FDDI, was: Re: [rescue] u2 drive trays

[Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.]

>Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 14:04:11 -0400
>Subject: Re: FDDI, was: Re: [rescue] u2 drive trays
>From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
>To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>On Tuesday, August 19, 2003, at 01:52 PM, Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:
>> I see you can get blades for the Cisco 1400 that have MIC
>> ports, ST ports, and CDDI ports.... sooo....
>>
>> 1. Which are the "standard ports for conneting to hosts" ?  MIC, right 
>> ?
>
>   Most older cards have MIC connectors, most newer (and nearly all PCI 
>cards) have SC (not ST).  FDDI on ST connectors is fairly rare...some 
>VME interfaces and DEC DEFTA/DEFZA cards have ST connectors, but 
>nothing else that I've seen.

ok..  so, if it is available go with SC connectors on the concentrator
to get more port density.... ok.

>
>   DEFPA cards have SC connectors, as do most SysKonnect cards (and all 
>recent/current ones).  Older Sbus cards have MIC, newer ones have SC.
>
>   SC<->MIC cables are common on eBay, so if you get a WS-C1400 with MIC 
>ports you're still ok...you just get lower port density on the 
>concentrator.  I'd avoid ST...they're fragile and not that easy to find 
>cheaply.  Only use it when you absolutely have to...like if you have a 
>TurboChannel machine with a DEFTA, then just get an ST<->MIC cable to 
>connect to your concentrator.

ok... so.. SC is the way to go on a concentrator... I assume SC to SC
cables are also pretty common :-)

>
>> 2. Can CDDI run over CAT5, if so, anyone know which length ?  How hard 
>> is
>>    it to get CDDI cards (I think I have a CDDI sbus card kicking 
>> around that
>>    came in a used Sparc I aquired) ?  Is it just as good (CDDI) ???
>
>   Talk to James Sharp <jsharp at psychoses.org> about CDDI if you don't 
>get answers here.  He's done a lot with it.  I've not done anything 
>with CDDI so I can't help you there.

OK... will do if nobody comes up with anything usefull here... the
advantage would be I could move the majority of my network to FDDI
and CDDI (I could use CDDI to bridge two switches over CDDI, use CDDI
where I have CAT5 in the wall, and use FDDI where I don't have wall
jacks...

>
>> Does Cisco have something like the 1400 that has an ethernet port, or 
>> am
>> I going to need to get a Catalyst switch with a FDDI uplink ?
>
>   You need a switch.  It takes serious smarts to bridge between 
>Ethernet and FDDI.
>
>   If all you need is 10Mbit ethernet, the WS-C1200 family of switches 
>have a FDDI uplink, perform well, are small (2U), and can be had very 
>cheaply.

yuk... I'm trying to stay away from 10Mbit except for the link to the
cable company....  (that and old DOS boxes, etc).

>
>         -Dave
>
>--
>Dave McGuire                 "You don't have Vaseline in Canada?"
>St. Petersburg, FL                     -Bill Bradford
>_______________________________________________
>rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue

-- Curt

Curtis Wilbar
Hawk Mountain Networks
rescue at hawkmountain.net

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