[geeks] Rant: Network "Industry Leaders" That Don't.

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Wed, 1 May 2002, Kris Kirby wrote:

> On Wed, 1 May 2002, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> > [3] Question: Can you multiplex 100baseFX over fibre so that you can run
> >     three 33MHz Ethernet connections over a single strand?
> 
> Hello VLAN!

I think I'm missing something.  How can a VLAN solve that?  I have three
distinct (from layer 1 upwards) networks that need to run between two
buildings via fibre.  The only solutions I see are:
  1) Multiplexing the fibre.  I don't know if this can be done, and it's
     probably expensive, as none of the existing hubs/bridges natively
     speak 100baseFX (they're using media converters).
  2) Running two more fibre strands.  The cable guy will be redoing the
     copper to meet with fire code.  Approving two more strands hopefully
     won't be difficult.

Right now they're (the three networks) one network, and the bottleneck is
the 10/100 dual-speed hub at site 2.  Once broken out, the link to site 1,
the link to the 'net, and the link to site 3 will all be distinct.  Then,
I can put the AP in bridge mode, tell the OpenBSD router to use DHCP on
that interface, and I wouldn't care if the AP understands VLSM or not.

--Jonathan
[1] Or didn't when I last played with their offerings about 4 months ago.