Hi Robi

The dSnake protocol is complient with standard Ethernet equipment, therefore you can use a switch with dSnake.

What is the purpose you would like to use the switch for?

if the switch is unmanaged then only 1 point to point link can be actively connected at one time.

If you wish to have other data on the same switch as dSnake then you must put the dSnake data in its own VLAN so that it is isolated from the other data being carried through the switch. Also some protocols such as Spanning tree must be turned off.

If it is to extend the length over 120m then this is also possible with a switch every 100meters, or media converter to fiber.

There will be more information available about dSnake to come in the future.

Regards
Sam A&H

what an interesting thread! wifi would be sci-fi []
let’s see..

Massimo

Hi

dSnake is Ethernet compliant, but does not ‘play well with others’ on a network, and will only work with networking equipment in specific configurations. You can use things like media converters without issue, as long as they support 100base-TX mode. If you would like to do something more complicated, the best thing is to put the dSnake traffic into a VLAN, as Sam mentioned before. If you would like to then create a redundant link, you could use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_Spanning_Tree_Protocol, though this is not something we have tried here at A&H, and networking equipment supporting these advanced features could be expensive.

dSnake uses almost all the available 100 megabit bandwidth in both directions, so any systems combining this with other traffic must use Gigabit or faster connections. If you would like to use a switch to extend a cable run, the switch must be ‘wire speed’ or ‘non blocking’, with the ability to prevent any other traffic (e.g. witch management traffic) getting mixed up with the dSnake traffic. For example, Spanning Tree must be off for ports that are connected directly to a GLD piece of hardware (surface, rack).

More complicated systems like this will require testing by yourself to make sure you are happy with the system performance and reliability. Although we will try to help if you experience problems, we do not provide official support for the wide variety of networking equipment and protocols that you may try to use.

Hope this helps

– Jeff, A&H

quote:

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Originally posted by nettings

ahjeff, if dsnake uses 100 mbit/s ethernet, that means it uses only two pairs. which in turn means it might be possible with a single four-pair standard ethernet cable to get both the 24/12 plus extender and the “local” 8/4 extender onto the stage, with appropriate 1:2 adapters. has anybody tried this? i might give it a go the next time i get to play with a gld, which is later this month…

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I am a networking idiot but I would be stoked it this is true. Can we get a verification of this an the correct pinout please?

2 X GLD80
2 X AR2412
1 X AR840

Yup – that would be great. Two costly long snakes down to one would be excellent!