Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!gatech!ulysses!smb
From: smb@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Steven M. Bellovin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: Token Ring (was: Re: Info on LANs)
Message-ID: <11054@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>
Date: 3 Jan 89 02:46:36 GMT
References: <12786@cup.portal.com> <920001@hposdl.HP.COM> <10777@s.ms.uky.edu> <18659@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 14

In article <18659@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, glass@tehran.berkeley.edu (Brett Glass) writes:
> The net can be reconfigured without bringing
> it down (Try to do that with Ethernet!). You can't afford to shut
> down a business to add or remove a node on a network.

That depends on your topology and wiring techniques; if done right,
it's easy.  For office environments, I'm fond of star-wired 802.3,
using either thinwire coax or the newer twisted-pair schemes; for
machine-room environments, one can either use that or standard coax
with vampire-tap transceivers.  Neither requires a net to be shut down
to add or delete stations.

I'm *not* going to get into the 802.3 vs. token ring religious wars
(I hope), but the advantages and disadvantages are not quite that simple.