On Fri, 26 Nov 1999, Goswin Brederlow wrote: >> >> The issue of Cardbus being required for 100baseT is definately worth >> >> noting. >> > >> >It's also not true. I have a 100baseT PCMCIA card. I haven't tried >> >measuring the actual throughput, but it's definately much faster on a >> >100baseT network than a 10baseT network. (And it's capable of talking >> >on a 100baseT network, which a 10-only card is not.) >> >> 1a) Most 100baseT networks will auto-negotiate to 10baseT if needed. > >Only if you have a 10/100 switch that works fine.
Which from my experience means more 100baseT networks. >On a 10/100 Hub all ports will drop to 10 MBit/s and the network will >be slow. Also all Windows PCs will probably have to be rebooted or >even manually switched to 10 MBit/s in the configuration. I have never seen a 10/100 hub. If you want a 10baseT hub then surely you'd just buy one and not pay more for an expensive 100baseT hub only to use it as 10baseT! >If you have a cheap 100 MBit Hub it might not switch to 10 MBit and >then it doesn´t work at all with a 10 MBit/s card. Just don't do that. >> 1b) Those which don't will have spare 10baseT ports anyway. > >??? Where from? A switch? Mixed 10/100 MBit networks are >expensive. Its much cheaper to buy a second network card and setup one >linuxbox as gateway, if linux is present, than to have a switch. And >if you have only 100 MBit cards you won´t have 10 MBit switch or >gateway ready. All 100baseT networks I've seen in the last few years have been switched and this hasn't been an issue. >> 2) If 100baseT on PC-Card is only capable of 20Mb/s as has been suggested >> then it is still capable of being faster than 10baseT while (IMHO) not being >> fast enough to justify extra expense or effort. Also there is the issue of >> the amount of CPU time required for transfers. I expect that CardBus will >> require less CPU time which is something that interests me! > >I have one 100 MBit card in my Alpha and a 10 MBit card in my old >PC. Also at work they have a 100/10 MBit network via Linux gateway and >hubs. If I had a 10 MBit card for my Laptop I couldn´t just plug it in >at work, but would have to get a cable connected to the right hub, >i.e. I would have to grab the cable and follow it till I reach the hub >and then maybe plug it into the other one. 10 MBit/s cards can be >realy anoying. > >The only problem with 100 MBit cards is that they don´t have a BNC >connector, but who is using BNC only nowadays? Lots of people at users groups, demo-fests, and other places where they often don't have the latest and greatest hardware. >I have a "Fiber Line 16 Bit 10/100 Fast Ethernet" card in my laptop >and it works great. > >Only problem is the throughput. On a 100 MBit/s switched network I get >11 MBit/s and a lot of CPU useage. Anything I could configure >differently to make it faster or is that the limit of pcmcia? This sounds like the PC-Card performance issue we were discussing. If so then there's no solution apart from getting a new Cardbus card. -- Electronic information tampers with your soul.
