Hey guys,

What is the difference between 10/100 and 10 baseT? Is any better? More reliable? Faster? How do these systems work? Thanks

usually you see 10/100 on network hardware, basically meaning it can operate at 10baseT speeds or 100baseT speeds. So 10baseT is basically just the slower speed.. which isn't all that fast in terms of a hosting environment.

What actual speed does 10baseT run at? Is is limited by the wireing? Also, what does the term 10/100 mean? Is that a speed rating? If so, what speeds? And all of these connections are dependant on the line in correct? Thanks

They run at 1/10 of thier theorical speed
10 = 700kb/1.xMb/s
100 = ~10Mb/s

Oh ok. Is there a limiter in them or somthing? And what does 10baseT mean? How did it get that name? Thanks

Didn't 10baseT come from that cool old coax cable that didn't require a hub.

Maybe, I dont know. Does someone?

A 10BaseT card would be limited to 10Mbps because of the card itself. A 10/100 would autodetect either 10Mb or 100Mb depending on the hardware and/or wiring it is connected to. The difference between 10Mb and 100Mb is obviously 10 times the speed. The previous statment about working at 1/10th of their theoretical speed is incorrect. On a LAN, the speed also depends on if the card connectes at Half Duplex or Full Duplex. Half Duplex is similar to a walkie-talkie, because only one person can talk at a time. Full Duplex is like a telephone because both parties can talk and listen at the same time. I'd get the 10/100 card.

Please note most 10/100 cards don't actually run at 100Mbit, I think the limit on them is 66Mbit one-way.

If you really want speed go for 100/1000 :), not needed for everyday application and I doubt a web server would ever require that much concurrent bandwidth, but the bragging rights are amazing!

Sincerely,

-Matt

100 = ~10Mb/s

No. 100 ~= 10MB/s (although seemingly less due to protocol overheads, collisions etc.)

Mb (megabit), MB (megabyte)

The T in 10Base-T refers to twisted pair, which is normal telephone cable. There are other designations for the old thin and thick wire coax (2 and 5), as well as fiber (F) and broadband (36).

Wow, Thanks for the info, seems you guys really know your stuff. El nino mentioned full and half duplex. How does only talking at one time work? I mean is that topographic specific say bus? Thanks

Half duplex refers to what I'd previously mentioned regarding traffic direction. A NIC operating in half duplex mode is capable of sending and receiving at it's max speed, in the case of 10/100 that's 66Mbit/s combined. Full duplex allows both 66Mbit down and 66Mbit up simultaneously.

Wording comes from the old phone stuff. Half duplex would be like a walkie-talkie where to talk you have to press the button. Full duplex would be a phone where both ends could talk and listen at the same time.

Sincerely,

-Matt

Is there any downside to running at full duplex? Cost more? I heard there were some problems with it?

intigret, its really based on the switch, thats where the pricing differnece will be, you can go full duplex without a switch

Where is the switch located? On the card itself? I would imagine you would use more bandwidth, faster, running in full duplex mode.

the switch it what connects to the nic

A switch is a separate box. Looks like hub but has more functionality.

What do switches normally cost?

50-couple of grand

So for cost worthy value, go with the 10/100 card? As it supports higher speeds, and can switch between 10-100mbps? Any situations where the 10baseT is necessary? Thanks

10 base T is the 10 part of 10/100, just that people don't typically say the base T bit because that's what most people are using anyway.

I'd say it's rare to have people using 10 base-2 or 10 base-5 these days, although the old coax ethernet was nice as you didn't have a hub, and you just tapped into the coax where you wanted to that ran around your office.

Likewise, most smaller home/office type installs aren't running 10 base-F for fiber, and not 10 base-36, hence 10 base-T is the norm and no need to say it.

You just need a 10/100 card that will cost next to nothing and you'll be set.

As for 100Mb ethernet really being 66Mbit, I'm not sure that's strictly correct - at least I've not seen that anywhere. What you have to realise though, is that there are extra bits used, extra bytes for packet headers, the size of which depends on the protocol, with TCP having a larger header than UDP, for example, and for handling collisions. When collisions are detected, (at least with coax, but hubs/switches buffering each port this could be exliminated), the driver would jam the line so that every device would know that there was a collision and back off. Each sender would back off a random amount, doubling the maximum amount each time (binary exponential backoff), and resend. Eventually senders would have backed off different amounts and enough such that they could all send their packets without colliding with each other. All these things, plus hub/switch/driver performance etc. can go to reduce the actual throughput that you see at the application layer.

So the 10/100 card is a solution for the old and new tech, best of both worlds.

So the 10/100 card is a solution for the old and new tech, best of both worlds.

Basically yes. Unless you have a card that has a socket like a TV arial socket you can't do the much older coax type ethernet - but you don't need to :)

You could get away with just a 100 Mbit card, but most seem to be still 10/100. For a hub you may want a 10/100 compatible one because not all devices with built in ethernet have 10/100 cards, but only 10Mbit - my Cisco ISDN router and wireless access point, for example, both have only a 10Mbit ethernet interface, whereas most of my wired network is 100Mbit, and so I need a hub that's 10/100 compatible, allowing devices of both speeds to be attached. It depends on what else you'll be putting on your network.

There isn't actually much of a difference between the two. They both follow the same specifications and have the same limitations (mtu/how many packets per second).

You'll surely notice the different when doing transfers over a protocol like FTP, where 100BaseT will surely be faster.

Yes, maybe I should test it out

10BaseT is the same as 10/100 at 10 Mb. 10BaseT ~ 1/10th 10/100 at 100

It's as simple as that :) The BaseT is for all intents and purposes a red herring and people are just used to either labelling things 10BaseT or 10/100. It's just a name thing. Decide on what the upper limit for your network bandwidth is going to be and buy accordingly, keeping in mind that all components in your system need to be 100Mb capable if you want them to communicate at that speed. Given that a 10/100 capable card is as cheap as chips, and maybe even cheaper than a purely 10(BaseT) card, it's an easy decision to make.

Oh cool, so keep all parts at the same level