Ethernet Cabling and Routing

[Skitz]

Now I'm at the stage where I understand and can utilize my knowledge effectively in programming, all sorts of *nix OS's etc. One area I'm still a little confused about is networking, I mean it's easy, I just don't understand a lot of corporate things si9nce I've never worked in a corporate environment since I'm only 15 atm.

Since Ethernet cabling is only good for about 100m right? How does my school have cabling going for about 500m? Is it possible because they have a router/switch every so often to break the distance of a single cable?

And can you have multiple switches connected together. I have a 12-port switch connected to my router, but could I connect another one to the switch if I wanted to?

[wyatt]

You're right. 333ft (100m) is the max run on a standard Ethernet (cat5) run (if running in a building - to a jack in the wall - cut this down to ~90m to allow extra distance to plug a patch cable for the PC in). Older coax (10Base) can run further than 100m. You can use switches/hubs in the middle to extend the distance, but a better setup would be to use fiber (need fiber capable switchports).

You can chain one switch off another, but you need a "uplink" port (this port will cross the link - usually the last port on the switch/hub and is usually distinguished somehow) on one side or a cross-over Ethernet cable to do this.

[Skitz]

Ah cool, thanks man. I do have an uplink port on my switch here, but have never needed it since 12-port is enough for me now (I've got 8 computers here, of which 6 are mine). So you just need an uplink cable? 1000BASE-SX (says that above the uplink port).

Heh, it might help if I just Google. I thought I'd learned that Google is my friend, seems I forget that now an again.