The old equipment is fascinating. Ethernet makes for a wonderful look in to how hundreds of companies can actually make interoperable hardware, with various med

The old equipment is fascinating. Ethernet makes for a wonderful look in to how hundreds of companies can actually make interoperable hardware, with various media types and varying methods, and it can all Just Work™ (mostly). I still use 10base2 with some old machines, and I still have machines that have and use AUI, and if I had the space, I'd probably set up a 10base5 network, in part to show the kids (and by kids, I mean anyone 40-something and younger). That these machines and devices can be connected to the same ethernet networks that're doing gigabit, 2.5 gigabit and even 10 gigabit really should be impressive to anyone that thinks about it for a minute. What other technologies have lasted so long and have gone through multiple generations and still interoperate with their predecessors? I do think it's funny that OP can crash their Cisco Catalyst. It just goes to show that edge cases can always be handled better. Similarly, I have some ethernet-over-powerline adapters from Radio Shack from... No idea, but they're old, and they're 10 Mbps only. I can plug them in to a network, try to transfer as much data as possible across them, and give any switch or router a real workout. When those collision LEDs are brightly lit from heavy use, the fanciest of routers will exhibit all sorts of slowdowns :)