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From: jonathan@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Jonathan)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Query: Token ring vs Ethernet for IBM PCs
Message-ID: <13065@comp.vuw.ac.nz>
Date: Mon, 2-Nov-87 22:40:05 EST
Article-I.D.: comp.13065
Posted: Mon Nov  2 22:40:05 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Nov-87 20:47:41 EST
Organization: Comp Sci, Victoria Univ., Wellington, New Zealand
Lines: 40

The Commerce faculty here is acquiring 50-100 PC-AT clones
which they want to network together and to an IBM mainframe (4381).

Currently there is an Ethernet on campus connecting various Unix and VMS
machines running TCP/IP (4.[23] bsd, and CMU/Tek on VMS), DECnet, and DEC's
LAT.

The Commerce faculty favours a token ring to connect the PCs to
3Com fileservers, apparently because they believe the Token Ring will perform
better under heavy loads (eg, booting a labful of ATs from the server
at the same time).

Given the current campus setup, we see  Ethernet for the PCs and 4381 as
a possibly more viable alternative.

We would like to find out the following:

* are the Commerce Faculty's fears of saturating an Ethernet justified?
  We have no experience with Token Rings, and do not know how their
  performance compares with Ethernet. However, we do not think that the PCs
  will  generate sufficient Ethernet traffic to cause concern.

* What protocols would the PCs use to talk to the 4381 over Token Ring?
   What facilities would these protocols provide?
   How would they inter-operate with the existing protocols on the Ethernet?

* What is the availability/reliability/cost of Token Ring/Ethernet gateways?

* What experience have people had with Ethernet for IBM mainframes
  (software and hardware) ?
 
* The Commerce faculty already has a number of Macs. How would they fit
  into a Token Ring network? (We know this isn't a problem for Ethernet; we
  are using Kinetics boxes.)

Any advice or information you can give us will be gratefully received.
-- 
						|``Toto, I have a feeling we're
Sane mailers: jonathan@comp.vuw.ac.nz           |  not in Kansas anymore ...''
UUCP: ...!uunet!vuwcomp!jonathan                |      - Dorothy,arriving in Oz