exercise a hub

[Joel Jaeggli]

On Tue, 4 Oct 2005, THUFIR HAWAT wrote:

> On 10/4/05, Mike McCarty <mike.mccarty at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> ...
>> How long do your lightbulbs normally "work"?
>
> The hub in question was shrink wrapped when I bought it a few months
> ago. The hub appeared "mint",  although was probably sitting in a
> warehouse for years.  Also, I did use the hub to connect two computers
> directly which pinged each other succesfully.  Penny wise and pound
> foolish on that purchase.
>
> It's not so much that the hub didn't work but that it functioning was
> perhaps not one hundred percent.  Or, perhaps, hub specifications
> changed and it was incompatible with this device.  I'm curious as to
> whether the hub isn't "up to spec" or if the specifications have
> moved.

A hub is a just a repeater. If it's a 10Mb/s ethernet hub you should be 
able to push 3-4Mb/s before the collision rate climbs enough to start 
effecting performance.

>>> Aside from pings, how else can you test a hub?
>>
>> Well, there are a number of ways to check out a hub,
>> or any other piece of comm equipment. But you need
>> hardware knowledge, and some test equipment.
>
> Ah, I thought there might be a software package.
>
>> Want a quick tutorial on how to use an oscilloscope?
> ...
>
> Ah, well, no thanks.  I was hoping for something more user friendly, heh.

push bits through it.

> I am somewhat curious as to why the hub worked in that it could be
> pinged across but failed in this specific scenario.  It's not like the
> hub doesn't work at all, more that it just doesn't play nicely,
> perhaps, with a particular device.  Similarly, while the switch plays
> better with this device, the Asus WL-330g, the behaviour isn't as
> expected.  Perhaps that's just a lack of networking knowledge on my
> part, I've asked Asus for some clarifications.
>
>
> -Thufir
>
>

-- 
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Joel Jaeggli  	       Unix Consulting 	       joelja at darkwing.uoregon.edu
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