Thread: Token ring?
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Old 15-August-07, 10:47 PM   #8 (permalink)
DickNervous
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Default Re: Token ring?

IBM invented Token Ring and they don't even use it anymore. While I was working for them they were just finishing up a project where the re-wired all their offices for Ethernet.

The thick coax cables were referred to as Type 1 cables because that is what the connector was. The hub in a Token Ring network is called a MAU, or Multiple Access Unit. The old Type 1 MAUs were filled with relays and you could actually here them clicking as the token went around. If you listened close enough you could tell which station just got the token.

IBM, 3Com, and one other company who's name I can't recall, were the big manufacturers for Token Ring equipment. I was once certified as a "3Com Wizard" on their "Startech" product line. Actually, I guess I still am, though you would be hard pressed to find any of that equipment still around.

Financial Institutions were the big users of Token Ring due to a few factors. First, it was made by IBM and nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM. At least not back "in the day". Second it was very, very reliable. Extremely reliable. Third, it was more secure than Ethernet at a physical level. You couldn't just plug a hub in to a port and add multiple ports.

So I am guess that these cards are coming from someone who works for a bank who just cleaned out their old storeroom.

One interesting tidbit is that some banks do still use TR, and at one time it was the network topology of choice for the ATM machines.
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