morgan@JESSICA.STANFORD.EDU (06/03/88)
>> Can you mix Phonenet and Appletalk wiring on the same cable? I was >> under the impression that phonenet cable only worked with phonenet >> transceivers, and the same for Apple cabling and transceivers. Please >> enlighten me. > The official word is: > a) Don't mix PhoneNET and LocalTalk if you can possibly avoid it. > b) If you can't avoid it, do it only once per net. > If you are going to convert from LocalTalk to PhoneNET, it is probably > because you have outgrown the limitations of LocalTalk. My personal > recommendation is to just do an entire replacement. I'm not saying Here's a real-world example. We used to have an overly-long LocalTalk network that ran around our main office area connecting up about 14 devices (Macs, a Kinetics box, a 3Com 3Server). It had a repeater in the middle of it, and performed acceptably. When we expanded to other parts of the building, we decided to go with PhoneNET and a StarController (SC). We put the SC in our building telephone wiring closet. At first we tried just having PhoneNET segments over telephone wire going to the outlying offices, and having the original LocalTalk network be one large segment. This caused much pain, as the LocalTalk-with-repeater-to-StarController segment worked "most of the time", with many CRC errors showing up when we ran peek. The solution was to break up the LocalTalk network into several (5) smaller pieces, running each one back to the SC. Now each segment consists of a run of standard telephone cable from the SC to a jack near someone's desk, a PhoneNET connector on the first device, a PhoneNET to LocalTalk adapter cable, and a string of LocalTalk cabling and connectors to 2-3 other devices. Runs like a champ. Now our only problem is people randomly reconnecting the leftover LocalTalk cable, thinking they're "helping out" . . . - RL "Bob" Morgan "It works for us" Networking Systems Stanford