Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!keinstr!brinich
From: brinich@keinstr.uucp (Mark Brinich)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: 10Base-T hubs
Message-ID: <1991Apr10.132856.8077@keinstr.uucp>
Date: 10 Apr 91 13:28:56 GMT
References: <1548@vtserf.cc.vt.edu> <1991Apr08.171237.19978@shl.com> <1582@vtserf.cc.vt.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Keithley Instruments, Cleveland, Ohio
Lines: 18

In article <1582@vtserf.cc.vt.edu> jcrowder@GroupW.cns.vt.edu (Jeff Crowder) writes:
>
>Well, I can appreciate that a manageable hub should provide better fault
>isolation and diagnostic capabilities.  In real terms, however,
>we've had only 3 physical layer failures which required dispatching a
>diagnostician within the last 14 months on a campus wide network
>connecting several thousand machines.  Thinwire coax *installed
>properly* (i.e. good stress relief and careful connector installation)
>is quite reliable.  Of course, a modicum of user training is
>recommended; it does not help to have a geology professor unplug the
>cable from the tee on his machine.
>
I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents worth, as I have looked at this issue both at my current position, and in my previous life.  Given budget constraints, it seems that coax, properly installed, is the way to go.  In addition to this AMP (along with Black Box, DEC, etc.)has a very good wiring system that does away with all the bad traits of coax.  With this wiring scheme you can unplug your Ethernet cable either at the wall connector they supply or at your workstation without bringing down your ethernet segm




ent.  Properly installed this also eliminates user access to the coax itself.  Thus you have eliminated all the bad traits of thin coax.  UTP still has the advantage of isolating a problem quickly, but with AMP's wiring system you still have the capability of removing a station without affecting the rest of the Ethernet, just as you do with UTP.  I'd be a full supporter of UTP if it weren't so expensive/node for equipment.  In fact if I were putting in new cabling in a building, I'd put in both thin and UT




P.  That way if UTP ever comes down in price, you can use it.  But of course by the time that happens 10mbit/sec is going to be too slow for everyone, and you'll be looking at something else by then.
-- 
Mark Brinich
voice mail(or maybe the real live thing)216 498-2821
e-mail   uunet!keinstr!brinich
Keithley Instruments  28775 Aurora Rd. Cleveland, Ohio 44139-1891