Tom Keatley
tomk at multiline.com.au
Sun Nov 2 17:18:48 CST 2003
Jeeeez.... ...It seems this thread is going to go on forever ...its starting to become like a MAC Vs PC argument. I run an internal network of about 15 computers and 12 (IP fed) printers based on 100 Mbs HUBS in a (mainly)Win2000Pro network ...we currently have a 16 port Netgear and a number of 8 ports to acheive the connections. I have Access front ends on most of the computers with a single backend (interestingly enough called BACKEND) this is a 2.8Ghz Intel with 512 megs of memory At certain times of the month (as printing is our business) we can have literally THOUSANDS of small 1 to 2 Mb print files spooling to the printers and running around the network. As the network has grown over the last few years I have noticed a steady DECREASE in speed and performance and an INCREASE in corrupt print files ....when I say corrupt I mean that the file will arrive at the computer it is spooling to and we will get an error saying that the file FAILED to print... I have always put this down to the file somehow being corrupted within the network....It always seems to retry itself and ultimately DOES print. My supplier has suggested moving my HUBS to SWITCHES and I currently have on loan from him a PLANET NOVA 16 port 100Mbs SWITCH (although I havent yet installed it) . On the strength of what you guys have been talking about I am thinking that I should "Bite The Bullet" and go straight to a GIGA network switch and bypass the 100Mbs switch altogether...The prices have dropped substantially on these recently and utimately I will probably need to do this anyway... At the risk of starting a war could I call for opinions on this... Regards Tom Keatley OK, it's me again. I still stand with my remarks. I'm implemented a lot of switch several years ago and am very much aware how layer 2 and 3 switches work. Layer 4 don't know. Not in to that business anymore. As I already commented it is wrong to say that switches will always will improve your bandwith. A switch will only be able to do his thing when some condtions are true. These coditions are most of the time present but not always. But generaly you could conclude a switch will have network performance effect when 1) 2 servers/hosts or more with each his own direct link to the switch 2) When having only one server the server link bandwith MUST be higher than the (single) client bandwith.