Modern Ethernet

It wasn't that long after 10 based He was introduced that people were demanding
higher speeds from the networks and the ether that people responded with 100
megabit Ethernet.

Now people often ask me they go Mike why do we go from 10 megabit to 100 megabit to
Gigabit to 10 gigabit Why is it always times 10.

And the answer is simply this.

It is what they can do.

It is the amount of speed that is worth it in terms of reinvesting in cabling and

network cards and switches and whatever you might have by being ten times faster.

So there are variations there were things like 20 megabit ethernet but nobody
wanted it nobody bought it.

It wasn't until we went to 100 that people got interested.

So it's always times 10 with a few exceptions in there.

So in this episode I want to talk about 100 megabit Ethernet now 100 mg of that
either.

NET as it came out this really was the big transition.

First of all when 100 megabit E3 it came out we were still using hubs and it was
really as 100 megabit either it came out that certain standard said you can't use
hubs anymore.

So that was always a big challenge is that even today if you're in a situation
where you might want to use a hub you have to actually use 10 megabit everything
Ted megabit cards the whole shebang just to get it to work.

So hubs really are obsolete.

The other thing that took place around this time is we began to see the concept of
moving from half duplex to full duplex.

It's easier to understand half duplex if you think about the days with CB radio so
you get a CB radio in your car you could sit there and you could talk are you
worked on a rubber duck and walk Geran all that and you could do all the talking
you want but you're not going be able to hear anybody until you stop talking.

So that's a perfect example of half duplex now full duplex is if you're on the
phone and you're talking to a friend of yours and you also are both trying to talk.

No you don't.

OK.

Look I won't say anything.

You go in because you can both talk at the same time and it creates a lot of
confusion so so full duplex is when you can both listen and talk at the same time.

So it was around the time of 100 meg of an Ethernet that we began to see full
duplex today starting with 100 moving up to all the gigabit and 10 gig and all that
everybody's full duplex today.

So there were really a number of standards that came out with 100 based and I want
to go ahead and just go through all these just very very quickly.

One of the oldest versions was known as 100 based T for ran at 100 megabits per
second and had 1024 nodes per hub it actually used hubs and the from the hub to any
node was 100 meters and it used cat 3 cables.

What's interesting about one hundred base four is that it was one of the first
ether nets to use all four pairs inside of a unshielded twisted pair cable second
was 100 based x 100 based X ran 100 megabits per second 1024 nodes per hub 100
meters from the hubs to the individual nodes.

And it used cat 5 cable and it only used two pairs and yes 100 base X was full
duplex.

Now here's the interesting part.

We literally had two competing standards.

They both used uncial the twisted pair.

They both had hubs of the switches they had network cards but you couldn't tell
them apart simply by looking at it.

You'd have to look at a switch and it would say 100 base x or 100 base for the
bottom line is that 184 disappeared.

It's gone.

And 100 base X is now known as just simply 100 base T.

So if you find yourself a switch and it says 100 based on it it's really 100 based
X but everybody just calls it 100 based.

The other interesting part about 100 megabit ethernet was that we began to see
fiber solutions in particular something called 100 base F X so it would run at 100
megabits per second again 1024 nodes per hub but you could run a piece of multimode
fiber you know you'd have to have a fiber optic switch and you could run two
kilometers.

So there were a lot of places where suddenly fiber optic especially for long
distance throws became extremely attractive as an option.

So for the exam the big thing I want you to keep in mind more than anything else is
that make sure you're comfortable with the concept of hubs versus switches and
during the time 100 make of it is where we really begin to see that switch.

Also keep in mind that be comfortable with Duplaix versus half duplex.

In other episodes it's going to become very handy and make sure you're comfortable
with the three versions of 100 base Ethernet.

Just describe why not.

Because it's going to be on the exam.

Full-duplex mode allows both sides of a conversation to occur at the same time

100BaseT (a.k.a. 100BaseTX) runs at 100 Mbps up to 100 meters

100BaseFX, a fiber solution, runs at 100 Mbps up to 2 kilometers

Connecting Switches

In my little office we've got one 24 port switch and it does a good job.

We have a small office and don't have that many computers.

But what will happen if I go beyond 24 devices more printers total seminars is
taken off and we're getting huge.

Well what I'm going to want to do is expand my broadcast domain by bringing in

another switch.

I guess I could go out and buy a 48 port switch but there's no need to do that.

I can simply take another switch interconnect them and those two switches will work
together as one big switch.

So let's talk about how we go about doing that now to demonstrate connected
switches I have a fairly interesting cross-section of switches from from pretty
modern to pretty old.

And I want to do that because I want to make sure that you see some of the
different types of interfaces that are going to come into play.

But before we start playing with these guys what I want to do is talk about how we
connect these.

We use patch cables.

Nothing special there but there's going to be two different kinds of patch cables
you're going to run into a regular patch cable which is wired the same on each end.

So if you use T.I. 568 a it's a on both ends.

If you use G-I 568 be it's be on both ends.

And this is what we call a straight through cable.

So that's a straight through.

This guy right here is what we call a crossover cable.

No you can't tell he's crossover because he's blue.

He's a crossover cable because I made him and this cables wired differently on one
end it's TIAA 568 A On the other end it's TIAA 568 B.

So that way the Sens go to the receivers and the receivers go to the skins and
that's basically all that's happening here.

I'm making one big mistake with this crossover cable and that is I should label it.

Well it's the only crossover cable I have here so that's the only way I can keep
track of it.

Normally people will put up like a piece of tape with a big X on it or something to
let folks know that it's a crossover as opposed to a straight through.

OK.

In the old days with the oldest switches what you would do to connect to switches
is you would take a crossover cable.

All right.

And I'm going to pick.

Oh it doesn't really matter.

I guess I'll pick these two older switches right here.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to plug into one.

I don't have these turned on but a link like would normally turn on at this point.

And I plugged the other one in pretty much anywhere.

There are certain situations where you plug into the switch might make a
difference.

But certainly for the network plus when you're using a crossover cable plug into
any port on one switch and any port on the other they'll light up and they will
automatically start working together.

There's nothing else you need to do.

So that's the simpler way of doing things.

But what fun is it to make it simple let's make it a little more complicated.

What I want to do is look at this top switch right here.

And as we look at this switch you're going to see something on the far end here
that's called an uplink port an uplink port is basically pre crossover port.

It's already got the crossover end in it.

So what I can do is I can take a straight through cable and plug it into the
crossover and then go ahead.

I'm just going to pick somebody here.

Plug in.

And I've made my connection again.

So that's how we use a straight through.

Now you've got to be a bit careful here.

I want you to take a look at this top switch one more time.
And what I want to look at when we get this out of the way so you can see better on
this old switch it's actually got a little button and on this button it says uplink
or or down leg.

And what they're saying here is that I can turn this into an uplink port by
pressing it in.

And I can make it what it calls a normal port by taking it out.

So this reset set as a normal port and I wanted to interconnect with another switch
I'd have to use a crossover if I want the uplink feature I would have to do I would
have to turn that in.

And now it's on the uplink.

So that's the basics of connecting a switch.

But for today's switches pretty much everybody has what are called auto sensing
ports.

So when you plug into a port on any port on a switch and you plug into another
switch the ports will recognize hey I'm not plugged into another host I'm plug into
another switch and they will automatically configure themselves so on modern
switches today.

The whole idea of crossover versus straight through cable kind of doesn't make any
sense anymore.

Most the time what you'll see is you just use straight through cables because they
will automatically work.

And that's the secret to connecting ports.

Straight-through cables have identical ends, such as TIA/EIA 568B

Crossover cables have different ends TIA/EIA 568A and 568B

Connect switches directly with crossover cables