[dlr21]

Hello all,

I wonder if i might be able to ask some novice questions? Suppose i wish to set up a 1gb ethernet LAN. this will involve creating access points for visitors to plug in their laptops to connect at various points across the network. Now, invariably, these laptops will have 10/100 nics: do these work with gigabit switches and repeaters? which mode should they be in, full or half duplex? and thirdly, what are the coniguration rules for gigabit lans?

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Dean.

[AndyFair]

If most of your users will be using 10/100 NIC cards, there is very little benefit in providing a gigabit LAN - stick with a 100Mbps LAN, it's cheaper.

Even if you go ahead and install a gigabit LAN, be aware that at the moment, only servers with PCI-X gigabit NICs will be able to get the full 1000Mbps data throughput from the network - bog standard PCI cards do not have the throughput to benefit.

However, 10/100 cards will be able to cope with gigabit kit, because the switches/hubs are backwards compatible, and should run 100 full-duplex with no problems.

I'm not sure what you mean by configuration rules?

One other thought - if you're providing networking points for laptop users, have you also thought of WiFi connections?

Rgds
AndyF