Datasheet

Book IX
Chapter 1
Those Pesky
Network Things
You Need to Know
Making Computers Talk
681
Here’s what’s even harder to believe: PCs using plain old Ethernet can
send and receive messages at the rate of 10 Gbps, or 10,000,000,000 bits
per second. Even garden-variety Ethernet systems work at 100 Mbps, or
100,000,000 bits per second. (By comparison, a 56K modem, under the best
possible circumstances, receives data at slightly more than 50,000 bits per
second.) Things get slow if many PCs are trying to talk to each other at the
same time — they start talking over the top of each other — but for a typical
peer-to-peer network, 100 Mbps (also called 100Base-T) works great.
Ethernet relies on a
hub — a box — and cables running from the hub to each
PC. The PCs need network cards so that you have a place to stick the cables.
The PCs can be using any flavor of Windows since Windows 98. Plug it all
All PCs
are equal
"Host" PC for the scanner
Direct connections
between PCs
Figure 1-3:
A typical
Ethernet
peer-to-
peer
network.
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