token ring vs ethernet

[@n!e]

hi, i would like to know what's the differfent between 100 base-t ethernet and token ring?
thanks

 

[Indomidable]

This is going to be a bit in Depth:
First of all there are 3 Token Ring standards. With 2 Cable options
4Mbit, 10Mbit, and 16Mbit
Second they're called token rings because for a computer to talk he's got to have the Token. It's called a ring because the token is passed around to all the computers/printers on the ring.
3rd Token Rings allow a lot more info to be passed around at one time. Up to 4Mb's.
(Side Note: Dead Tech no advances made in decades) In it's prime it was 6Mbits faster and cold have lines 50m further then ethernet.

Ethernet:
There are many diffrent cable options with 3 speeds right now.
10Mbit, 100Mbit, 1Gbit. Technicaly if your net is switches and routers only then your at 20, 200, or 2Gbit. What ethernet does is any system can get info at anytime. It also has a lower max packet size up to 1Mb I believe is the limit. Due to it's versitility and speed it is the prefered network. If you have VX(Cisco's Name) tech you can get the same distance from a hub/switch/router/repeater as a tokenring.

In the end Ethernet wins because it doesn't have to pass a token around to computers for them to accept or reject the packets. It can just put an address on it's packet and send it directly to the network. Here's a decent list of max packet sizes and some explinations.

 

[Zedric]

The noticable difference is that Token Ring has a ring structure. No hubs or anything, just computers in a ring with cables in between. If a cable is "broken" the whole network ring collapses.

Ethernet has star structure. One central hub/switch and one cable to each computer. If one cable is "broken" only that computer disapperas from the network, the others still work.


As Indomidable said, Token Ring is dead as dirt. Use Ethernet.