Hi! I work in a small office and we're networked using wireless technology. We currently use a T1 as our primary network connection, which we aren't sharing yet, and we have cable as our back up which is faster. We are using cat5 from the wall to our router. A very very short distance. Does this inhibit our network? Should we be using fiber instead? I just don't understand why such a heavily shared medium, our cable access, would be faster than our T1???? Any advice?
T1 media
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A "Full T" - a full T1 - is theoretically 1.54Mbps. Conceiveably, you could get more bandwidth over cable download.
If you're using Category 5 cable, your max theoretical throughput is going to be 100Mbps. The Cat5 cable is not your bottleneck.
If you're all using Wireless, it is a shared medium. All of you are contending for the same "bandwidth" and all of your packets in wireless have to be acknowledged instead of every other few. So, you will NEVER attain the theoretical bandwidth of Wireless.
I doubt your router to the internet is loadbalancing across a cable connection and a T1, so odds are most of your internet connection is going over one connection.
If you're using Category 5 cable, your max theoretical throughput is going to be 100Mbps. The Cat5 cable is not your bottleneck.
If you're all using Wireless, it is a shared medium. All of you are contending for the same "bandwidth" and all of your packets in wireless have to be acknowledged instead of every other few. So, you will NEVER attain the theoretical bandwidth of Wireless.
I doubt your router to the internet is loadbalancing across a cable connection and a T1, so odds are most of your internet connection is going over one connection.
As previously stated, your wired speeds aren't your problem, if you have a number of wireless workstations, you could easily saturate the bandwidth of the wireless connection since it's multiplexed between all the stations.Nikita said:
Thanks for the info, guys. The fact that we're using wireless is really inconsequential. I don't know why I added that, just some background, I guess. We aren't connected to the T1 and the cble at the same time, the cable's a backup, considered by our powers that be, less reliable. It's good to know that the cat5 isn't a factor though. Tks!
You will never get anything close to the quoted bandwidth of an Ethernet connection, there is a lot of prococol overhead involved in transferring data on an Ethernet wire. Ethernet uses CSMA/CD to transfer data, and 70-80% bandwidth is the maximum you can realistically ever expect.
In addition to the basic limitations of the wire, your NIC's and your system will limit the maximum throughput you can get. I can copy large files across my network and get 6mb/sec throughputs, and that's all I've ever expected to get.
In addition to the basic limitations of the wire, your NIC's and your system will limit the maximum throughput you can get. I can copy large files across my network and get 6mb/sec throughputs, and that's all I've ever expected to get.
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A thing I have uncovered about T1 should alleviate any misconceptions most people have about it and its "blazing" speed (go for oc149... then you'll know speed *drool* .... gonna have to hunt down some new NICs though :angel: ).
Most people believe that T1 is a lot faster than cable, not true.
Cable has higher throughput (transfer speed of data), probably due to attenuation or something similar.
T1 has higher bandwidth, so allows for more information to be transfered without a slowdown in throughput...
So technically, T1 is better for a network, as it allows for more information at a cost of speed... which ultimately is better since the loss in speed isnt dramatic.
Also, as Mr. Wizard said, you'll never get max bandwidth (if im not mistaken it should be throughput... bandwidth is just the amount of data that can be sent... not the speed at which it can be...)
Each individual networking device (hub, bridge, switch, router) adds latency to your network (at the cost of reliability) increasing from hub to router (if I remember, a router can take up to a 20% toll on your network alone if it has a network specific configuration)
So if you lost me anywhere, throw in quick lamens.
T1 = More data, Cable = Data faster
Most people believe that T1 is a lot faster than cable, not true.
Cable has higher throughput (transfer speed of data), probably due to attenuation or something similar.
T1 has higher bandwidth, so allows for more information to be transfered without a slowdown in throughput...
So technically, T1 is better for a network, as it allows for more information at a cost of speed... which ultimately is better since the loss in speed isnt dramatic.
Also, as Mr. Wizard said, you'll never get max bandwidth (if im not mistaken it should be throughput... bandwidth is just the amount of data that can be sent... not the speed at which it can be...)
Each individual networking device (hub, bridge, switch, router) adds latency to your network (at the cost of reliability) increasing from hub to router (if I remember, a router can take up to a 20% toll on your network alone if it has a network specific configuration)
So if you lost me anywhere, throw in quick lamens.
T1 = More data, Cable = Data faster
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I'm on a P3 600Mhz until I get my big bad AMD working again...vmail said:
Why would you put win 2k3 on a 550? 98se sucks on it...
UPGRADE!!!
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I meant upgrade the CPU... I'm on a 600 MHz, 98se system (my old one that sucks that i was using as comparison) while my other computer is dead... *mourn*
Upgrading the OS will only make the system run slower, methinks
In addition... what is the 550? mail server?
Upgrading the OS will only make the system run slower, methinks
In addition... what is the 550? mail server?
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you use a seperate PC for word processing? isn't that the entire concept of "bigger, faster, harder, stronger" that you don't have to use multiple computers... its like you have a slave that doesn't do the menial tasks unless you walk them through it
Not that I endorse slavery... I've just been playing Morrowind a lot lately...
Not that I endorse slavery... I've just been playing Morrowind a lot lately...
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ahhhh.... ya thats how this hunk of junk emachines was... until my good self made crashed =(... your's puts even that one to shame, but no matter
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Hmm. T1 is an industry term specifying a leased line from the Telco which is a guranteed bandwidth of 1.54Mbps. You can have "frac T's" which is Fractional T1 with the same physical connection with less bandwidth.yellowduck said:
Cable OTOH, is a physical medium. The bandwidth is different between upstream and downstream and is controlled by the Cable company. Also, cable, for internet purposes, is a shared medium, so the throughput depends on other users in the same "segment".
Like you say, T1 is just a term people have heard without understanding what it was and thought that if you had one, it must be fast! And there is a lot of misunderstanding about duplex, load balancing, etc. We have 3 T1's servicing this location - does it mean I get 3Mbps+ throughput when I'm downloading a file? NO! We have a device loadbalancing across the T1's - my "stream" still only goes one direction, it's not divided into 3 and sent out 3 "pipes". Additionally, I'm not the only one here using any given T1.
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ya, now that thats settled... solve my post about the problem i cant ID... plz? =D
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