[rescue] u2 drive trays

[vance at neurotica.com]

On Tue, 19 Aug 2003, Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. wrote:

> Exactly how does 100Mbps FDDI compare to 100Mbps 100baseTX ?

FDDI is quite a bit faster.  FDDI, being a token-passing network, has no
collisions.  I get *really* close to 100Mbps.  With 100Base-TX, I never
get anywhere near 100Mbps.

> I've never used FDDI... but enough of the discussions on here have me
> interested....
>
> Is it pretty cheap to get some FDDI gear these days ?

It is.  Just go on ebay.  If you want concentrators, I have a few spare
Ciscos.

> I have PCs, sbus Suns, PCI suns, and a mix of other machines (Mac
> (NuBus, and soon a PCI Mac, and possibly an iMac, VAXstation 2000,
> DECstation 5000, a couple of PCI based Alphas (one DEC, one of the old
> NoName based systems, and two Aspen Alpine 275XS), etc.

For the PC's, Suns (as long as you aren't running NetBSD or OpenBSD),
DECstation 5000, RS/6000, VAX and Alphas, you won't have a problem.  Macs
have issues with FDDI.  The iMac doesn't have an expansion slot.  And OSX
doesn't support FDDI yet.  Your VAXstation 2000 doesn't have any expansion
slots either.

> My file server is currently a Solaris 8 Intel box.
>
> What is the best way (and alternately what is the cheapest way) to link
> FDDI and 100baseTX efficiently ?

Get a 100Base-TX switch with a FDDI uplink.  It's actually cheaper and
easier to get a 10Base-T switch with a FDDI uplink, if you don't mind
switching all your 100Mbps stuff to FDDI.  Either way, the ethernet switch
will bridge all your ethernet machines onto the FDDI ring.

Of course, after you get sufficiently FDDI-addicted, you're going to want
a GIGAswitch.

Peace...  Sridhar