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From: ajq@mace.cc.purdue.edu (John O'Malley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Farallon vs. Nuvotech Star Control
Summary: Some info about the Farallon box
Message-ID: <4299@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 2 Mar 90 18:31:53 GMT
References: <88500008@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu> <314@spt.entity.com>
Reply-To: ajq@mace.cc.purdue.edu (John O'Malley)
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 30

In article <314@spt.entity.com> mdc@spt.UUCP (Marty Connor) writes:
>The Farallon StarController has 12 ports, and basically lets you connect
>up to 12 branches with lots of machines on each branch to each other.

Actually, the Farallon StarController has 12 ports, and each port can have
4 branches.  So, if you limited your network to one device per branch, one
StarController could handle 48 devices.  (We have a Macintosh SE lab with
42 computers and three LaserWriters hooked up in this manner.)

Here's what the StarController manual says about cable length (page 36):

	# branches on a port		Max cable length per branch
		1				3000 feet
		2				1500 feet
		3				1000 feet
		4				 750 feet

Theoretically, each of those 48 branches could have 32 devices on it,
which is the AppleTalk limit, right?  Assuming that the branch didn't
exceed 750 feet in length.

Our "main" AppleTalk network (the one our staff uses), by the way,
has a Farallon StarController.  Branch 1 on each of Ports 1 thru 8 is
in use.  Some branches have 2 or 3 devices on them.  We've had no
problems.

-John
---
John O'Malley           / Macintosh  / Purdue University / (317)
ajq@mace.cc.purdue.edu / Specialist / Computing Center  / 494-1787