If you would like to build a high performance wireless network at home, you should take the wireless router with the future technology available at the market today – Wireless -N router with the price starts from $75 up to $350. When you would like to share storage to be accessible across the network and also accessible across the Internet, you need a Network Access Storage (NAS) which the price can start from $75 up to hundreds of dollars. With NAS you can manage the share files that can be accessed by the authorized users either across the local network or across the internet. Or you might need a FTP server for the Internet users to download the files from.

D-Link offers an award winning DIR-685 Storage Router which combines the superior features of a draft 802.11n wireless router, a Network Access Storage (NAS), a built-in FTP server, and a built-in Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) AV server. Not just that, DIR-685 also featuring digital photo frame and D-Link Green power saving which creates the ultimate user experience while conserving energy. Sounds great, right?

With DIR-685 Storage Router, you can share the Broadband internet connection with any computers in the household wirelessly. Connect the router to the Cable or DSL modem and then you instantly go wireless in the house.

High-speed Wireless and Wired Network Connection

DIR-685 Storage Router is powered by the future wireless technology you can taste today – draft 2.0 802.11n wireless standards. The standard is not finalized yet actually, but soon when the standard is ratified – you just need to update the firmware easily – no hardware changes. Using the smart – intelligent MIMO technology, DIR-685 D Link Storage Router provides you faster speed experience and longer range within the house or the office. MIMO is a technology which uses multiple antennas to coherently resolve more information than possible using a single antenna.

D-Link DIR-685 Storage Router supports four built-in Gigabit Ethernet ports Switch, allows you connect using “wired” connection to the Gigabit enabled computers for high speed and high intensive application connection. This will boost the speed of uploading photos and file documents from Gigabit enabled computers to your storage router using the File Uploader Widget Tool, the widget that allow you to manage the files from the computers and view the upload status to your router.

Advanced Security features

Besides featuring the wireless-N with Xtreme N technology that allows for farther home coverage, this Xtreme N Storage router is also featuring an Intelligent Wireless prioritization Technology. To secure the wireless connection, the router supports the latest industrial wireless security WPA/WPA2 encryption. Adding the devices to the network can be done easily utilizing the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) touch-sensitive button.

The router also supports double firewall features: NAT (network address translation) and SPI (stateful packet inspection). NAT is a primary method enabling computers with unregistered IP addresses to access the Internet. NAT functions as an intermediary between a client computer on an unregistered network and the Internet. SPI is a generic term for a process in which the router examines the incoming packets from the Internet more carefully than usual.

Share Storage over a Network or Internet

The beauty of this DIR-685 storage router is the ability to hold a compact 2.5″ hard drive SATA up to 1 TB and includes a built-in Network Access Storage (NAS), which allows you to safely store files on your home network. A built-in FTP server is also included to allow you convenient access to storage wherever Internet is available.

This D Link storage router supports VPN pass-through; multi-sessions PPTP; and L2TP using IPSec for secure remote access to the storage router from the public network (the Internet).

You can also access and store digital media directly from the Internet without the need for a dedicated PC to be turned on or connected by using the feature this storage router supports – The BitTorrent Support.

Internet Photo Frame

The other beauty of this D Link storage router is the Internet Photo Frame feature. You can share your latest photos with family and friends using FrameChannel, Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, and other popular photo sharing sites using your FrameChannel account. You can also use the DIR-685 storage router to subscribe to your favorite RSS feeds. Get the latest news, stock updates, sports scores, clock, calendar, weather conditions, and more directly on your frame.

SharePort Technology

With two USB 2.0 ports, you can connect a multifunction printer and an external storage device to share throughout your network, no need of print server adapter, no need an always on computer for print server. SharePort is Mac compatible.

Video Streaming

DIR-685 storage router supports a built-in Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) AV server that allows you to easily stream HD video files; music and photos stored on your network through a compatible media player onto your flat-screen HD television via media center extender. You can even stream files from your Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 gaming system. No wonder this DIR-685 Storage Router receives an award winning product for its rich functions in one box.

20a0

Technorati Tags: gigabit network

Do you use Ethernet? You might think that you don’t, but don’t be so sure. Ethernet is everywhere – if you use a networked computer, whether it’s at home or in your office, you’re using Ethernet.

Ethernet is two things: a kind of cable for connecting computers together, and the method of communication that the computers use over the cables. Essentially, it is the glue that holds LANs (local area networks) together.

The system works by giving each computer on the network a unique address, along with printers, scanners and other shared resources. They can then communicate with each other simply and easily.

Ethernet originally had all sorts of limitations, but these have been gradually worked around as the years went by. Originally, for example, it was impossible for more than one computer to send data at a time – they had to take it in turns to ‘speak’, otherwise all the transmissions would get muddled up. Every computer on the network received everything transmitted by the others, but simply ignored anything that wasn’t labelled with its address. Of course, this didn’t scale to very large networks, as no computer ever got a chance to transmit.

The solutions to this problem are the reasons that Ethernet networks today are laid out the way they are. In order for many computers to use the network at once, lines are split into sectors, with a limited number of computers in each sector. These sectors are then connected together with switches. These switches reduce network congestion by only sending signals further out onto the network if they need to go that far – otherwise, they are simply dropped.

There are many different kinds of Ethernet, each with its own mysterious name – 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and so on. The only real difference between them, however, is the speed – 10BASE-T has a speed of 10 megabits (just over one megabyte) per second, while 1000BASE-T is more commonly known as gigabit Ethernet, because it can transmit a gigabit (125 megabytes) of data over the network every second.

1f89

Technorati Tags: gigabit network

Designing the “perfect” delivery infrastucture for video conferencing and multi-media functions can seem complicated, labor intensive, time consuming, and costly. But what’s most important is the evaluation process you would use….what you would likely choose (e.g. T1, DS3, OC3, Ethernet)…and why. Have a plan for that….and all will fall into place.

First, you’ll need to ask and answer the following questions:

• What type of content do you want to use for your Video Conference system. Is it going to be just video of talking heads, or do you need other video and audio sources as well?
• How many participants would you have?
• Do you need to speak to multiple locations at one time?
• Do you want a dedicated room or a mobile solution?
• What is your existing IT/Network infrastructure?
• Do you have other Video Conference systems? If so what types?

These are the types of questions that must be asked when you’re in the process of designing a Video Conference solution. The answersthen drive the selection of a Codec, it’s hardware/software options, and which manufacture best fits the needs.

If the correct front end product is selected it makes it easier to integrate into a new or existing IT/Network infrastructure.

Rather than focus on the underlying physical topology used, concern should be toward finding a network provider that can deliver the features needed to support the application. It really makes little difference what the physical or link layer is. The provider will likely manage the CPE anyway and will give you an Ethernet handoff for your network. What you are concerned about is the network layer and more specifically QoS (Quality of Service).

To support streaming media such as voice and video, there must be a QoS mechanism at the network layer that will guarantee low latency and jitter. Converged network products offered by carriers today have this, usually using MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) technology. This allows the customer to designate which packets get certain preferential treatment as they are sent along the network path.

As an example, consider a network that would deliver voice or video, VPN, and Internet access. Perhaps the application running over the VPN provided a core business function. In this case, data would be classified on the edge of the network to provide the greatest functionality. Voice and video packets would be catagorized as latency and jitter sensitive, the VPN packets would be catagorized as drop sensitive, and the Internet traffic as best-effort. These attributes will be honored within the carrier’s network. The net effect of all this is that your VoIP phones and video will perform without noise or other problems and your Internet connection will just slow down a bit when you take the phone off the hook or put demand on the VPN.

Legacy networks have a hard time implementing QoS functionality due to the constraints of the older design and hardware (e.g. older broadband cable networks). Almost all networks built today can provide QoS but some designs work better than others. Always get references of other customers using a similar application to be sure you will be successful.

When projecting bandwidth requirements for the design, remember the human factor. If bandwidth is available, people will use it. The general trend I’ve seen is that usage doubles every year. Of course, adding additional networked applications can make it grow even faster.

In summary …. it all comes back to your requirements and setup backing up the deployment , such as :

• How many concurrent users
• Available bandwidth
• Type of Service to be deployed
• Connectivity technology for each peer participating.
• Required bandwidth (with room for reasonable growth) to fill the gap.

If you are just looking at a couple of talking heads with little side data, you can get away with a few hundred Kbps per connection. However, if you are looking at medical consultation during a surgical procedure in hi-def, then 20-30 Mbps or more per connection may be required.

Next, what else is going on in your network? If this is a converged network (and that will ultimately be the way to go), then this video is competing with voice, other videos, data and who knows what else. What techniques are available to manage the data on the network? Even a gigabit Ethernet can get swamped if there are lots of HD video flows on the network.

Finally, what level of quality is being demanded by the users of the system? While you can do a “video” conference with 128kbps, the video is quite poor, and any packet loss or data errors at all cause serious problems. If you want telepresence (the feeling of being there) then you demand 1-way delays less than 250 MS, which limits compression (group of frames) options and increases bandwidth requirements.

The bottom line is that there will be a large tradeoff between capability, quality and bandwidth requirements. Once those tradeoffs have been decided, then you need to decide if your existing network infrastructure can support the trade-off decision or if you need to run a separate network to support the video. Considering that a separate network is very expensive, you then must decide what technology is required on your converged network to support this video application.

So, the question is not what is the best platform? Instead the question is what do you want to do? And the answer ….. is how to do what you want to do. Everything else -128K, 512K, 20 meg, SIP, H.263, H.264, JPEG-2000, MPEG-2, and on and on …. are all just tools that can be used to derive a solution. But they are not the solution, until you decide what you may need.

Technorati Tags: gigabit network

leading to performance concerns. At the operations level the ease and speed with which new applications can be deployed has resulted in many organisations resolving the issues of ‘server sprawl’, only to be faced with the new problem of ‘Virtual Machine sprawl’.

Listed below are 10 considerations for Virtualisation Best Practice:

1. Standardise

The main benefits of standardising across all aspects of the Virtual Infrastructure are ease of management and troubleshooting. This includes: software revisions; hardware configurations; server builds standards; naming conventions; storage and network configuration. Management is easier because all components are interchangeable and of a known configuration; in addition root-cause analysis is easier when the number of variables is kept to a minimum. Be aware; hosts with incompatible CPU types or stepping families’ can prevent VMware VMotion working correctly.

Standards should be defined and documented during the planning process and subsequently adhered to during deployment. Proposed changes to the environment should be reviewed, agreed and documented in an enforced ‘Change Control Procedure’.

2. Optimise the Network

The network is crucial to the performance and resilience of the Virtual Infrastructure – i.e. in addition to end-user traffic, the network is the primary means by which the Virtual Infrastructure is managed (through Virtual Center) and means of fault tolerance – using VMotion. For many organisations the network is also the method by which they connect to their storage. VMware recommends that there are a minimum of four Gigabit network adapters per ESX 3.x host-two attached to a vSwitch for the management network (service console, VMkernel, and VMotion), and two attached to a vSwitch for the VM network to support the virtual machines. In practice further segmentation is recommended. Whilst placing multiple NICs in a single vSwitch provides NIC redundancy and failover, placing all NICs on the same vSwitch restricts network segmentation, potentially leading to performance bottlenecks. An optimal balance therefore needs to be struck between network redundancy and traffic segmentation.

3. Optimise the Storage Configuration

Optimisation of the storage environment will depend upon the storage platform / protocols being used. All Virtual Hosts should be configured with multiple paths to the storage – to allow for failover in the event that an active path fails. ESX includes native multi-pathing support at the virtualisation layer. Multi-pathing allows an ESX host to maintain a constant connection between the host and a storage device in case of failure of a host bus adapter (HBA), switch, storage controller, storage processor, or a Fibre Channel/iSCSI network connection. All ESX hosts belonging to the same VMware DRS or VMware HA cluster for VI3, or two end points of a VMotion migration need to have access to the same shared storage.

SAN LUNs should be properly zoned so that each host can see the shared storage. If zoning is done improperly such that a host cannot see certain shared LUNs, this can cause problems with VMotion, VMware DRS and VMware HA (VI3). In order to improve performance and avoid the potential for storage access contention issues, LUNs should be zoned only to the hosts that need them.

In cases where multiple Guest OSes need to be configured to an iSCSI SAN it may be preferable to use the software initiator built into ESX. Using a single iSCSI initiator at the host level may improve performance over multiple aggregated initiators at the Guest level.

4. Allocate Sufficient Storage Capacity for Snapshots

Snapshots allow point-in-time copies of Virtual Machines to be taken, which can subsequently be used for testing and/or recovery purposes. A snapshot consists of block-level deltas from the previous disk state – comprised of a base disk and copy on write (COW) files that reflect changes – as a bitmap of all changed blocks on the base disk. Whilst can be very useful, care should be taken in using too many VMware based snapshots, which consume a considerable amount of additional disk space. VMware recommends planning on providing at least 15-20% of free space for snapshots. Alternatively it may be preferable to use storage-based snapshots, which only consume capacity on incremental writes.

5. Security

The security of the Virtual Infrastructure can be increased by restricting access to the ‘root’ user. The ‘root’ account can change any configuration setting within an ESX host, making it difficult to manage and audit the changes made. Remote access using the ‘root’ account should be disabled; instead users should log in remotely as a regular user in order to maintain an audit trail of user access, raising their access level to ‘root’ privileges if required.

VirtualCenter also has a number of ‘roles’ that can be assigned to users to refine the granularity of the security privileges assigned to individual users. In order to tighten security on the management network, close down TCP ports on the service console other than those used by ESX and VirtualCenter. Use secure shell (ssh) and secure copy (scp) for access and to transfer files to and from the service console rather than through lower security methods (telnet and ftp).

Increase the security of packets travelling over the network by segmenting network traffic travelling over the same physical NIC using ‘VLAN tagging’. VMware ESX supports IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging to take advantage of virtual LAN networks. VLAN tagging has little impact on performance and enables VMs to be more secure since network packets are limited to those on the segmented VLAN. Using VLAN tagging can minimize the number of physical NICs needed to support more network segments. VLANs provide logical groupings of network ports as if they were all on the same physical port to separate networks.

6. Define a Standard Virtual Machine Provisioning Process

Have standard guidelines and procedures in place in order to control the Virtual Machine provisioning process. Defining guidelines for sizing Virtual Machines in terms of number of virtual CPUs and amount of RAM, based upon the Operating System and application workload eases deployment and makes resource utilisation and forward capacity planning more predictive i.e. assisting administrators to ensure that there are sufficient resources to meet the required workloads. Requests that exceed standard guidelines should be handled as exception cases requiring necessary approvals.

Virtual Machines should be defined based upon their anticipated actual requirements for CPU and RAM, not upon the resources available to them in the physical environment, which often are unused and wasted. ESX performs best with running Virtual Machines reduced to a single Virtual CPU; Virtual machines with two or four virtual CPUs (Virtual SMP) should only be used when necessary. Simply giving all virtual machines access to two or four virtual CPUs at a time on an ESX host will likely waste resources, without any demonstrable performance benefit. The reason is that very few applications actually require multiple CPUs, and many virtual machines can run fine with a single virtual CPU.

If the applications used within the virtual machine are not multithreaded and capable of taking advantage of the second CPU, having the extra virtual CPU does not provide any increase in performance. The ESX scheduler reserves two or four CPUs (cores) concurrently to run Virtual SMP virtual machines. If a dual CPU virtual machine could run fine as a single CPU virtual machine, consider that every time that virtual machine is running, a CPU is wasted and another single CPU virtual machine can be prevented from running.

Virtual machines should be sized appropriately for RAM. It is tempting with ESX to assign extra RAM to a virtual machine because if it doesn’t need the additional RAM, an ESX host shares that RAM or forces it to give some up temporarily through the balloon driver. Unfortunately, the guest OS is likely to slowly fill that RAM with obsolete pages simply because it has the room. If all guests on an ESX host are sized this way they could continually swap out “unneeded” RAM with each other. Likewise, avoid overtly starving a RAM on a VM by purposely giving it less RAM than needed in the hopes of utilizing ESX’s identical memory page sharing. RAM starvation can lead to poor VM Guest performance.

Consistent guidelines for sizing virtual disks based on Operating System and application workload type can help manage free disk space and make disk usage more predictable. Requests that exceed standard guidelines can be handled as exception cases requiring necessary approvals.

To save space, avoid creating virtual disks that are much larger than needed by the Guest. A virtual disk can be expanded after its initial creation (although a tool within the Guest is necessary to recognize the additional space) but shrinking a virtual disk is not supported. Sizing virtual disks properly helps conserve storage space.

Virtual machines should have by default a single virtual NIC. Having a second virtual NIC does not result in any gains unless the second virtual NIC is attached to a second vSwitch to provide redundancy at the vSwitch and physical adapter level.

7. Provision Virtual Machines from Templates

Creating Virtual Machines from scratch is both time-consuming and increases the potential of introducing anomalies and errors. In order to facilitate the rapid deployment of new applications into the Virtual Infrastructure, administrators should create and maintain a number of standard Operating System / application ‘master installations, stored as ‘VirtualCenter templates. The use of such templates removed many of the common, time-consuming phases of the implementation process, reducing time-to-deployment, whilst ensuring that every new server has an identical configuration i.e. reducing errors, minimising risk and management overhead.

8. Create and utilise Resource Pools to improve SLAs

Resource Pools enable administrators to improve the Service Levels they provide to their users by providing Virtual Machines within a resource pool to have access to a guaranteed amount of CPU and RAM resources.

Resource pools are shaped by reservation amounts, limits, and shares. Reservations are guaranteed minimums. Limits define the boundaries of the resource pool and prevent the VMs within the resource pool from tapping additional resources. Shares are used to assign relative priorities. Resource pools allow proactive curtailing and control of user usage. Resource pools can be nested. In addition, reservations can be expandable, meaning that if a pool hits its reservation, it can try to reserve (“borrow”) more resources from a parent if they are available. Doing so takes away available resources for use or reservation by the parent or other entities. The total reservation can never exceed the limit of the resource pool regardless of how many resources are available to the parent. Resource pools can span multiple hosts. However, a VM can only run on a single host at a time and therefore cannot use more CPU or RAM cycles than a given host has.

9. Balance Workloads across Hosts using VMware DRS

VMware DRS (Dynamic Resource Scheduling) enables an organisation to provide Service Level guarantees back to its users, by dynamically balancing Virtual Machine workloads across multiple ESX Hosts configured in a cluster, in line with their resource requirements i.e. in order to prevent Virtual Machines becoming constrained, whilst ESX Hosts stand comparatively idle.

VMware DRS aggregates CPU and RAM resources across a cluster of hosts. Pooling such resources together allows VirtualCenter to intelligently calculate and determine where resource loads are imbalanced, while keeping track of all the resource reservations, limits, and shares. VirtualCenter can make recommendations for replacement of running VMs or even automatically move workloads around using VMotion.

If an ESX Host has to be brought down in order to undertake hardware maintenance, patching or upgrade, VMware DRS can also be used to automatically migrate Virtual Machine workloads from off of the effected server, minimising the impact on the end-users.

10. Data Protection and High Availability

Having virtualised the physical server estate it is essential that a solution is in place to protect, backup and recover the environment in line with the organisation’s Service Level Agreements.

Utilise the inherent high availability functionality of VMware VI3 to increase fault tolerance i.e. VMware DRS and HA, in order to load balance workloads, and protect them against planned / unplanned downtime.

Understand the potential single points of failure within a VMware Infrastructure and plan for redundancy where possible. The VirtualCenter database, license server files residing on the license server, and datastores containing VMs are all single points of failure that should be routinely backed up. The rest of VMware Infrastructure can be architected for maximum redundancy through teaming or hot spares. For teaming, use multiple hosts with multiple vSwitches and multiple physical NICs. Use multi-pathing to storage with multiple HBAs, switches, and storage processors. Use identical host hardware wherever possible to facilitate quick restores or reinstallation. Have hot spares for the VirtualCenter Server and license server.

Have a process in place for restoring ESX hosts. Identify and back up customized files and partitions for each ESX host. In general, specific customisations to hosts should be avoided or minimised so that each host can be easily recreated through a simple reinstallation, and hosts can be easily replaced. Have a standardised procedures or a ‘runbook’ in place so that an ESX Host can be reinstalled procedurally or through a script, in order to speed up recovery.

Have a process in place for backing-up/restoring the VirtualCenter database. The VirtualCenter database is a single repository of configuration information on ESX hosts and their Virtual Machines. There is also historical performance information that is logged. Backing up the database preserves the historical information and minimizes downtime in the event of disaster and recovery.

Have a process in place for backing up/restoring license server files. The license server for VMware Infrastructure 3 stores uploaded licenses in a local directory. Back up the files so that they are available in the event of disaster if the license server must be recreated or reinstalled elsewhere. Using a mapped drive to a network share to store the license files can be helpful. Alternatively, license files can be manually retrieved from the VMware website by logging in using a registered account. ESX, VirtualCenter, and Virtual Machines will continue to operate with a grace period of 14 days if a connection to the license server is severed. Certain abilities related to adding or removing hosts are disallowed during the grace period. After the grace period ends, running Virtual Machines remain powered on, but Virtual Machines cannot be powered on and VMotion migrations are disallowed.

Have a process in place for backing up/restoring Virtual Machines. Virtual Machines can be backed up using conventional methods that apply to physical machines by use of backup agents installed in the Guest OSes. However, the use of backup agents in each Virtual Machine is expensive; in addition the aggregated network traffic of many Virtual Machines running on a single ESX host all being backed up at the same time can result in higher network usage than can be tolerated. In order to address these issues it is often beneficial to use a storage based backup / recovery strategy i.e. using available functionality from the storage vendor to provide ‘crash-consistent’ (or in the case of a database application ‘application-consistent’) snapshots of the Virtual Machines, which can then be backed-up tom tape or a disk-based library.

Have a Disaster Recovery Plan that’s provides a against a complete site-level failure. A secondary Disaster Recovery site is needed to recover business operations. Due to the extenuating circumstances, these procedures focus on a shorter prioritized list of essential services to restore and lower than normal performance levels may often be tolerated. It may be desirable to prioritise applications, based upon their criticality to the business i.e. tier 1 is for the most critical applications, and tier 3 is for the least critical applications. Service level agreements are especially important for disaster recovery because their definitions help bring order to chaotic situations after a disaster. A plan for how to restore partial business operations caused by the loss of a primary site should be developed, and the plan should be tested regularly. VMware Site Recovery Manager may be used in order to define and automate recovery of the Virtual Infrastructure at the Secondary site.

66c

Technorati Tags: gigabit network

The next technology to hit the market with a huge force is the D-link Xtreme n dir-655 router. If seen from the perspective of short range transmissions, this will be the fastest while the latest in the router technology.

Although it is still under testing, when it comes to mode tests, it has a very good performance. This can be the best router for all wireless technologies at present because it has everything you want for your LAN security.

Though quite expensive, D-link Xtreme n dir-655 is the fastest router available today. Critics of the said product have not commented yet because the test hasn’t been fully carried out. However, testimonials coming from customers will quench your thirst.

Many have been into admiration on its speed, its capacity and the huge amount of security it effectively provides on their actual use of the router. All users have been convinced that what does the product says are verified, it exactly does what is been stated.

Approximately, the D-link Xtreme n dir-655 router cost you around ninety three dollars but this price is still subject to change and can reach as high as one hundred and seventy dollars. So, hurry up if you are planning to buy before it’s too late. But buy if and only if necessary without being push.

It is said that the D-link Xtreme n dir-655 router is the most up-to-date in all the Draft N routers at present, well, that’s definitely true. It has a bandwidth of around 2.4 giga hertz while the network of the router is of the 802.11n type.

The Linux, Windows 98 and other versions like the ME or the Xp are the operating systems supported by the machine including the Windows 2000 and MAC 8x. The machine is also compatible with MAC 9x and the MAC 10x operating systems.

The MAC address, the firewalls by Nat, the WEP, the SPI firewall and the WPA-PSK are security options also being provided. DHCP support is also featured along with four gigabit local area network ports. The machine has the VPN pass through, too. Among other features is the DDNS that the D-link Xtreme n dir-655 router is boasting.

A warranty of one whole year is what the company is offering. Even so, if you have questions, they are always available at their help centre. You are free to call anytime at their support system toll free. They can also be reached via emails and they also have a knowledge-based.

What’s more, downloading of any software you need for your router is allowed for free.

Technorati Tags: gigabit network

Gigabit Ethernet, it’s an awesome change in the speed at which you can go about the internet. But as of right now it is not easily used by consumers. Though businesses are able to use this type of internet connection easily. Technology in the consumer computers need to advance a bit more.

Long ago when computers first went on the World Wide Web the loading of computer pages was so slow. So when Ethernet came around at 10 megabits it was a great jump ahead. But then it got even better with download rates of 100 megabits. Next in line for technology was the increase to a gigabit per minute. Simply one of the greatest accomplishments in technology.

Back in 1999 when this was first created it was allowed by big businesses to use the copper infrastructure they had in place to connect to this gigabit Ethernet. Something that was accomplished by many high capacity networks to use too. A college campus is a place where this gigabit Ethernet would flourish. As of April 2009 the gigabit Ethernet options were being installed in a consumer computer. However many of the drives and other components in a consumer computer are unable to keep up with the speed.

Thus the technology is not able to be used by the ever day person, but the technology keeps advancing. Soon it’s sure that other components in the personal computer will be created to handle the higher speed of a Gigabit Ethernet.

The range of these gigabit Ethernets will be different depending on the method used for connection. While a copper connection may only reach 25 meters. The more advanced LX method can reach up to 550 meters.

For copper the distance is 25 meters that can be reached. While the Standard multi-fiber can reach 550 meters. This is the same distance for the LX multi mode fiber. However as you go up in wavelength the single mode can reach all the way up to 10 km.

Some people are able to get a connection speed up to 1000 megabits at present. That speed is amazing in itself. Young children who are going to be use to the fast speeds will have a hard time in the future believing that looking on the internet was every slow. But it’s only going to get faster as the years pass by. It will be great when the components in a computer will allow us to use the Gigabit Ethernet.

Technorati Tags: gigabit network

Ethernet was developed at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) by Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs with Chuck Thacker and Butler Lampson in the early 1970s. Xerox filed a patent application for Ethernet in 1975. Today, Ethernet is based on IEEE standard 802.3 (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers). Metcalfe left Xerox in 1979 and founded 3Com to promote local area networks and personal computers. He persuaded Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Intel to work together with Xerox to promote the DIX (Digital/Intel/Xerox) Ethernet standard. Ethernet is named for the invisible, massless substance that 19th century scientists believed filled the universe. Ethernet was originally based on the same rules as those for polite conversation. Each computer wanting to transmit data waits until there’s a lull in network traffic before attempting to transmit its data. That technology was called CSMA/CD for Carrier Sense Multiple Access Collision Detection and used coaxial cables as a transmission medium. Today, Ethernet uses full duplex transmission over unshielded twisted pair copper cables or fiber optic cables with a system of hubs and/or switches.

Ethernet operates at layer two of the OSI reference model. Layer two, also known as the Data Link Layer, is subdivided into the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer and the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. Ethernet nodes use a globally-unique 48-bit address called the MAC address to communicate within a network. Datagrams at layer two are called frames. The frame structure used by modern Ethernet is the same as that used by earlier coaxial-cabled Ethernet networks, thus providing a level of backwards compatibility.

The original Ethernet operated at a speed of three megabits per second. Today, typical transmission rates for Ethernet are 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 1000 Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet). 10,000 Mbps (10 Gigabit Ethernet) is now starting to emerge. Faster data rates are always under development.

Ethernet Cable Standards

10-Base-2, also known as thinnet, uses coaxial cable, is limited to 10 Mbps, and a maximum segment length of 185 meters. 10-Base 2 is falling into disuse due to the lower cost and greater simplicity associated with UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cabling.

10-Base-5, also known as thicknet, uses coaxial cable, is limited to 10 Mbps, and a maximum segment length of 500 meters. 10-Base-5 is rarely seen anymore.

10-Base-T uses unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable over a maximum of 100 meters (328 feet) at a data rate of 10 Mbps. 10-Base-T uses only two of the four wire pairs in the cable.

10-Base-FL uses fiber optic lines up to 2000 meters with a maximum data rate of 10 Mbps.

100-Base-TX uses UTP cable over a maximum segment length of 100 meters with a maximum data rate of 100 Mbps. 100-Base-TX also uses only two of the four wire pairs in the cable.

100-Base-FX uses fiber optic cable over a maximum segment length of 2000 meters with a maximum data rate of 100 Mbps.

1000-Base-FX uses fiber optic cable over a maximum segment length of 2000 meters with a maximum data rate of 1000 Mbps (one gigabit per second).

1000-Base-TX uses UTP cable cable over a maximum segment length of 100 meters with a maximum data rate of 1000 Mbps (one gigabit per second). Unlike 100-Base-TX, 1000-Base-TX uses all four wire pairs in the cable.

Copper Cable Categories

Although there are a total of nine categories of unshielded twisted pair (UTP) copper cable, there are really only three that you’re likely to encounter in your local area network. The others are either obsolete or designed for use in backbone networks. The three categories are:

Category 5e: Provides performance of up to 100 MHz, and is frequently used for both 100 Mbit/s and Gigabit Ethernet networks.

Category 6: Provides performance of up to 250 MHz, more than double category 5 and 5e.

Category 6a: Provides performance of up to 500 MHz, double that of category 6 and is even suitable for 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks.

What should you use in your network?

Build your networks with the fastest cable you can afford. Your bandwidth demands will increase over time and retro-fitting your cable plant is disruptive, time-consuming, and expensive.

Copyright (c) 2008 Don R. Crawley

Technorati Tags: gigabit network

Technorati Tags: gigabit network

Category 6 Cable, or as it is sometimes referred to, CAT-6, is a certain cable that is standard for Gigabit Ethernet and some other network protocols that prove to be backward compatible with this cable and category 3 cables. Cat-6 has more severe specifications for system noise as well as crosstalk. The standard of the cable offers a performance of anything up to 250 MHz and it can even be used for 100BASE-TX/10BASE-T as well as 1000BASE-TX (Gigabit Ethernet) /1000BASE-T. It is also known to go well with the 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GBASE-T) standards, even though this is with some restrictions on its length if a Cat 6 cable is used.

Many people confuse the Cat-6 cable with other cables, but there is a way in which you can tell the difference and that is by the printing that can be found on the side of the sheath of the cable. The Cat-6 cable typically contains just four twisted copper wires, however they are sometimes made using 23 gauge wire, although this isn’t a requirement. There are certain specifications that state that the cable can be made using 22 or 24 AWG wire. All that matters is that the cable meets the testing standards that have been set for it. Sometimes the CAT-6 cable is used as a patch cable in 8P8C connectors, and mistakenly referred to as “RJ-45″ electrical connectors. There are CAT-6 connectors that are specifically made to meet higher standards than other cables so that they assist in reducing noise that is commonly caused by system interference and crosstalk.

There are also some CAT-6 cables that are too big, which make it rather difficult to connect to the 8P8C connectors if you don’t have a special modular piece. If you mix the different standards of the cables together they are not guaranteed to work and the signal path’s performance would probably be limited to the lowest category of the wires. There are different lengths that this cable is available in, but the maximum length it can be is thirty feet or one-hundred meters.

The Cat-6 cable will either be terminated in the T568B scheme or the T568A. Both of these schemes are straight through so it doesn’t really make a difference which one you choose to use. Mixing these two schemes together does not make any trouble in a facility. It might just degrade the quality of the signal, but that is about it; it does not cause any other major damage. When terminating patch cables, the most common method to use would be the T568B scheme.

If you think that it is time for an upgrade, the CAT-6 cable is an awesome choice for you. There are many others to choose from, but if you want something that is going to benefit you in the long run, then this is the cable for you to choose. The final decision of whether to upgrade to a CAT-6 cable is ultimately up to you, as long as you know that this is your number one option if you decide that it is time for an upgrade.

Technorati Tags: gigabit network

Here is our opinion on choosing the right category of network cable:

• Cat5 = If you plan on running at most 100 Mbps
• Cat5e = If you plan on running at 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps)
• Cat6 = If you plan on running at 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps) or more. Cat6 is better if you are in areas that have lots of interference like near power lines, lights, manufacturing equipment, or a long distance 1000 Mbps (Gigabit) run.
• We advise that you run at least Cat5e or Cat6 cable in the walls
• Cat5e are great for patch cables from the patch panel to the switch or from the computer to the wall jack
• We very rarely use Cat5 cable anymore.
• For most applications the CAT5E 350MHz network cables are best. They will run up to 1 Gig and are not as expensive as CAT 6 cables.
• CAT 6 cables are great for “future proofing” your installation. They are rated to carry network speeds above 1000 Mbps (Gigabit).
• CAT5E 100MHz are rated to only run up to 100Mbps networks but are inexpensive.

The above statements are the opinion of the Networkcablesonline.com and do not represent the solution for every situation. There are exceptions to these statements and a professional should be consulted prior to making a major network cabling decision. Please visit http://www.networkcablesonline.com for more information about CAT5, CAT5E, and CAT6 cables. [http://www.networkcablesonline.com/network-cables-c-59.html]

Technorati Tags: gigabit network