DESCHAPEL@DAYTON.BITNET (02/06/90)
I'd like to thank all of you who responded to my question
about unshielded twisted pair implementations -- since there
were several requests for this summary, I'm posting to the
whole group. It's great to be able to get this kind of
information -- I really appreciate this group.
Barb
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From: GOLDSTN@MAINE (Michael E. Goldstein)
To: deschapel@dayton
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 90 18:26:45 EST
We're currently designing and implementing a campus-wide (small
campus) ethernet with fiber connecting 8 buildings (our campus)
and utp 10BaseT inside builings. At this point we're
leaning towards the Cabletron Multi Media Access Hub for our
utp concentrators. The hub can hold up to 8 cards and there
are fiber, thinnet, aui, 10baseT (even though the standard is
not set yet) cards available. Cabletron will guarantee 10Baset
compliance when the standard is set.
We also looked at Lattisnet by synoptics (the one that most utp
nic cards for PCs support) but were unimpressed by pricing
and the non-standardness of the product.
Larger campuses in the U of Maine system have been investing
heavily in the Cabletron equipment and have been having
no major problems with the stuff.
We use our ethernet for novell and tcp/ip (to a few remote hosts,
eventually we'll be hooked to the internet). We get concurrent
NIC NOvell-TCP/IP use with the Clarkson packet driver scenario
, econfig'd novell file servers and NCSA telnet. It all works
real nice.
Mike Goldstein goldstn@maine.bitnet
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 90 12:01 CST
From: <MOLTA@UNTVAX>
Subject: UTP Ethernet
To: deschapel@dayton
Original_To: JNET%"deschapel@dayton"
[my original request letter deleted]
I can't say we've had much experience with UTP Ethernet, but we're in the
process of wiring two newly renovated buildings (about 250 nodes) and
equipping them with 10BaseT equipment. As a state institution, I will
have to go out to bid for these products, and I have decided to separate
the board procurement from the concentrator procurement since I am more
interested in price on the former while I am willing to write a sole-source
justificantion for the latter.
First of all, I would urge you to only consider products that conform to
the latest draft (draft 9) of the IEEE 10BaseT committee. Several vendors
are currently offering bargain pricing on boards with Synoptics chip sets,
but it is clear that the Synoptics "standard" is dying quickly. Since the
actual 10BaseT standard is not cast in stone, make sure you get written
assurances from vendors that they will make any changes necessary to bring
their products into full 10BaseT compliance, if any changes are made, at their
expense.
As far as boards are concerned, I am aware of currently shipping products from
Networth, Cabletron, and 3Com. I also expect to see lots more within the next
30-60 days as the large commodity vendors (Western Digital, Tiara, Racal-
Interlan, etc.) phase out Synoptics in favor of 10BaseT. In my environment,
I would have a tough time purchasing a specific vendor's product since these
are essentially commodity items. I'm planning to write tight bid specs and
expect 8-bit cards to come in at under $250 each.
All of the major vendors are offering external UTP transceivers so that you
can use existing boards (AUI-->UTP), but at $150 each, I'm going to try to
avaoid this as much as possible by redistributing traditional cards for
use in labs.
As far as concentrators are concerned, Synoptics seems to have the most
sophisticated network management capabilities, followed closely by Cabletron.
You might also want to look at David Systems and Fibermux. Unfortunately,
concentrator costs are still quite high (at least $200 per port), but this
too will change as competition heats up.
Let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Dave Molta
University of North Texas
From: Jeff Webb <JWEBB@UTDALLAS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: twisted pair implementation
To: BARB DESCHAPELLES <DESCHAPE@DAYTON.BITNET>
In-Reply-To: Message of Fri, 26 Jan 90 17:27:00 EST from <DESCHAPEL@DAYTON>
Barb,
I have had good experiences with Synotics products and Cabletron
products. Both are a little pricing, but pretty reliable and good support.
Jeff Web
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