On Thursday 02 June 2005 09:21 pm, Gerald Combs wrote:
Jonathan Hutchins wrote:
while ethernet is great for multiple hosts on a local loop or star topology within a building, it's not designed for long distances.
Unless you're using [several name-brand variants].
It's arguable whether the variants are actually ethernet or not. You can get ethernet range extenders, and if you're using thin-net you can usually get across an urban street or rural campus with them.
None of these protocols, however, will work if you plug it into a standard 10/100bT hub. For distance, you need a "modem" or an interface device that efectively does the same thing as a modem; one at each end in fact.
(You're quite right that subsets of the ethernet standard are prevelant in other transport protocols - why re-invent the wheel - but that doesn't make them ethernet.)