Network Hardware

For optimal network performance, you should consider adapter types and the type of network medium, such as twisted pair cable, fiber optic cable, and coaxial cable. The adapter characteristics that most affect performance are the bus type, bus width, and throughput rates. To optimize performance:

• Install one or more high-performance network adapters in the server.
• Use a minimum of necessary protocols.
• Segment the local area network (LAN), if appropriate.

An important performance issue is the quality of the network. For example, putting a server on a fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) ring with a capacity of 100 Mb/s provides better connectivity and performance than a server attached to a token ring network. An overloaded Ethernet segment, where many collisions occur, can also reduce performance. You should also consider wide area network (WAN) connectivity and quality, especially when trying to determine site boundaries or whether clients should access their server across the WAN.