ethernet and switches, was Re: [rescue] Mozilla Firefox

[Joshua Boyd]

On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 05:44:28PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote:

>   Uhhhhhh, use something better than Ethernet?  Something that, 
> perhaps, uses something a little more robust than NOISE ON THE WIRE to 
> arbitrate media access?  Something with frame sizes a little more 
> in-tune with the way networks are used today, rather than thirty years 
> ago?

Although to be fair, the last complaint has been addressed by GigE.  My
understanding is that hubbing and half duplex are completely forbidden
as well, which means there is no reason for the hardware to try to use
noise to arbitrate media access, is there?  I wonder how much
inappropriate legacy stuff is really left inside of GigE.
 
>   It wouldn't have.  And by all rights, it shouldn't have.  There were 
> newer, better technologies available (FDDI comes to mind) that remained 
> expensive and thus never overtook Ethernet.

I'm working on rolling out FDDI in my apartment, but I'm not entirely
certain I like having that 100Mbits shared around the ring.  I
understand that FDDI switches exist, but I've never seen one.  I also
find myself wondering about what to go after FDDI.  Sure HIPPI is
superior, but damn that stuffs expensive if I want anything more than a
crossover connection.  Unless I luck out on a switch, I don't expect to
ever be able to afford that, and that seems to leave only GigE.