Max length of Network cable?

[librarian]

Interestingly the old IBM token ring networking equipment worked on a star wired loop i.e a loop collapsed into a hub (or mau is theywere called) with a lobe out to each PC and they had relays that could disconnect a lobe in the event of a lightening strike quick enough to stop the rest of the network getting fried, or so IBM claimed.

a reader writes:

I have only the vaguest notion of what this means but for me it is part of the beauty of ACF as a forum for cyclists (rather than a cycling forum) that someone can go out of their way to try and help and feels secure enough to post recondite stuff that elsewhere might provoke some severe mickey taking.