Jim said....

> I have recently been given the task of relocating our computer to
> another building.  We currently have two DTC's serving 24 users and
> another DTC on the way.  Since the DTC's are connected to the
> HP3K via a ThinLan coax cable, can I move the computer to another
> building and retain the DTC's in the building where the users are?
> The total run (from computer to DTC) would be less than 100 meters.

Yes, no problem.  Read on.


>
> What do I need (equipment-wise) to be able to do this?

If the total length is 185 meters or less including all inside wiring,
then you could run a thinlan coax.

>
> Should I use Fiber Optic cable to electrically isolate the two
> buildings? (They are 100 feet apart)

Fiber is probably a better idea, let me explain our setup.  We have two
offices with one computer room in each one block apart.  They are
connected via fiber.  Within each building, we use thinlan to connect all
of the major devices.

On one end, we take the coax and run it into a HP fiber optic Hub (Current
part # 26682)  It supports up to eight fiber segments.  A little overkill
for your sitation, but I'm explaining our working case first.

On the other end, the fiber plugs into an older external HP fiber optic
tranceiver that plugs into an older HP EtherTwist hub.  These hubs support
both an AUI (were the fiber optic tranceiver plugs in) and an BNC (for
your thinlan).  That's our setup.

My $2.00 design in your case would be to either use two of the HP fiber
optic hubs which will convert from fiber to Thinlan.  This would be if you
want an HP solution.  A more cost effective solution would be to use two
fiber to thinlan repeaters.  You could find them in either a black box
catalog or I'm looking at the South Hills Datacomm solutions (Spring
Summer 1997), page 65.  They have a 10-Base FL (fiber) to Thinwire part
#37105P for $469 a unit.  South Hills' number is 1-800-245-6215.  Note: I
have not used these, but I don't see why they would not work.

Hope this helps.

/alan