quick network engineering review question

[Jonathan Hutchins]

On Friday 03 June 2005 11:05 am, Gerald Combs wrote:

I certainly understand your points, and would agree, with one exception:

> Limiting Ethernet to a $10 five port hub is an artifical (and
> unrealistic) distinction.

It may be artificial, but when the _average_ user/low-level tech talks about 
"ethernet", they mean whatever they can jack into the RJ45 in the wall or 
perhaps a hub/switch in the closet.  The vast majority of "ethernet jacks" 
are of this limited nature.

This is relevant to the original question, which was whether one could just 
plug a hub (or NIC) in to the CSU/DSU and expect to be able to "see" the 
traffic on it.  For the purpose of that discussion, I'm not sure even gigabit 
ethernet would count.

There's always been a gap between what the average consumer/user had access to 
at reasonable cost and what could technically be done within the scope of an 
engineering standard.  (This can be very frustrating when you're doing a home 
project on a limited budget and you discover what those little extra features 
within the standard actually cost to implement.)