bad books and bad teachers

[Kymera]

This reminds me of a poster here whose prof asked him how he could send a copy of win2k to another location using a fax machine.

Sure it's possible, but why on Earth would you want to do it.

[Hippie_Tech]

I sure hope the instructor wasn't thinking of the labor and cost involved with bus vs. star instead of the performance. Yes it would be easier to run one cable from room to room with each computer hooked into the cable, but the performance would degrade with each subsequent computer added. If they are going to look for the easiest, least expensive way to do something and then call it the "best way", they needed to point that out in the first place. A star configuration is the best (read: most ideal) way (hooked into a fiber backbone of course) to have any room to grow in the near future. Using a bus would be a backwards step in technology. A very big step backwards.

[da_grinch]

I think you're teacher meant to say that a star network is the logical equivalent of a bus network. Still, you were right, why set up a physical bus network in a college environment when you can save yourself some aggravation with the star when you are ready to expand the network?

[Packrat]

I would feel sorry for the poor fellow who would have to take care of the dormatory floor's network if your teacher sat it up. I would not want to be that person. Could you picture 150 PC's (Personal PC's, not business PC's that you can lock down) on a Bus topology? I shudder with the thought.

[]-[otRod]

Bus topology! HaHa! Thats a good one... Actually most colleges that Ive seen that have installed networks in their dorms have gone with either a CAT5 STAR network or have gone with Fiber connections directly into the dorm rooms. Each floor in the dorm has a closet on each floor or every couple of floors that have a set of switches with horizontal cabling running to each dorm room. All of the floors are usually connected with a fiber backbone - effectively creating a Star-Bus topology for the building. Its because of these types of networking marvels that we can now credit the massive amounts of MP3s now circulating around the world. Who do you think ran all of those Napster MP3 servers - College Students- courtesy of the STAR network!

[Quiet Thunder]

Sadly, in the Business world "Best way" is defined as the cheapest and most aggrivating way possible. That's why I've been trying for the last two weeks to link to computers locally to an HP Color Laserjet via a A/B switch, because the JetDirect card is too expensive at $200.00. Oh, and did I mention that the A/B switch states directly on the box that it is not reccomended to be used with HP Color Laser jets? Yea. Best way possible.

[silencio]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Quiet Thunder:
<strong>Sadly, in the Business world "Best way" is defined as the cheapest and most aggrivating way possible. That's why I've been trying for the last two weeks to link to computers locally to an HP Color Laserjet via a A/B switch, because the JetDirect card is too expensive at $200.00. Oh, and did I mention that the A/B switch states directly on the box that it is not reccomended to be used with HP Color Laser jets? Yea. Best way possible. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sometimes you've gotta put your foot down and say no. I wonder if you could find a jet direct on ebay?

[craigmodius]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sadly, in the Business world "Best way" is defined as the cheapest and most aggrivating way possible. That's why I've been trying for the last two weeks to link to computers locally to an HP Color Laserjet via a A/B switch, because the JetDirect card is too expensive at $200.00. Oh, and did I mention that the A/B switch states directly on the box that it is not reccomended to be used with HP Color Laser jets? Yea. Best way possible</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">And once you factor in the cost of labor for you to fight with this A/B switch, they could have paid for the Jet Direct card.

You just have to put those dollar signs in front of them too, along with the fact that it is not recommended before you put your foot down.

They never take those figures into account