drs@ax61.bnl.gov (01/18/91)
I'd like to tap into your opinions. My company has a large installed base of thick ethernet and fiber. We are putting an addition onto our building, and a decision seems to have been made (without any discussion) to wire the building with twisted pair wiring and provide 10Base-T access to the network rather than coax. Doing this probably involves 5% of the companies computers. My questions are 1) Does it make sense to use 10Base-T in new construction where the expertise of the company is heavily weighted toward coax and fiber, and 2) Are there better alternatives than coax or twisted pair given that we still want to use our current workstations on this network? My impression had been that 10Base-T makes most sense where you have an already installed UTP complex, or even where the organization had already invested heavily in the technology. I could be all wet on this however. Thanks for any help you can provide. < dave
haas%basset.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Walt Haas) (01/18/91)
In article <2420@bnlux0.bnl.gov> drs@ax61.bnl.gov writes: >Does it make sense to use 10Base-T in new construction where the expertise >of the company is heavily weighted toward coax and fiber Maybe. If you have a new building then you don't have an asbestos problem, which would be one thing forcing you to existing wire and 10BASE-T. If you have a truly free choice, then the advantage of 10BASE-T is that each machine is isolated from the network by a repeater, and the disadvantage is that its harder to wheel another machine into an office and plug it in. We use some of each; thin Ethernet in places with lots of machines in one room, and 10BASE-T where asbestos forces us to or where we're sure that one machine per office is enough. -- Walt Haas haas@ski.utah.edu
pww@bnr.ca (Peter Whittaker) (01/19/91)
In article <2420@bnlux0.bnl.gov> drs@ax61.bnl.gov writes: >My questions are 1) Does it make sense to use 10Base-T in new construction >where the expertise of the company is heavily weighted toward coax and >fiber, and 2) Are there better alternatives than coax or twisted pair given >that we still want to use our current workstations on this network? > >My impression had been that 10Base-T makes most sense where you have >an already installed UTP complex, or even where the organization had already >invested heavily in the technology. I could be all wet on this however. > Another advantage of 10-Base-T comes from its use of UTP: normal phone wire is UTP, so if you are building a new installation, ask the phone people to lay the extra wiring: they can put 2 UTPs from each desk to the wiring closet(s), instead of 1. If another contractor rather than the phone company lays the UTP, same scenario. They have the expertise, you jus tell them which wiring closets you want to use. If you move, the new tenants can rip out the computer witing closet and replcae it with a phone closet, giving everybody two independent phone lines :->. Advantages abound. -- Peter Whittaker [~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~] Open Systems Integration pww@bnr.ca [ ] Bell Northern Research Ph: +1 613 765 2064 [ ] P.O. Box 3511, Station C FAX:+1 613 763 3283 [__________________________] Ottawa, Ontario, K1Y 4H7