He try to convince me that even if I've got a very good server, cables, fast ethernet on the clients if the switch is what him defines "a cheaper switch" all the stuff could work very bad.
He tells that the x protocols is not as fast as other protocols... is windows terminal services faster? :-) I've not asked this to him.
"not as fast", hmmm... I know that windows TS can be quite slow too.
It's a matter of bandwith what he means probably. The X protocol has some large overhead and so occupies more time "on the wire" than the RDP that windows uses. If this results in slower reaction speed on the terminals I don't know... I'd assume this can only be measured when the link is "full" (the network is working at 99% capacity).
This sound a little bit amazing because in the lab I've tested at the school I work, the lab and NICs are 10/100 but there is an hub/switch... a device that is less smart that a switch isn't it?
I'm not an hardware guru, I just know the difference between an HUB and a switch and how a switch works. I've never heard about the think he talks about... someone can tell me if a switch like the one I've choosed will really slow down the LTSP lab? And more important, the think about the two stacks is true? Someone knows an internet document about that?
Just a short explanation: Most cheap switch products (and there are cheap ones out there, I paid 78 EUR for a 24port 19" mountable forget-which-brand switch) that support 10/100 are in reality two switches - each port is automatically connected to the "10" switch or the "100" switch according to its speed, and those switches are interconnected. If there is no 10M device connected, that won't matter at all (at least no unicast traffic will pass over to the 10M switch, and that's most of what's on the wire). The better products seem to have only a 100m switch inside with an 10m converter for each port or so.
This is as good as I know - if I'm in error about all this, someone please tell me.
Buy 24 rtl8139 100mbit network cards at 3,8 EUR each + cheap 78 EUR switch is less than 170 EUR. Throwing away all 10MBit nics, you wouldn't notice a difference to the cisco stuff.
If you invest some 200 EUR more you can get a switch with a gigabit uplink port and connect the server to it. That's indeed what I heard of many people as a recommendation - the indivi-duh-al terminals won't suck the network speed, what matters is the server. At least in LTSP surroundings. Having all PCs networked at gigabit is also cool in a home network where all films reside on 320GB LVM linux disc and can be watched everywhere at no speed-problems :-)
HTH,
Anselm
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