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VII. ASUS Network Interface
Technical Information
Fast Ethernet Wiring
100BASE-TX Specification: The 100BASE-TX specification supports 100 Mbps trans-
mission over two pairs of category 5 twisted-pair Ethernet (TPE) wiring. One pair is
for transmit operations and the other for receive operations. Segment lengths are lim-
ited to 100 meters with 100BASE-TX for signal timing reasons. This complies with
the EIA 568 wiring standard.
Fast Ethernet Hubs and Switches
The two basic types of hubs are shared hubs and switching hubs. ASUS SP98-N's
network interface can be used with either type of hub for 10 Mbps. At 100 Mbps, a TX
hub or switch is required.
Shared hubs
In a shared network environment, computers are connected to hubs called repeaters.
All ports of the repeater hub share a fixed amount of bandwidth, or data capacity. On a
100 Mbps shared hub, all nodes on the hub must share the 100 Mbps of bandwidth. As
stations are added to the hub, the effective band-width available to any individual sta-
tion gets smaller. Shared hubs do not support full duplex.
Think of a shared repeater hub as a single-lane highway that everyone shares. As the
number of vehicles on the highway increases, the traffic becomes con-gested and tran-
sit time increases for individual cars.
On a shared hub all nodes must operate at the same speed, either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps.
Fast Ethernet repeaters provide 100 Mbps of available bandwidth, ten times more than
what's available with a 10BASE-T repeater.
Repeaters use a well-established, uncomplicated design, making them highly cost ef-
fective for connecting PCs within a workgroup. These are the most common type of
Ethernet hubs in the installed base.
Switching hubs
In a switched network environment, each port gets a fixed, dedicated amount of band-
width. In the highway scenario, each car has its own lane on a multi-lane highway and
there is no sharing.
In a switched environment, data is sent only to the port that leads to the pro-per destina-
tion station. Network bandwidth is not shared among all stations, and each new station
added to the hub gets access to the full bandwidth of the network.
If a new user is added to a 100 Mbps switching hub, the new station receives its own
dedicated 100 Mbps link and doesn't impact the 100 Mbps bandwidth of another station.
Switching hubs can effectively increase the overall bandwidth available on the network,
significantly improving performance. Switching hubs can also support full duplex.
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ASUS SP98-N User's Manual
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