[11] in resnet
UTP vs. AUI
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dthumim@Athena.MIT.EDU)
Fri May 14 16:29:49 1993
From: dthumim@Athena.MIT.EDU
To: resnet@Athena.MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 14 May 93 16:29:37 EDT
I understand that the current plan for dorm rooms is to have UTP
connectors in signle rooms, and transcievers with AUI connectors
in multi-person rooms. Is there a reason that these transcievers
can not be UTP to UTP? This would seem to make sense for a number
of reasons.
The normal progression in most undergrad dormitories is that the
first year students come in and are put in a double or triple, in
some cases even quads or quints. After a year or two, most move
in to single rooms. If someone takes a semester off or something
like that, they may lose priority and end up in a multi-person
room again. If students would have to change their ethernet card
or device with every room change, this will be a big hassle for
students at best.
There may be only one person with a computer in a given room at
first, and that student may not want to pay for a transciever in
case a roommate decides to get a computer at some point, but rather
to share the cost of a transciever at such a time. If the person
had to get a UTP ethernet connection at first to do this, then change
to AUI if a roommate wants to use the network, then this approach
really doesn't make sense, and the first person with a computer will
have to buy the transciever.
Is my current understanding correct, or has thought been given to
standardizing the interface so that a student can buy hardware in
the first year for use in a multi-person room and continue to use
the same hardware in a single in the future?
You can reply by email, or quote this message in a reply and send
it to the athena.dormnet newsgroup, as I'm sure others are interested
in these issues as well. Thanks,
-- |)an
