Please consider the following:
1. Switches are smart hubs which maintain "address lists" of each node/box
in it's region. By maintaining lists of addresses, switches reduce
broadcasting, which wastes bandwidth and slows down the system with chatter.
This is the key to the switch.
2. Switches can work effectively in a central location or near local
workgroups. By splicing in a switch in strategic locations, items such as
network hard drives, network printers and other goodies can be taken
advantage of without major upgrades off of some server or other workstation.
This for example, is a flaw I find with Firewire- Firewire, although fast,
runs off a PCI card on a motherboard. This to me means local resource
hogging on the workstation. Ethernet peripherals on the other hand are stand
alone and run on their own power and have their own physical presence. This
makes sharing in central locations, just for physical access purposes alone,
the right choice. Eg.: at help desks and in data centers. As far as
processing power goes, network printers, for example, are confined only to
the amount of memory the can handle. The newer HPs among others run
fantastic and allow job spooling as well as priority address task
management. FYI, I haven't run a printer off of an LPT/printer port in 3
years.
3. Designating 10Mbps does not mean you're getting it and chances are you'll
never achieve it on your machine at home or small office. A way to maximize
usage is to enable duplex communication which allows for the simultaneous
shipping and receiving of network packets. You will notice the difference.
4. Adding gross sums of bandwidth to achieve theoretical maximum bandwidth
numbers is ego bolstering but doesn't really cut the mustard. You have to
look at your topology and work your way down from the top. Due to upgrades,
non -upgradeable and so forth, you're never going to be consistent in every
scenario. You can try though !! <grin> Start with your hardware/software
router(s) and decide on an action plan. Document every move, every cable and
you'll be on your way. Use the best medium you can for the buck and don't
even look back at 10Mbps. Cat5e 350mhz UTP is great and watch your fire
codes, use plenum where necessary. Cable should run 18 in. off of voltage
lines and where crossing is a must, use STP.
5. Just about the best reason to network what you can is the
machine/peripheral dropoff syndrome. With all peripherals on a network
config if a particular computer drops off due to malfunction, other
computers can still use the peripheral, eg. printer, network drive etc..
Just imagine if the computer had the main office printer attached to it !!!
Suddenly users from every which location would feel the same crunch of the
local unit.
Enjoy!
Ed in NJ.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Clark Martin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Mac Network" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 12:06 AM
Subject: Re: Hubs v. Switches
> At 9:36 AM -0400 7/9/01, H. Spencer Young wrote:
> >Can someone give me a quick primer on the advantages of switches vs. hubs
on
> >a small appletalk network with about 20 machines using file sharing?
>
>
> Switches are the most help where you do NOT have a single central
> server. In such a situation most of the traffic is to/from the
> server and the switch won't help for this. The exception to this is
> the case where the server is 100BaseT and many of the clients are
> 10BaseT. Theoretically one 100BaseT server can, via a switch, feed
> 10 machines with 10BaseT and each gets the full 10Mbps bandwidth. A
> dual speed hub combines all the 10BaseT together through a 10Mbps
> connection to the 100BaseT side.
>
> --
> Clark Martin
> Macintosh Consultant
> Another designated driver on the Information Super Highway
>
--
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