socket read timeout

[Hendrik van Rooyen]

 "Steve Holden" <s..e at h...b.com> wrote:

> 
> Right, but collisions are *so* twentieth-century, aren't they. With a 
> properly-implemented switched infrastructure Ethernet interfaces can 
> transmit and receive at the same time.

This is true, while "A" and "B" are not simultaneously trying to address
"C" - Then you need something like store and forward, on the fly...

: - )    better known as "routing"...

Some (most?) of the little switches I have seen are too dumb even to 
allow  "A" to talk to "B" while "C" is talking to "D"  - they just broadcast 
the first "talker"'s message to all the "listeners" - little better than 
active hubs, destroying the end point's hardware capability to talk and
listen at the same time.

I think the keywords here are "properly implemented" - its actually not a 
trivial problem, as the switch has to know or learn who is where, and set 
up paths accordingly, in real time.  This is hard to do without store and
forward.

- Hendrik