Xref: utzoo comp.dcom.lans:2791 comp.misc:6027
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!kwe
From: kwe@bu-cs.BU.EDU (kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent W. England))
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Installing Thinwire Ethernet
Summary: Look at the AMP Thinnet Tap System
Message-ID: <30875@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 9 May 89 17:55:30 GMT
References: <1381@ndmath.UUCP>
Reply-To: kwe@buit13.bu.edu (Kent England)
Followup-To: comp.dcom.lans
Organization: Boston U. Information Technology
Lines: 44

In article <1381@ndmath.UUCP> milo@ndmath.UUCP (Greg Corson) writes:
>
>So, how can you wire 10-20 offices so they can all easily tap into the 
>thinwire?  The installation has to be neet...no big loops of cable hanging
>down from the ceeling...etc.  All the offices would have to be on the same
>segment of thinwire...sending a seperate thinwire cable to each one isn't
>practical because there are TO MANY offices.
>
>I suppose you could put in a wallplate with two BNC connectors and install
>a short jumper when the outlet isn't in use.  When you connected a computer
>you would run cable from one connector, to the T on the back of the computer
>and back to the other connector on the wall plate.  I'm sure there must be
>a better way than this though.  Anybody got any good ideas?
>
	Are you sure you don't work for AMP?  This question sounds
like the perfect set-up for telling you about AMP's new Thinnet Tap
System.  Some of you may have heard of it, but if not...

	AMP has designed a new cabling gizmo to alleviate some of the
problems of daisy-chaining thinnet thru walls among strings of offices
and labs.

	There is a wallplate with a single connector that brings a
dual coax out of the wall and terminates on a BNC.  This is just like
using two BNCs on the wall with two patch cords and a T, with an
important exception-  the AMP wallplate connector has shorting bars to
restore the net when you unplug the dual-coax patch cord.

	Unplugging the workstation from the BNC should not present a
problem, so there you have it:  all thinnet daisychaining problems
solved. 

	Well, not quite, in my opinion.  I feel obliged to tell you
that if you go daisy chaining to the max you will live to regret it.
But, perhaps, a moderate degree of daisy chaining could be tolerated
if this AMP gizmo really works as advertised.  I am a little nervous
about the shorting bars and the connector itself.  So, don't say I
didn't warn you and don't make the mistake of thinking that I am
saying that daisy chaining is OK.  I am not.

	But this is interesting enough that I would like to try a few
out and see how practical they are.

	Does anyone else have an opinion yet on this approach?