Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 11 Jan 1999 10:33:52 -0800 | From | Steven Roberts <> | Subject | Re: Cheap network for two hosts ? |
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"Mike A. Harris" wrote: < cost comparison clipped >
> Really, it depends on the EXACT specifics of the situation. It > depends on the projected expansion of the network as well. I > would say to anyone planning on having 10 machines or less in > their home, to go with a coax network if they want to save money. > It is just as fast unless you spend a bundle on a switch, or go > 100mbit. > > The problems with coax don't particularly manifest themselves > much in a home environment as they do say in a school lab where > people steal terminators, etc... Bringing one machine off the > network at home is usually no big deal. I just unplug the T from > the card, and my network sings merrily along. unless you live with other folks who don't always get the leave the T plugged in bit. Which is why I finally went to an 8-port hub (cost me about $50 on onsale). I can home from a vacation to a rude network situation. My roomate had unplugged his machine the wrong way (left an open end) and had disabled my internet servers (which btw, linux boxes are not -- at least they didn't use to be -- happy with an NFS server going down and staying down for a week) With UTP, just the machine would have been down, my two internet servers would have still been able to talk to each other.
> If someone doesn't mind spending the cash for a hub and whatnot, > then I'd say, go for it. It does scale better to larger > networks, but that isn't likely to matter much in the home > anyways. Coax is certainly good for the home still. I get > approx 700kbps through my NE2k's on my coax network. Of course, I'm now on a switch (6 100Mbit, 8 10Mbit ports). Got it indirect through a surplus auction new for under $300. the linux machines are now really happy (amazing what cheap PCI DEC chipset 10/100 -- about $25 a piece -- do for performance, dropping CPU overhead)
Regards, Steve
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