[lug] linux router project

[Wayde Allen]

On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, PC Drew wrote:

> "To understand recursion, we must first understand recursion."
> 
> On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, Glenn Ashton wrote:
> 
> > Perhaps their objections are real.  10base2 can be very flakey.  Does
> > anyone else on the list know if the network people's objection to a media
> > converter is valid?  I'd be curious to know.
> 
> 
> Out of pure ignorance, here's a question: why not upgrade to Ethernet?  Granted,
> I don't know very much about token ring or any of these other topologies, but
> I do know ethernet.  And I do know that it works, it's fast, and it's good.
> 
> Do they not want to upgrade because it would cost too much money?
> 
> If anyone can elighten me as to why 10base2 is better than ethernet, I'd appreciate
> it.

10base2 "IS" ethernet, at least as far as I know.  You still use the
TCP/IP protocol in a 10base2 network.  Also, it isn't really a ring, but
rather a chain of computers with an termination on the end of the line. 
The problem with 10base2 is that a break in the line cuts off all of the
machines down stream, and the RF reflections caused by poor terminations
can cause standing waves on the line.  (We ran 10base2 here at NIST for
quite a while and I ended up at local minimum in a standing wave several
times.) 

As for the media converters, I've never known these to cause any real
problems unless they are equiped with a termination switch, and the switch
is set incorrectly.  If the termination is wrong you get standing waves.
When that happens, some of the computers work while others don't.

- Wayde
  (wallen at boulder.nist.gov)