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From: scarter@caip.RUTGERS.EDU (Stephen M. Carter)
Newsgroups: net.dcom
Subject: Re: Office networking ala RS-232
Message-ID: <2235@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Mon, 12-May-86 04:01:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: caip.2235
Posted: Mon May 12 04:01:24 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 14-May-86 06:51:45 EDT
References: <532@gould9.UUCP> <11620@amdcad.UUCP> <6674@utzoo.UUCP>
Reply-To: scarter@caip.UUCP (Stephen M. Carter)
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 17
Keywords: patch panel, cabling

In article <6674@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>> >First, how many wires would I need? 

>> You can get by with 6 for terminals and modems (TD,RD,DTR,DCD,SG)...
>
>Actually, for terminals (and only for terminals) you can get by with 3
>wires (TD, RD, SG).

More so, you can get away with only two wires and make the building the signal
ground!  We do it here at Rutgers and most of our terminals use 25 pair trunk
cables with a pair for each terminal.  Lengths are a long as 350 feet at 9600
bps without problems.  The old school of thought suggested that removing
individual ground lines would prevent ground loops.  Also, it sure tells you
very fast when there is a problem with the safety ground of the individual
outlets...  I do not suggest this method unless you know that the building has
a solid ground in all areas.   It sure puts a strange look on the user's
faces when you come up to fix a dead terminal by a wiggle of the power plug :-)