SUMMARY: Ethernet AB Switch

From: Nicholas Jacobs (nick%beethoven@toro.MTS.ML.COM)
Date: Thu Nov 21 1991 - 20:58:25 CST


Dear Sun-managers,

Thank you for your responses on the issue of using an A-B switch for
an Ethernet. To clarify and apologize for the unclearness of my original
question.

    1) Although I did not mention it, the machine in question is a SS2
    running SunOS 4.1.

    2) The connection will be over UTP using a thick Ethernet to UTP
    transceiver.

    3) This is a stopgap measure (oh! what a surprise :-)), but there
    is concern about security, thus the issue of not allowing simultaneous
    connectivity (despite the fact that the machine does not have SunLink
    IR).

    4) This is on an internal TCP/IP network, thus any damage due to mis
    configured addresses should remain within the company...
 
However, on to the comments that people had:
 
Several people brought some electrical problems that might occur.
In fact one person pointed out that this is a violation of the
Ethernet specs.

Aside from electrical considerations, the overall consensus seemed
to be that this is a BAD idea and that any short term gains are
far outweighed by the long term mess that it creates. Although it
is technically possible (albeit with reboots).

My feeling is that we already have IP level gateways, we should be
connecting machines using those and not some sort of jimmy-rigged
solution.

I will happily email the entire stack of messages to anybody who
is interested in the subject, please contact me at the address listed
below.

The contributors and interested parties that I had heard from by the
time of this writing were:

        "Andrew Luebker" <uunet!eye.psych.umn.edu!aahvdl>
        uunet!ica.philips.nl!geertj (Geert Jan de Groot)
        uunet!itd.dsto.oz.au!dam (Damian Marriott)
        uunet!zia.AOC.NRAO.EDU!pgreen (Philip Green)
        uunet!fsg.com!chuck (Chuck Yerkes)
        uunet!mcc.com!vasey (Ron Vasey)
        uunet!roke.rap.ucar.EDU!tres (Tres Hofmeister)
        uunet!pex.eecs.nwu.edu!phil (William LeFebvre)
        uunet!roentgen.RadOnc.Duke.EDU!antoine
        uunet!juliet.ll.mit.edu!mikem ( Michael Maciolek)
        Charles Finnell <uunet!lear.mitre.org!finnell>
        uunet!odi.com!keith
        

Thank you, I appreciate your time and effort.

Nicholas Jacobs
nick@ml.com, uunet!toro!nick, 212 449 1455
Merrill Lynch & Municipal



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