What is a BACKBONE?

hey, I have a question that I really need cleared up. Every source I check out to get a clear definition on what it is leaves me in the dark! I would like it if you could explain to me what it is and give me a PHYSICAL example on how you would go about hooking one up to two or more nt servers. This is just a vague question but I really need help.
Thanks.
p.S. where would you place a ROUTER in a network consisting of 3 servers each with their own individual subnets??
thanks again.
Steve Antle
fusion.net.solutions

1. RE: What is a BACKBONE?
lbyard Aug-18-00 06:00 PM
In response to message 0

The term backbone can mean many things. It is a high speed trunk between high speed devices moving a lot of data. For example, in the days of the 10 Mhz Ethernet, the "backbone" was a thick wire Ethernet (a single, thick, coaxial cable) that ran around a building. Everthing in the network was hung-off that cable. Today, it could be a high-speed fibre optic cable connecting two networks, etc., etc. The Internet also has high-speed trunks or backbones... How you would connect two or more NT servers depends on how much data is going to be transferred between the servers. I had four servers a few years ago that were connected through one Cabletron multi-port repeater at 10 Mhz, but they were not running TCP/IP and they weren't moving a lot of data by today's standards. See http://cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/cisintwk/idg4/nd2002.htm for more info. Larry

2. RE: What is a BACKBONE?
santleFNS Aug-18-00 08:46 PM
In response to message 1

Thanks Larry for that information. So bascially if I was to connect three servers together that pushed approx. 20 PCs on each server, would I have one NIC in a server to conncet to a HUB with 20 PCs on it and another NIC in the server to connect to a HUB (or a switch) with the two other servers? (set that configuration for all three servers) and the internet would plug into ... the switch with the servers?? I think I'm on the right track. .. help .. ?
Steve