Re: spanning tree ?

On Mon, May 08, 2006 at 12:01:46PM -1000, dhull wrote:
> I'm on my second cup of coffee (20oz black), compiling kernel
> 2.6.16-14 for my laptop and reading slashdot. There's an article about
> the mother of the Internet. I don't know how true that is but she did
> invent spanning tree.
  Well, she invented the distributed spanning tree algorithm that we
  use...
> She mentions some interesting things about networking and how things
> evolved. One thing she mentions is DECnet ( before my time) is better
> then IP. There is also some talk about IT people being inappropriately
> trained. Too much ?do this or that? when IT people should be learning
> theory. I found it an interesting read.

  I agree on this; theory is way more important than "certification".
 
> Here's my question. Should I learn the ins and outs of spanning tree?
> The reason I ask is because the high school I'm working at has network
> problems that I think are related to spanning tree. They will setup a
> game server on one part of the network and only some of the clients
> can see or access the server.

  Yes and no; on one hand, it's pretty straightforward; on the other, it's
  probably not the problem, unless your network is a real demonspawn (and
  having poked at some high school networks in my day, this is a real
  possibility)
 
> They are using Cisco catalyst switches. I don't like them because they
> have way to many options. Most of which are never used.

Ahh, Cisco. "They were hard to build, they should be hard to use!"
> spanning tree
> 1.where does this rank among all the other things a network engineer
> should know

In terms of day-to-day usefullness, near the bottom. On the list of
"Things a well-trained IT or CS person should know about", in the
middle.

> 2.how much weight should be given to spanning tree when trouble shooting

Lots, once you've tried everything else. Have you traced packets trying
to get from the source to the server it can't see? Which router loses
them?

> 3.should it be placed on a check list

Probably not...if your network is in that much trouble, you should be
past checklist land.

> With all the other things a network engineer needs to know I'm not
> sure how I'm going to fit this in. There's DHCP, DNS, IP, TCP/IP,
> routing etc... that I need to know. When will it end.

As always, do it because it's interesting.

> I'll take the chip implant with IT knowledge pleas.

Knowledge isn't the important part; curiosity is, plus a good
understanding of the diagnostic process.

    --Mac

-- 
Julian "Mac" Mason                            mac@cs.hmc.edu
Computer Science '06                          (310)-882-8068
Harvey Mudd College
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