UNIX System Administration Handbook - Evi Nemeth [234]
Domain names, IP addresses, and network names are in some sense already controlled centrally by authorities such as ARIN and ICANN. However, your site’s use of these items must be coordinated locally as well.
A central authority has an overall view of the network: its design, capacity, and expected growth. It can afford to own monitoring equipment (and the staff to run it) and to keep the backbone network healthy. It can insist on correct network design, even when that means telling a department to buy a router and build a subnet to connect to the campus backbone network. Such a decision might be necessary so that a new connection does not adversely impact the existing network.
If a network serves many types of machines, operating systems, and protocols, it is almost essential to have a very smart router (e.g., Cisco) as a gateway between nets.
15.13 RECOMMENDED VENDORS
In the past 15+ years of installing networks around the world, we’ve gotten burned more than a few times by products that didn’t quite meet specs or were misrepresented, overpriced, or otherwise failed to meet expectations. Below is a list of vendors in the United States that we still trust, recommend, and use ourselves today.
Cables and connectors
AMP
P.O. Box 3608
Harrisburg, PA 17105
(800) 522-6752
www.amp.com
Lan-Tech
7808 Cherry Crk S. Dr. #209
Denver, CO 80231
(303) 695-9473
www.lantechinc.com
Anixter
4711 Golf Rd.
Skokie, IL 60076
(708) 677-2600
www.anixter.com
Newark Electronics
4801 N. Ravenswood Ave.
Chicago, IL 60640
(312) 784-5100
www.newark.com
Belden Cable
P.O. Box 1980
Richmond, IN 47375
(319) 983-5200
www.belden.com
The Siemon Company
76 Westbury Park Road
Watertown, CT 06795
(203) 274-2523
www.siemon.com
Krone
6950 S. Tucson Way
Englewood, CO 80112
(800) 992-9901
www.krone.com
Black Box Corporation
P.O. Box 12800
Pittsburgh, PA 15241
(412) 746-5500
www.blackbox.com
Test equipment
Wavetek
9045 Balboa Ave.
San Diego, CA 92123
(800) 854-2708
www.wavetek.com
The Siemon Company
76 Westbury Park Road
Watertown, CT 06795
(203) 274-2523
www.siemon.com
Fluke
P.O. Box 9090
Everett, WA 98206
(800) 323-5700
www.fluke.com
TTC
20400 Observation Drive
Germantown, Maryland 20876
(800) 638-2049
www.ttc.com
Routers/switches
Cisco Systems
PO Box 3075
1525 O’Brien Drive
Menlo Park, CA 94026-1435
(415) 326-1941
www.cisco.com
1. Current speculation predicts the widespread availability of terabit Ethernet by 2008!
2. We’re not kidding! Attaching a new computer involved boring a hole into the outer sheath of the cable with a special drill to reach the center conductor. A “vampire tap” which bit into the outer conductor was then clamped on with screws. This contraption was especially fun to try to get right in places like elevator shafts and steam tunnels.
3. Because packets are regenerated and retimed, fully switched networks do not suffer from the “repeater count” limitations shown in Exhibit C.
4. FDDI has also been accepted as an ISO standard.
5. Never look directly at the ends of dangling or cut fibers. If they are laser driven, they can burn your eyes without your immediate knowledge.
6. Which is an all-too-appropriate name, since it’s never quite clear what the weather forecast will be in a frame relay network. Stormy? Rainy? Sleet? Hail?
7. Hence the interpretation: It Still Does Nothing
8. This type of “fire wall” is a concrete, brick, or flame-retardant wall that prevents flames from spreading and burning down a building. While much different from a network security firewall, it’s probably just as important.
9. Some cable manufacturers will prelabel spools of cable every few feet for you.
15.14 RECOMMENDED READING
GROTH, DAVID AND JIM MCBEE. Cabling: The Complete Guide to Network Wiring. Sybex. 2000.
SEIFERT, RICH. Gigabit Ethernet. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. 1998.
ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A, Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard, and ANSI/TIA/EIA-606, Administration Standard