token ring network question....

[bigvince]

somebody just told me that ring one on our network is Beaconing. what does that mean...? something is going on because half the office is not getting on the network. help me please!

 

[Vegito]

it means one workstation took the token and isn't giving it back.. it's either stuck or something. So when it's not releasing the token, the next computer that wants to talk can't.

Check for faulty NIC & wires or machine thats locked up..

 

[nateholtrop]

Is token ring a good type of network or what types of situations do you use it in??

Nate

 

[CTR]

Token Ring is a LAN topology/media. Token Ring is nice in that you can get full bandwidth with no collisions, unlike Fast Ethernet. It's harder to troubleshoot, though, and the hardware is much more expensive. Originally it ran at 4Mbps, then 16Mbps. I believe IBM actually came out with some 100Mbps TR gear, but it was impractical due to its cost.

Whatis.com definition of Token Ring

 

[spidey07]

Hopefully you have good token ring hubs and it will isolate the beaconing station or you can look of errors on a particular port.

If the hubs are dumb (no management) then without the help of a Sniffer/Fluke or good Net Management you'll need to start isolating the ring until the ring stabalizes. Start disconnecting hubs from the center on out until your OK, then start pluging in stations on at a time to find the fault.

I know...it sucks.

To the other question - Token Ring is a fabulous LAN topology with large frame sizes and equal distribution of bandwidth. Depending on the application it CAN run faster then Fast Ethernet.

Would I ever design any network with token ring today? NO.
Too expensive and hard for beginners to troubleshoot. I haven't recommended a shared media LAN in over 2 years save for FDDI on a backup/backbone when gig enet can't work.

 

[Vegito]

fibre rings are the new token ring, 1000s of time faster, plus it's a dual ring, one goes clockwise, the other goes counter so it'll actually skip the dead station.

Token ring - under heavy loads, it holds better
Ethernet - under heavy loads, it dies

So tokens are better but not as fast.. but fibre ring rocks if u can afford it.

 

[spidey07]

Never heard of fibre ring?

You talking SONET? Or possibly Fiber Channel?

Start new thread. This guy needs his network back.