smiller@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU (Steven M. Miller) (10/26/89)
The company I work for is about to move into new quarters and were
kicking around several options for connecting our Suns (along with
a few HPs and Symbolics).
Option 1:
Thick Net. This is what we're using now. We've got the cable and
the traceivers to do this. The disadvantage is that moving workstations
around is more involved that we would like.
Option 2:
Thin Net. Moving workstations around is simpler since we would already
have the thin strung through every office. When using thin the number
of ways to break the net seem to be much greater than with thick.
I'm also concerned that error rates, cable distance and throughput may
be affected. Sun's new workstations also don't come with thin adaptors
I have to pay extra for them.
Option 3:
Twisted pair. Farallon supposedly has a new product that allows me
to use a phone system type connection that is supposedly trivial
to reconfigure. I know next to nothing about this and don't know
what the major disadvantages are let along error rates, cable distances
and throughput. Using twisted pair also makes our appletalk network
easier to deal with. We can use the connections for either atalk or
enet.
I'm interested in hearing people's opinions of all the above. As you may
have guessed "reconfigurability" is a hot topic here. If it turns out
that I don't have to give up throughput and reliability the Twisted pair
does sound nice.
Please respond directly to me and I will follow up with a summary of all
responses recieved.
send to smiller@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu
--
-Steven M. Miller, U of MN