[ale] Ethernet Hub Question

[Mike Pennell]

>A question for you network folk:
>
> I'm planning to put together a small LAN with Linux and PostgreSQL on the
> server end and Win32 Machines on the client end.  I'm having to do this as
> cheaply as possible and the network portion is taking me a wee bit out of
my
> range of experience.  I'm looking at two 16 port 10baseT hubs, one will be
> connecting to my workstation and the server, the other will drop down a
> floor and connect to the target users.
>
> I am concerned that I will exceed the allowable distance for 10baseT
> between the two hubs/floors.  I haven't made a hub purchase yet (I'm going
> through catalogs that have accumulated around here), but descriptions make
> mention of 10base2 connectors and BNC/AUI backbone support.  If I
understand
> correctly, I can get greater distance with the thinnet stuff. Can I use
> thinnet to connect the hubs???
>
>Glynn Black blackgr at worldnet.att.net
>


Depending on the actual distance you're talking about between the floors and
whether the hubs you're looking at are active or passive,(active meaning
that they regenerate signal strength instead of just passing the data
through the other ports, this allows extended range of the 10-baseT cable)
you may or may not need the backbone support of a thicknet(10base5) or
thinnet(10base2). My guess is that you can accomplish this with a purely
star hub topology using just the hubs you were looking at.
  The effective range of 10baseT cable is 100 meters. This can be extended
using repeaters or active hubs, but anything much over this and you will
want to run a backbone of some type, probably 10base2 which has a range of
185 meters. Another consideration is number of total nodes per network
segment, though it sounds like a fairly small job. You may want to make sure
that you get a hybrid hub with both the RJ-45 connectors and BNC, most hubs
are like this anyway. You can connect both hubs using the 10base2 cable if
that's you're primary concern- the distance between the two hubs.

Mike Pennell
-CS Undergraduate, Georgia Institute of Technology