On 26-Sep-04 Jim Jackson wrote:
Ted, did you do any network saturation testing?
Not as such ... see below.
I suspect this configuration will work fine as long as there is not a lot of concurrent traffic between many different machines.
Well, that is basically the situation. I have two desktops, plus a laptop which is what I usually sit at, and it is a home network! (see also below)
The big problem with this setup is whether all stations will see collisions within the 10BaseX parameters - if not then you could get situations where throughput is very poor. However, for only a few stations and very restricted traffic patterns you might have on a home network it might work very well.
Essentially, the two desktops sit in a very small room at the top corner of the house, and an ethernet cable runs between them and from there downstairs, through a ventilation slot into the kitchen, where there's another little annex which I use as an office. The two desktops are each somewhat dedicated: [A] does all the email and archives, and [B] does printing. dialup and gateway and also has a fast processor and lots of RAM so is the machine for heavy stuff. The laptop [C] at the kitchen end is simply convenient, and mobile.
I normally connect the laptop to the kitchen cable, and according to taste migrate the laptop between the little table in the annex and the kitchen table which involves migrating that end of the cable as well. Easy enough, this bit.
However, for various reasons I wanted to also work in the lounge which is on the other side of the stairs. I could have unstapled the cable and fed it back through the slot to divert it there (with an extension), or alternatively patch in a long and awkward loop, but began to ponder alternatives.
Since there was already a T-piece on the cable where it starts down the stairs, simply serving to connect two lengths of coax cable, I thought of using this a pick-off point. So I did what I described: 10m of ethernet cable branching off laterally, and running into the lounge. As I said earlier, this seems to work fine.
The most severe test I've carried out is to run Windows on [B] using VMWare remotely, in an X window on the laptop. This is always demanding on the ethernet connection, since it seems even the smallest change to the Windows screen involves a huge amount of network traffic as it redraws the remote screen.
Even on a direct ethernet (no branches) there is perceptible sluggishness and, frankly, it's much better to go upstairs and sit at [B] when this is needed for extended work.
Doing the same thing on the laptop now on the branch-line, I found it almost as quick, and the most perceptible difference was slightly greater sluggishness with the mouse.
I perceived no difference at all in ordinary Linux apps running on a remote machine ([A] or [B]) in an X window on [C]. I did use this alternative arrangement for an extended period (a couple of hours).
However, the real test would be to connect up a fourth machine so that both branches are under load. But I only have three ...
I run a mixed cat5/Coax network at home but have never dared break the rules so blatently - I'd be very interested in a later report of your experiences.
Interesting Jim
Well, that's my experience so far! I suggest you try it out and see how you get on.
Best wishes, Ted.
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