attn: hardcore networking people

[VoterX]

Nevermind the newbie status, does anyone know anything about a Synoptics Lattisnet model 1010 concentrator? Either that or where I might find a manual for one? I have one that seems content to not work, and information on it appears to be scarce.

Thank ye.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

I hate to say this, but I havnt got a clue. What is one of those, it sounds cool

 

[VoterX]

As far as I can tell, it's supposed to be something like a switch. I honestly don't know a whole lot about it, because it was found in the attic of the office at work attached to a small rack on casters. It looked neat and I took it home with my boss' best wishes.

I did get one pdf on it that wasn't very helpful, but did make mention of the switch functionality. That's about all I know.

 

[Tallgeese]

Might try some used/legacy equipment brokers.
They might have an old manual.

FYI: Found the 1010 concentrator at one of these places, selling for $173

 

[ScottMac]

Well, if it's "fer sher" a Synoptics "LattisNet" box, then it's pretty useless. LattisNet was pre-10BASE-T and NOT compatible with the 10BASE-T (or 10/100) NICS sold today. You MUST use a "LattisNet" NIC ... pretty sparse these days.

If it's just a Synoptics box, then it's probably a straight 10BASE-T hub. Synoptics didn't make any non-ATM switches. Bay was the first to do Ethernet switching (I mean. within the company's lineage...Kalpana did Ethernet switching first).

I'm trying real hard to remember a 1010...I think it's a straight 12 or 16 port "pizza box" form factor, right?

So long ago. It's no less than 10 years old, probably more like 12-15 years old. Synoptics was the guys that popularized Ethernet over UTP, a radical thought at the time.

Hold on to it, it'll be a good museum piece in a few years.....

Edit: BTW - I think your best chance for finding a LattisNet NIC would be an old 3COM 2012, I believe they were jumperable for LattisNet. Maybe L3Guy can check in, and confirm or deny the 2012...3COM was the last company to make a LattisNet-configurable NIC (BTW: How good are you at setting IRQ, DMA, and addressing jumpers?)

FWIW

Scott

 

[Garion]

Let me summarize. If it suddenly stopped working, it's probably had some kind of catastrophic failure. It's had a good run, let it rest in peace.

A quick google search turned up a couple of these for sale for $100-$200, but not much more than that. Nortel Networks doesn't list anything about them on their site. It would be cheaper to go out and buy a 12-port 100BaseT switch for $100 and let the Lattisnet slide into obscurity. Probably save you about that much in power consumption over the next two years, anyhow.

Scott, you scare me. I don't even REMEMBER these, much less have worked on one. I started doing this in '93 - Synoptics was still a company at the time, but quickly merged with Wellfleet to form Bay.

- G

 

[ScottMac]

Well..see...I was the tech person that had to accompany the sales person to the customer and explain WHY it was a bad idea ('Do You REALLY think it's a good thing to run THAT FAST over PHONE WIRE?? You might as well be running McIntoshes....") hehe...

The other thing that surfaced once or twice was when I talked to a frined of mine about it (remember, this was really early on)...my quote to him was "The worst coax is better than the best UTP," while technically accurate, has proven practically unfeasable with the popularity of structured cabling systems (which, BTW, I am a true and genuine believer).

Anyone remember 3COM "Pair Tamers?" ...had to deal with those things too.....


FWIW

Scott

 

[VoterX]

You people are amazing. But, thinking back, that's why I posted here.

The Concentrator says "LattisNet" right on the front, so given what Scott said I would assume that's why it doesn't like my 10Base-T network (100Base really, but who's counting?). The unit probably still works, but due to my lack of supporting equipment and unwillingness to change my network over just for that anachronistic doodad it will probably just languish in my basement. Too bad, because it is a kinda nifty looking thing, too. It has three slots for cards of (I think) 12 ports each. I have two such cards and an empty third slot.

Maybe I'll just make it into some kind of useless "tehcno art" and make MILLIONS!

Many thanks for all the help!

Edited because this board seems to have something against Deutsch and the es-zett. (don't ask)

 

[ScottMac]

I checked with Doug / L3Guy ...he's not sure about the 3C2012 either, but is pretty sure the first gen 3C503s are jumperable for LattisNet (note: these would all be ISA NICs). Not that you'd run out & scour the countryside or anything, but if you were to run across some, you could pick 'em up cheap and put a whole Kit together (you could sell it as "Legacy Networking in a Box".... you don't get much more "Legacy" for Ethernet over UTP than LattisNet).

Your next assignment: Find a Red Breadbox-sized metal box with (up to) 15 Ethernet AUI ports on the front (it's likely to be an original generation Novell Server). It may have as much as 64K of RAM, 20 Meg of hard drive, and probably still beats the pants off Microsoft networking........


FWIW
Scott

 

[VoterX]

Legacy Network in a Box.... Quite frankly the thought of anyone purchasing that frightens me greatly. Then again, I spend my school terms in Flint where, evidently, selling 286s and old atari joysticks goes over well. That, or pretending to sell those items and actually dealing cocaine in the back. Still frightening, though. If I still had the old 99/4a I might have a nifty museum started.

As for that Novell server, I'll just kick aside the cobwebs in the attic, and look arou.... wait a minute this is a suicide mission, isn't it?

Thanks for the esoteric networking knowledge!


edited [/b]multiple times[/b] because adding emphasis is HARD

 

[Tallgeese]

Talking about legacy equipment reminds me of digging through closets at my first "real" job, and finding shrinkwrapped copies of MS-DOS for the Apple II. Also found scads of hardware--called StarNet, maybe?--that was "networking" (really just peripheral sharing) for Apples.

Needless the say, the college--at a major southeastern university--where I worked for had been a big Apple shop. Actually, we still had Apple IICs in service...IN 1995!!!!

And we were still distributing software for Apple IICs to schools in our state, since we had agreed to be a distribution point. A full set for one school was somewhere in the neighborhood of *150* 5.25 disks.

BTW: The college? Education! And people wonder why our schools are so fscked up...

 

[L3Guy]

I can confirm that the original 8 bit 3C503TP was jumper-able to Lattisnet. However, the later 16 bit version was not.
Ran into a 1010 at the bricklayers union office in 1993. Everything worked but was flaky. I could log into the server, but couldn't get the mail. Finally had a look at the "10baseT" hub, and it was an 8 port Lattisnet hub. Had to dig up an OLD card in the office to sell them, and an extra trip out.

One of the early "management information systems" used Lattisnet.

I remember the Net admins were feeling a bit frisky, and decided to see how uncomfortable they could make me.
A memorable event.

Doug