ABSTRACT

Whether it's a proprietary or standard protocol, users are faced with difficult choices. These choices are made slightly easier by the shakeout and standardization that has occurred at the physical and data-link layers. There are three choices: Token Ring, Ethernet, or FDDI. At the transport layers, IPX/SPX and TCP/IP emerged as the dominant protocols. [Editor's note: As of 2000, practically every new local network installation uses some form of Ethernet and TCP/IP, while the installed base remnants of Token Ring, FDDI, and IPX are diminishing irretrievably.]

theoretical pronouncements of Internet ideologues, but you can't always find the information you need in a vendor's technical manual, on the Internet, or even in the pages of Network Magazine. Sometimes your best alternative is a reference book.