Okay, before I begin, I'd like to point out the Bay Networks was two
companies - SynOptics & Wellfleet. SynOptics made hubs & actually was the
biggest hub maker in the world for quite a while. Bay Networks may still
be, I don't know. Wellfleet made routers. Not bad ones either. They were
#2 behind Cisco. In fact, for a while, Wellfleet (Bay) had the fastest
rouers on the planet.
Now, I *REALLY* liked SynOptics, and I thought Wellfleet was "okay". Now,
I won't buy a Bay router unless the client tells me to do so. But the hub
side of Bay is still OUTSTANDING. (I'm talking the shared ethernet, token
ring, FDDI stuff.) I've installed a lot of 5000s. They just run & run &
run & run & . . . . You get the point. THREE power supplies, enough
backplanes to segment your network any way you want, GREAT management (see
the warning lights in real time from across the country :), etc. They were
designed for telco applications.
One problem, I'm not sure I like their options on switched ethernet cards.
But for shared media, they are probably the most flexible, most manageable,
most reliable box out there. (No flames, please - I said "probably. ;)
Do you have a specific configuration in mind? Perhaps if you gave us more
detail, the list might have someone who's done the same thing with the 5000
or other equipment?
TTFN,
patick
+----------------------------------------------------+
| Patrick Gilmore, Network Engineering Supervisor |
| Johnson Controls Network Integration Services, LA |
| 800-526-4752 Voice + 213-621-2212 Fax |
+----------------------------------------------------+