Upgrading from 10BASE-2 or 10BASE-T
Twisted-pair wiring pretty much replaced 10BASE-2 many years ago and was, for a long time, the networking solution of choice. Hubs allowed for centralization of wiring and switches helped localize errors due to faulty cables or network adapter cards.
100BASE-T and gigabit Ethernet solutions are now the de facto standards for creating a new network. If you're creating a network from scratch, it's best to start with the latest and greatest if your budget allows.
Like 10BASE-2 networks, you should ask yourself why you would even want to operate a 10BASE-T network. If you already have one in place, continuing to add new hubs, switches, and routers may make sense, provided this limited bandwidth (10Mbps) can satisfy the demands of your users/applications. However, 100BASE-T (also known as Fast Ethernet) has been around for more than 5 years, and is now the most widely used version of Ethernet between the wiring closet and the user desktop.
| For more information about network topologies and how the physical network should be laid out, see Chapter 3, "Network Design Strategies." |
For this reason, this chapter skips upgrading from 10BASE-2 to 10BASE-T because such an upgrade really isn't a good investment. If you're going to swallow the expense of pulling new cabling to replace older coaxial cabling, there's no reason to go to 10BASE-T today. Category 5 (and above) cabling can handle both, and almost every network adapter card produced today can operate at 10Mbps as well as 100Mbps. After you've upgraded the cable plant, you might as well go for the added bandwidth of 100Mbps instead.
The rest of this chapter quickly looks at some of the things to consider when planning to replace an older Ethernet network with more modern technology.
|
