[lug] NIC fact/fiction

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Fri, Aug 04, 2000 at 11:24:51AM -0700, John Dickerson wrote:
>One should never, repeat never, plug in or unplug a cable with an electronic
>system turned on.  John

Oh?  So I should power down my laptop before plugging it in?  PCMCIA?
USB?  Since most computers have "soft power down" with "wake on LAN",
that would indicate that you would need to fully pull the plug on a
machine before mucking with the network cable.

Considering that the other end of the network cable is connected to a
hub or switch that's probably running, the idea of not plugging anything
in to a live system is likely to remain only an ideal.  Most organizations
aren't going to power down their switch, plug in the computer, then
power on the switch and machine, every time a network connection is
fiddled with.

I've never seen a "don't plug in while system is active" recommendation
on networking gear.  Any company that built their equipment such that it
had problems with that would likely not do a very good business in that
equipment.

Basicly, I figure everything on the back panel is fair game for hot-connection
except SCSI.  Keyboards and mice may not be recognised after doing so,
but usually modems and printers and joysticks and USB and network and
sound and video I've had no problems with...

On the other hand, I do have a pair of speakers for my laptop which pull
power from the PS/2 port.  Every laptop I've tried will immediately power
down when this device is plugged in...  That *CAN* happen if you do
hot plugging on a device that's not meant for it (like PCMCIA, network,
and USB).

Sean
-- 
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Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python