roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (07/22/89)
In <Added.cYlViS200UkT4NLU9L@andrew.cmu.edu> johnmark@COYOTE.STANFORD.EDU (John Mark Agosta) writes: > If you do something passive-able and cheap that lasts for a couple years, > aren't you setting yourself up for "network crisis" in (what should be > the forseeable) future. Suggestion. Start off with a passive star, but plan from day one (like we did) that some day you will break the passive hub and put a StarController in its place. When we started our AppleTalk network using PhoneNet over existing 24-gauge twisted pair, we broke wiring rules left and right to save money and time (not a suggested idea, but a testimony to how conservative the PhoneNet specs are, or looking at it another way, how robust the equipment is). BUT, we also had all 4 major branches (one per floor) run up to the same phone closet. When our net finally got so big that it didn't work anymore, all I had to do was install a StarController with associated 66 block, yank out the one jumper which connected the 4 branches, and install individual jumpers to the first 4 ports on our SC. By cutting the mess into 4 less-bad pieces, everything started to work again. Now, we're slowly going back and rearranging the worst parts, but that can be done a bit at a time and with little disruption to the working net. -- Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016 {att,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu "The connector is the network"