[rescue] Long network paths

[rescue at sunhelp.org]

Actually, this sort of thing is just what interests me.

Generally, I try to avoid as many individual network forwarding devices as
possible, because they all introduce latency. I fight to avoid
SRAIS(Supposedly Redundant Array of Inexpensive Switches) in favor of one
big switch.

With hubs (repeaters) the Ethernet 543 rule kills the idea of having more
than 4 hubs in a collision domain. If you exceed a count of 4 you need to
break the collision domain with a switch or router.

And, really big LANs usually need to have the broadcast domain broken up by
routers and VLAN's.

For the home datacenter though, it mostly doesn't matter (except for the
4-hub/repeater rule, its a killer). For the networker-geek home network
(mine) one must run at least 3 VLAN's.

~ -----Original Message-----
~ From: jwbirdsa at picarefy.com [mailto:jwbirdsa at picarefy.com]
~ Sent: Monday, August 05, 2002 6:55 PM
~ To: rescue at sunhelp.org
~ Subject: [rescue] Long network paths
~ 
~ 
~    Random question of (probably little) interest: what's the 
~ longest (most
~ hops) path on your LAN from one machine to another, without 
~ going through
~ routing?
~ 
~    I was just thinking about this last night while lying in bed with a
~ fever (which may explain *why* I was thinking about this) and 
~ on my network
~ it's 7 hops:
~ 
~    1) from machine A via FDDI (SAS) to a Cisco WS-C1100
~    2) via FDDI (DAS) to a HP Advancestack 2000 switch
~    3) via 100baseTX FDX to a small five-port unmanaged switch
~    4) via 10baseT to a 3Com hub
~    5) upstairs via the air return duct and down the hall, 10baseT, to
~       a little Netgear hub that serves the bedrooms
~    6) via 10baseT to a Linksys WAP11 802.11b access point
~    7) via 802.11b to machine B
~ 
~ There are other paths which are just as long, but not as interesting.
~ 
~    Does your maximum path length get longer if routing is allowed?
~ 
~    --James B.
~ 
~ P.S.: I would like to nominate for "most secondhand-friendly 
~ feature" the
~ 30-second window after powerup or physical reset on the Cisco 
~ WS-C1100 and
~ WS-C1400 during which you can log in from a terminal and 
~ enable privileged
~ mode without any passwords. Once I found this feature in 
~ Cisco's online
~ docs, it was trivial to get into these concentrators and 
~ reconfigure them
~ for my use. No cooperation or knowledge on the seller's part 
~ was required.
~ _______________________________________________
~ rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue
~