On Thu, Jul 08, 2004 at 10:11:36AM +0100, Rob O'Donnell wrote:
> Does nobody use 10Mbps any more?
I certainly do - I don't have any way to put 100BaseT NICs in an Amiga,
nor a PDP-11 or VAX.
What I use is a 10BaseT hub with AUI and 10Base2 for all my old stuff,
fed into a single switch port on a 100BaseT switch. Since I happen to
have a 100% Netgear infrastructure at home, the 10BaseT hub is a EN108
(not an EN108TP), and the switch is a FS108. I also have an FE104 4-port
100BaseT-only hub that I occasionally use in the other room if I need to
have more than one machine on that drop.
They've been bulletproof for many years with one exception - the 1.0A +5V
inline switcher PSU for the FS108 died last year. Ded. Ded. Ded. But
to a certain extent, those are disposable. An external ZIP drive PSU works
fine, and with the number of dead ZIP drives I've seen, PSUs for them aren't
hard to come by.
One of these days, I'll pick up an inexpensive HP or Cabletron box at a
hamfest that has a 10BaseFL port - they were under $50 last time I was at
Dayton, and there were literally pallets of them. I've been using the
AUI port on the EN108 to drive a 10BaseFL transceiever to light the the fiber
that goes down to the basement for the EPROM burner (originally a Commodore
Colt (XT-clone), now a Compaq 286 laptop w/docking station - both ISA, so
no 100BaseT) and the VAX 8200 w/DEBNT.
So... I have probably as many 10BaseT nodes on my network at home as I have
100BaseT nodes. But I don't need to import a spare hub from Britain.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 08-Jul-2004 10:10 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -76.0 F (-60.1 C) Windchill -120.2 F (-84.59 C)
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Ethan.Dicks_at_amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
Received on Thu Jul 08 2004 - 05:25:01 BST