Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!jack!man!nu3b2!rwhite From: rwhite@nu3b2.UUCP (Robert C. White Jr.) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans Subject: Re: Need help with a Novell network question Message-ID: <764@nu3b2.UUCP> Date: Tue, 23-Jun-87 20:50:02 EDT Article-I.D.: nu3b2.764 Posted: Tue Jun 23 20:50:02 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 25-Jun-87 04:32:18 EDT References: <239@irs1.UUCP> Organization: National University, San Diego Lines: 76 Summary: Or else.... In article <239@irs1.UUCP>, kbrown@irs1.UUCP (Ken Brown) writes: > > The vendor wants to install a Novell system which is fine, but > he insists that the hardware has to be ETHERNET boards with coaxial cabling. > The price of the boards is not bad (about $400 each) but the cost of > the coaxial cabling ($3-$4 per foot) is really hiking the cost of the > system. > On a semi relate issue, and by way of an answer... More or less at this point they [the vendor and customer] are asking you to set a building wire standard. Almost every major producer has thrown coax away. [could you immagine running two twisted-pair and one of two coax routes to every place a desk MIGHT be placed in an office?] STAY AWAY FROM COAX AT ALL COSTS. It becomes impossible to route in any quantity unless you have a dedicated riser space [we filled to capacity, a four by six foot riser] We have gone to "STARLAN" which requires two pairs for each station [four if you dasy-chain them] the other two pairs in an four pair may be used to carry voice/digital voice/data lines [with the jacks on the board providing splitters at the customer end but requireing 66-blocks or adapters at the phone room. Acording to "the" man at local supercomputer lab the 10mbs rate of an ethernet gets throtled down two under 1mbs after accounting for collisions, retransmitions, and frameing. Starlan is rated at 1mbs but you get a (1) colision for every thousand (1000) packets on a bad day [if my monitor tells me true] so it evens out [they say they are going to speed it soon, should be nice] STARLAN is a "garenteed deleviery, connection-mode service" which means that each server has some software selectable limit which is frequently quite small [16 machines on an MS-DOS machine, 32 on a 7300, 128 on a 3Bx] at it's largest value. even though that sucks, for a small instalation [as in the 8 you mention] it works well, if the system adds any UNIX machines the same lan will act as a terminal bridge [each PC may get, and use normaly, the login prompt] by virtue of the "connection mode" arcitecture and most of the bizzare peices available will be able to keep over 40,000 addresses in memory so the system can grow in weird ways. If and when you try to go the other systems, have them present you with a sample of the media before you make a decision... Horror Story: A company I know went with "Token Ring" form IBM because it ran on "dual twisted pair" when they discovered what kind of sheath those two pair were in, they realized they would have been better with coax. 1) each pair is about the sixe of zip-cord [like on a table lamp] 2) each pair is wrapped in shielding. 3) the pairs are held together by a nilon sleve. 4) the sleve is wrapped by a structural member, which doubles as an insulation rip-strip 5) the entire assembly is shielded and wrapped in a three layer insulating material. 6) the MINIMUM bend diameter, as stated by the manufacturer, is 10 inches. [as in no sharp corners] 7) the connectors are about 1.5 inches [cubic] with two double interlocked termination flanges for acheiving the electrical connections Try routing that through your office sometime. The little things like this are what some lan manufacturers don't tell you when you order a "high speed twisted pair connection" Incidently the standard for the STARLAN is four pair phone cord, and no I don't work for AT&T, it just happens to be what worked for us. Robert. Disclaimer: My mind is so fragmented by random excursions into a wilderness of abstractions and incipient ideas that the practical purposes of the moment are often submerged in my consciousness and I don't know what I'm doing. [my employers certainly have no idea]