mpe wrote:Got this HP network adapter. […]
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Got this HP network adapter.
I plan to upgrade my retro home network to 100VG-AnyLan standard which, for those who don't remember, was a failed 100MB LAN standard competing with what became the Fast Ethernet. As often, it was technically superior, but the market decided otherwise ...
Am I the only one running this? I suppose the rest of you use Token Ring, correct ? 😊
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I ran a 100VG net as a novelty back in the 00s, with a big 24-port switch and several clients. Also had token ring, with an 8-port MAU taking up more space than that 24-port 100VG thing. Unfortunately it was near bottom on my list of priorities when I moved from a house with cellar and shed to a small upstairs apartment in the big city, so offloaded it years ago.
Nice coincidence:
Picked up a big load of stuff (see above) recently. One of the cards is a 100VG PCI NIC. Brought back memories 😉
HanJammer wrote:[...]
For the sake of compatibility with modern stuff I run Ethernet/Fast Ethernet cards in all my retro machines.
Also 100Mbps LAN card supposed to work in the ISA slot is not really ideal idea to start with...
100VG is backwards compatible with 10MbE (using the second RJ45 connector - only HP could come up with something so redundant).
Obviously ISA isn't going to hit 100Mbps, but when you're running a shared medium like Ethernet with hubs (or 100VG to a certain degree), link speed matters. If you hook a 10MbE card up to an Ethernet hub, even a dual-speed 10/100 one, everything has to talk 10Mbps. Using a 100MbE card, the actual network talks 100Mbps, even if your ISA bus can't saturate it. Of course these days with switches replacing hubs, that's not so relevant anymore, but back in the day people with ISA cards generally couldn't afford switches, so it mattered a lot, hence 100MbE and 100VG ISA cards. It's the same way you benefit from high-spec WiFi even if your internet connection is nowhere near fast enough to saturate the theoretical max of your WiFi.
Even with a switch you can benefit from ISA 100MbE, as ISA can give about 64Mbps. Of course if you're sharing that with both NIC and HDD, you'll be lucky to get even a third of that, but that's still well over 10Mbps, so you're no worse off.
mpe wrote:[...]
True. I wish they made this in VL-Bus 😊
Did HP do any VLB at all? Sort of remember it being an ISA->EISA->PCI shop. In any event VLB 100MbE Ethernet exists - and is pretty high on my wish-list 😉
