Ethernet connections on PI

[Dave Olson]

In <346 at ra.nrl-cmf.UUCP> schuette at orion.nrl.navy.mil (Larry Schuette) writes:
| Discussions about PI ethernet cards and cables generated the following:
| >I have to disagree here; we have at least 4 PI's in my area with enp
| >boards in them, --->>> with standard thick ethernet drop cables in them, and
| >no problems closing up the case.  <<<--- 
| >
| >	Dave Olson
| 
| I have to respond to this 'cause, Dave, I strongly disagree.  IMHO the
| ethernet connector on the PI is the PI's single biggest flaw.  
| 
| Yes, it is possible to connect the cable, and put the case back on the PI.
| It's even possible to get the connector to stay connected, until somebody
| bumps the machine with his feet (PI's end up under desks and "out of the
| way").  Of course, when the machine is bumped, the cable comes undone
| and the NFS disk farms begin to complain.  And, my biggest complaint,
| I crawl under the desk (to the back of it with all the dust balls) to 
| reconnect the cable.

I too, don't care for the design of the connectors a whole lot, but
unfortunately, it IS a standard.  If you close the lock on the
connector (and you haven't already damaged it:)), it is
moderately immune to casual kicks (I have mine under a desk also).
Note that this has nothing to do with the original complaint of the
cable keeping the case from being closed when the OPTIONAL enp
VME ethernet card is installed.

| A question for SGI,  why doesn't the PI (and the ASD machines) have a
| dual sex ethernet connector (thick or thin)?  After all, our PC's, 
| Mac's, and Vaxstation 2000's and NeXT's have them...  Then I could
| use thinwire and somebody would have to "twist and pull" to disconnect
| ethernet, and the plastic case would fit nicely. 

Because it increases parts count, increases cost, takes up limited
space on the i/o panel, and as far as we could tell from research, most
of our customers don't want the thinwire, because it is far easier to
mess up a net.  Please, no flame wars, I'm not personally involved in
this, just reporting what I know from talking to the hardware design
and marketing folks.
--

	Dave Olson

Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.