[rescue] Gigabit ethernet - worth it?

[Derrick D. Daugherty]

It's rumored that around Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 04:18:53AM -0500
James Sharp <jsharp at psychoses.org> wrote:
> > I know that Dave would prefer we all use FDDI, but on justdeals.com I
> > see gbit ethernet cards for $34.99 and a 5-port gbit switch for $99.99.
> >
> > What is the collective wisdom of the list concerning this stuff?
> 
> I've just finished a whole slew of gigabit upgrades at work (mainly
> inter-switch connections, but a few server machines)...and although I
> still think FDDI wins on technical merit, gigabit is faster than shit...as
> long as you've got a card that will support 64-bit 66Mhz PCI.

gige is good stuff.  fiber cables are relatively cheap nowadays too so
no worries there.  as soon as i get Novak's netapp or build a new file
server for home i'm converting all of my stuff over to gige.

if you're moving all the stuff over you can even use jumbo frames to up
the performance..but i dunno if that switch would like it or not.

btw, anyone know where in 2.6 and above that you can alter this?  it
wasn't immediately noticeable with an ndd -get /dev/ip \? and i didn't
look much further.

> The 1000Base-TX I've played around with was horribly susceptible to noise
> and cross talk on the cable...you'll need to make sure your cable meet
> strict Cat 5 standards in manufacture as well as physical installation

that's why you wire with cat6 before hand ;)  not that much more
expensive...not too many people make copper based 1000x cards tho...i
think alteon was the only one i found..and i think they went under.

^D