architects, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN 55416-1528
(612) 525-0000			Practicing the OSI Standard