[SunRescue] LAN Commmunication (was Sparc 10 cover plates)

[Dave McGuire]

On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, Bjrn Ramqvist wrote:
>I was just thinking of when I was at one of our customers site, where
>they have hosts in the amount of "thousands". They sure is connecting
>through switches, but what I came to notice was that it was a huge
>amount of broadcast packets?

  That's where VLANs come in...Switches and bridges break up the collision
domain; VLANs break up the broadcast domain.  It works amazingly well if
your switches have fast enough processors in them.

>I mean, imagine a WinNT network where EVERY machine thinks it needs to
>know EXACTLY where every machine is, it's status, it's wifes name, it's
>social security number, the color of your dogs eyes and so on - this
>must be a problem. Just "keeping up" the LAN is almost rendering itself
>useless.

  ...well, for poorly designed operating systems and network protocols, yes. 
So set up some VLANs in your switches, flush your NT boxes, and you'll be in
good shape! :-)

                 -Dave McGuire