Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!vtserf!GroupW.cns.vt.edu!jcrowder
From: jcrowder@GroupW.cns.vt.edu (Jeff Crowder)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: 10Base-T hubs
Message-ID: <1593@vtserf.cc.vt.edu>
Date: 10 Apr 91 21:09:58 GMT
References: <1991Apr08.171237.19978@shl.com> <1582@vtserf.cc.vt.edu> <1991Apr9.181721.15560@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: news@vtserf.cc.vt.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: Va Tech Communications Resources
Lines: 64

In article <1991Apr9.181721.15560@leland.Stanford.EDU> morgan@Panther.Stanford.EDU (RL "Bob" Morgan) writes:
>
>Re 10Base-T:
>Hmm, my numbers show that 10Base-T is cheaper in almost every case
>The cheapest thinnet MPR we've found has 9 ports (8 thin + 1 AUI) and
> ...
> (a bunch of strange mumblings) 
> ...
>So, comparing variable costs for an 8-station network (which puts
>thinnet in the best light):
>
>Thin:
>Repeater:            $1300
>Cable installation:    800
>                      ----
>                      2100
>10Base-T:
>Repeater:              700
>Cable installation:    650
>                      ----
>                      1350
>
>So 10Base-T wins already, not even considering that we have 4 ports
>Even if all this weren't already compelling enough, an enormous win in
>our situation is that our on-campus telephone people are prepared to
>install these kinds of nets using their existing techs who already
>know how to handle twisted pair cable.  This simply wasn't the case
>for thinnet.  We're working out the procedures now so they can just

(Sorry if this thread is getting wearisome but I think this warrants
response...)

Uh, excuse me Bob but what the hell are you talking about?

Of COURSE you daisy chain offices together with thinwire.  I mean, after
all you have more than 600' to play with.  You'd have to be NUTS to
dedicate each port on a thinwire MR to a single user!  (Unless of course
you have bucks to throw away which I doubt many of us do.)
We probably average 10 hosts on a segment.  Plug THAT into your
numbers.

And your telephone installers must be total losers if they can't handle
coaxial cable at all.  My installers picked it up in about 5 minutes.
The designers took a bit longer, maybe 15 minutes.  We've had the
process integrated into the work order infrastructure for quite a
while.
 
And its nit picking but I take exception to your assertion that utp is
actually cheaper to install.  I can buy good thinwire for about 8 cents
per foot and level 4 UTP for about 10 cents per foot.  I know you don't
need level 4 cable for ethernet but I wouldn't install anything else
these days.  I figure it costs me about $130 per workstation to do a
nice job with either.  EXCEPT where I DO have hosts colocated, I can do
the marginal unit for next to nothing with thinwire.  With UTP I have to
go a whole extra cable and port OR buy one of those converter units.

If you want, I'll forward a some spreadsheets done for actual
network comparisons.  

Wow...

Jeff Crowder
Virginia Tech
jcrowder@GroupW.cns.vt.edu