From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!menlo70!sytek!zehntel!tektronix!teklabs!terryl
Newsgroups: net.micro
Title: Re: RS-232
Article-I.D.: teklabs.1796
Posted: Sun Mar  6 04:50:19 1983
Received: Fri Mar 11 08:02:13 1983
References: sri-arpa.554


     Before we discovered the wonderful world of Ethernet, we here at Teklabs
used to have an 11/44 connected to our 11/70 with an rs-232 line, BUT WE HAD
LINE DRIVERS. Cbout reading some of the specs of rs-232 and
find out what they specify. If memory serves me correctly(and it never does,
especially at 4:30 in the morning), the safest distance for the cable is some-
thing like 25 or 50 feet, max. With the line drivers, the above mentioned link
was over 300 feet long (probably closer to 500, but I don't remember). The link
was used almost exclusively for uucp traffic at 9600 baud, and we never had any
serious problems with it. So if you want a reasonably fast and reliable rs-232
link for 2 computers, a line driver is almost a must.


				Terry Laskodi
				     of
				Tektronix