ethernet and switches, was Re: [rescue] Mozilla Firefox

[Dave McGuire]

On Apr 22, 2004, at 5:12 PM, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>>   It's kinda like taking a poorly-performing Ethernet network and
>> making it fully switched to alleviate congestion.  That's modifying a
>> very basic underlying part of the design of Ethernet (the whole point
>> of CSMA/CD) in order to make it perform well.
>
> OK... but what is the proper solution there?

   Uhhhhhh, use something better than Ethernet?  Something that, 
perhaps, uses something a little more robust than NOISE ON THE WIRE to 
arbitrate media access?  Something with frame sizes a little more 
in-tune with the way networks are used today, rather than thirty years 
ago?

   But with most of the mainstream computer world stuck in the ancient 
x86 architecture, I suppose Ethernet really does fit in quite well.

> I don't really see how ethernet could have survived without violating
> it.

   It wouldn't have.  And by all rights, it shouldn't have.  There were 
newer, better technologies available (FDDI comes to mind) that remained 
expensive and thus never overtook Ethernet.

       -Dave

--
Dave McGuire          "PC users only know two 'solutions'...
Cape Coral, FL          reboot and upgrade."    -Jonathan Patschke