Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!ncar!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!jessica.stanford.EDU!morgan From: morgan@jessica.stanford.EDU Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk Subject: Re: 254 node limit on ethernet problem (clarified) Message-ID: Date: 22 Mar 88 05:02:35 GMT References: <8803211809.AA13259@scgvaxd.SCG.HAC.COM> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 24 Regarding the 254 node limit on an AppleTalk network: We talked to some people at Apple about this a few weeks ago. While no definite statements were made one way or the other, the impression I got was that they had heard of this problem and were concerned about it, but had no immediate solution. A proper fix involves some real violence to the existing AppleTalk scheme. They admitted that AppleTalk has outgrown its original design goals (as have IP and DECNet, to name two others), and some hard thinking has to be done about where it goes from here. I think the implication is that the fix to this problem would only come along with a top-to-bottom redesign. In the mean time, many of us think it's crazy to run a single logical Ethernet with hundreds or thousands of nodes. Segmenting with routers is the way most people appear to deal with these issues in the IP and DECNet worlds; unfortunately, there's no high-performance AppleTalk router yet. Bug your router vendor to support such a thing. We bug ours. - RL "Bob" Morgan Networking Systems Stanford University