Sams Teach Yourself Network Troubleshooting in 24 Hours, Second Edition

Summary

Ethernet is a really simple physical networking technology. However, like all networks, it has hard-and-fast rules for its design and implementation. Although Ethernet has used many different types of physical cabling in the past, the simplest and most reliable cabling today is UTP or fiber-optic. Older cabling should be replaced.

Knowing how shared networks work is a good thing, but in the name of good uptime, you should use switches. Hubs are pretty much drop-in replaceable by switches; this reduces the collision domain and eliminates hassles like the 3-4-5 rule. The 3-4-5 rule only applies to 10Mbps Ethernet.

Bridges work by monitoring Ethernet bus traffic and forwarding it if the destination station is not on the originating side ...