An Ethernet switch - in the common sense - is a layer 2 router. It's brain examines each datalink packet passing through it, identifies the source and destination Ethernet addresses, and learns from the traffic in which port direction each address lies. Having stored what it's learned in a local table, thereafter it can route out packets only on the port where the destination device is (or at least was last observed to be). Hence it can dramatically cut down irrelevant traffic on each port's circuit. In an extreme switched structure, where every device has its own direct connection and port on the switch, traditional Ethernet collisions disappear, so latency from collisions disappears as well.
But all modern switches auto-select speed and duplex settings independently on each port. A slow device does not slow down the network as a whole, but still can only send/receive at its own speed. Attaching a beige G3 to a switch will make no difference to other devices communicating through that switch, but no device will be able to talk direct to the beige G3 faster than the beige G3 can keep up, as it were.
So there is no general benefit in adding Fast Ethernet to a beige, unless it is beneficial for the beige ITSELF to communicate faster with other machines.
Gerald WW
On 12 Jan 2004, at 04:43, Maxwell Cabral wrote:
You should follow the instructions Sonnet gives you for your ATA card & that should set you going in the right direction & the ZIF replacement it rather strait forward. One thing I would like to recommend though is that you get a fast G3 like the PL 900MHz ZIF instead of the G4 CPU because the 900 will be better suited for the task of a server since file serving doesn't gain anything from Altivec but a faster CPU should improve performance. Also I recommend Netgear hubs & switches (In the case you haven't bought any networking hardware) & Cat 5e or better cable.
Also you should get a Mac compatible Full Duplex 10/100 BaseT Ethernet card for any Beige Mac that doesn't have one since they will slow down your network as their built in Ethernet is 10 BaseT Half Duplex. Full Duplex means it can send & receive data at the same time & Half duplex is where your ethernet card takes turns receiving & sending data. Most Hubs to my knowledge will slow down to the slowest ethernet connection's speed; where as switches, though, will only slow down when you send or receive data to/from the Beige Macs. But even the best switch can't regain all of the performance lost by the older ethernet cards in Beige Macs. 10 baseT is rather slow even at Full Duplex (about 1MB/s max 10 baseT v.s. 12MB/s max 10/100 baseT [correct me if my math is wrong]) compounding the problem even more.
Also use Switches instead of Hubs. Hubs are essentially "dumb" devices where Switches have a "brain" & speed things up on your network by directing data more efficiently. As the number of computers on your Network grow it becomes more important to use Switches as hubs slow down the network (I think its a latency issue). I'm sure someone on the list knows the precise reason why this is.
Of course the ethernet cards are optional but they wouldn't be a bad idea if you can get them for 15-20 dollars each & the use of switches instead of hubs is preferable.
-Maxwell M Cabral
On Sunday, January 11, 2004, at 12:31 PM, Nancy wrote:
I don't know if this question belongs in the PCI-List , the G3 List or this one. But here goes...
I am setting up a G3B&W/400 to run as a server in my small retail
business. I want to upgrade the processor to a G4/450. I know that I
need to (1) run the G4 Enabler patch (2) change the processor and
change the processor jumper settings (3) install cache control software.
The final configuration of the system would be as follows: OWC Mercury
G4/450 - 1024 MB RAM - Phillips CD-R/W-DVD drive - Zip 100 drive
- Internal IDE Bus: Master: Original 12 GB drive with 2 partitions: OS
9.2.2 and OSX 10.3.2, and as Slave: 60 GB Hitachi/IBM ATA drive for
backups - PCI Slot 1: ATA Rage 128 video card with DVD Decoder -
PCI Slot 2: Apple 4 port 100baseT PCI Card - PCI Slot 3: 4 port USB 2
card - PCI Slot 4: Sonnet Tempo Ultra ATA/133 Hardware RAID using two
60GB Hitachi/IBM ATA drives, mirrored. The RAID drive will run OS
10.2.8 Server.
I will be adding a drive cooling fan to each of the 60GB drives. The system will be accessed by three other Macs running OS 9.1 through 10.3. There will also be a Laser Printer involved.
I am a total newbie at RAID setups and right now I don't know a thing about OS 10.2 Server. However, both appear to be doable. I have not been able to find anything on XLR8's web site, or elsewhere about any potential problems with processor upgrades and Server software. Or, for that matter, about RAID setups and processor upgrades.
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on the above configuration?
Nancy
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