[Discuss] Dev Ops - architecture (local not cloud)

[feenberg at nber.org (Daniel Feenberg)]

On Sun, 15 Dec 2013, Edward Ned Harvey (blu) wrote:

>> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
>> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Edward Ned Harvey
>> (blu)
>>
>> I quit about 1.5 years ago from a 9,000 person Fortune 500 company that still
>> used 10/100 hubs in the closet.  So I guess it's all a matter of perspective.  To
>> me, that was very relevant, and to the people still working there, for all I
>> know, it probably still is.
>
> As hard as it is for me to believe that anybody out there is still using 
> hubs, based on all my personal experience seeing things I couldn't 
> believe at that company and others, it's even more difficult for me to 
> believe that the aforementioned company is unique in such matters.

The great thing about hubs is that if plug both ends of the same ethernet 
cable into two ports on the same hub, it doesn't disturb the rest of the 
network. That means allowing desktop hubs is pretty safe, while allowing 
desktop dumb (meaning no Spanning Tree) switches is courting danger from 
careless users. So it is too bad hubs are no longer available, and haven't 
been for many years. We even bought an HP "Hub", but it turned out to be a 
switch in reality, just advertised as a hub for reasons unknown..

The only desktop switch (meaning small, inexpensive and 8 or fewer ports) 
I know of that supports Spanning Tree is a Cisco Series 200 Model 8. But 
that box doesn't auto-sense full/half duplex correctly with the Dell or 
Netgear switches in our wiring closets. So that one is out. Does any know 
of another?

Daniel Feenberg
NBER