> You know, I really would like to see an answer to this. I wound up arguing
> with an instructor at a Pacific Bell class about bridging, shouting that
> people don't BRIDGE across WANs, they ROUTE. He insisted that lots of
> people do it. Him being the 20-year telco veteran, and me being the
> knucklehead dumb enough to take a frame relay (er, 'FastPacket (TM)')
> marketing class, I sat down and shut up.
>
> But who does this? And why? I just don't get bridging over ISDN or other
> slower-than-wire speeds. Feedback on this topic would be appreciated.
Bridgin is technology that was designed for non-IP networks, like
IPX, NetBEUI, and some of the IBM protocols. Those protocols don't
route (or not very well). So bridging was an excellent choice in that
case.
Bridging use to also be popular in situations were you need to breakup
a large network because traffic was getting to much. This was back
when Switches and routers were way to expensive or un-proven technology
to implement.
Now-a-days, switches and routers are abundant, and tunnelling non-routable
protocols through IP is common. Therefore bridging is not used in most
modern network topologies. The internet certainly doesn't bridge, but
Intranets still do it.
Dale