I am very new to networking. I am just beginning networking as a matter of fact. I have a question silly as it may sound but here goes. If you change the frame type that your NIC uses to transmit data from Ehternet to Token Ring, why would this prevent the workstation from connecting to the network? ThanksDo you have a Media Access Unit? (MAU)
If you do then know if any part of the network is down, it will all go down.
To be honest I don't think your network is set up for Token Ring. Is each machine on the network connected directly to the MAU?I'm not sure. The question is posed in my book. I work in a college computer lab. The computers run only the TCP/IP protocol on an Ethernet network, and all computers use 3Com NICs. One day a student begins tampering with his computer when he restarts the computer, it alerts him that it can't find the network. All connections are sound. You check the properties and find that he has changed the frame type that his NIC uses to transmit data from Ethernet to Token Ring. Why has this prevented theworkstation from connecting to the network? I read that typically you use one or the other, Ethernet or Token Ring, but it is possible to use both. I don't QUITE understand "frame types" yet I don't think. Thanks for your reply.A Token Ring network is one where only one machine on the network can send information at a time. The MAU will receive a request for the 'Token' (which is actually a string of data which is needed to permit broadcasting to other machines on the network) from a machine that wishes to send data over the network. If the Token is not being used and the machine has the right permissions to broadcast on the network then the machine will be leased the key to send its message.
This was much more popular method years AGO to prevent network crashes from machines trying to broadcast at the same time as others, old network cables couldn't handle this.
The reason he can't connect with Token Ring SETTINGS is because the network isn't a Token Ring setup.Thanks. I was reading about an adapter that you could hook up that allows you to use Ethernet and Token Ring. Is that accurate and what would be the advantages of having both? Basically (very basically ) Ethernet is like the language that is used over a network and Token Ring is just one method of communicating using this language.
Ethernet means that each machine will have a physical (MAC) address and will be assigned an IP address and so forth, it's like a hard set of rules, Token Ring is just a way of enabling and preventing all the machines of trying to talk at once.
So if you have a Token Ring network then it is still using Ethernet.The token in a token ring is actually being passed around the network all the time and only stops moving when a machine holds on to it to send a message. If you are training to be a network engineer you will probably never see this setup still installed any where.
This was only used when half-duplex cables were the norm, these were cables where information could be sent down a ethernet cable in either direction but only one way at a time so to avoid collisions the Token Ring setup was introduced so that only one machine could broadcast at a time. Cat 5 cable is Full-Duplex meaning that information can be sent both ways at once and also networks have Collision detection which basically monitors traffic and any data that doesn't reach it's destination is re-sent. The machine that sent the information will know if it reached where it was going or not because the machine that is supposed to receive the packet of data is required to send an acknowledgment to say it received the data.I hope this helps, I had trouble getting my head round this stuff when I was studying but it turns out it's all really quite simple once you've read up about it all, just don't try to over think things too much. The hardware side of networks is really quite simple.Thanks so much. That makes a little more sense to me. I have read and read and tryed looking up info on the internet. We have a new instructor this quarter and about all we do is listen to powerpoints every class and that just repeats what is in the book. I need it simplified a little more than that. He hasn't assigned any projects to us so I am trying to do the ones at the end of the chapter for my own benefit. Thanks again for your help. Maybe you should CONSIDER teaching a class if you don't already!!http://www.wikipedia.com has some good articles try searching for Ethernet or anything that's covered in the power point presentations It's useful, anything you don't understand in the article just search up again. Wikipedia articles are usually written in annoyingly PERFECT English which can make for hard reading lol, I usually read each paragraph 2-3 times until I understand it. Hehe.
Ask your tutor questions when he's not busy too, if he's serious about teaching then he will help you out and this will show him that your actually interested. It seems to me that your quite early on in your course so I wouldn't worry if things aren't making sense yet.