Okay, I know this should probably go in T&T, but I figured you guys would know a bit more about concepts and such..

When I was studying network topologies we covered token ring (circle time for machines if you didnt already know), and I was told that the moderator (the machine that looks after the token, makes sure it isn't lost etc.) is designated at ntwork boot, by the machines (without human interaction) usually by the highest/lowest MAC address.

This means the moderator is chosen by looking at the NIC's as oppopsed to the machines themselves. Does this mean a printer (attached to the network) would be able to be a moderator? If so, how does a printer have the capabilities to do so?

My networks lecturer had a field day over this, started asking CISCO engineers but I still have no answer, so I bring the case to you!

Good question; I'd be inclined to say no, but I'm not 100% sure. Google seems to be of no help here either.

Damn... this is going back some. If I remember right, a printer cannot be the token moderator. It just doesn't have the ability to do it. Why such a question anyways?

That's what I would think. And yeah, pretty useless question.

Fuck it. I'm still wrong. I've gotten no sleep, and this is way old....

I asked because i don't know the answer, and figured I'd see if anyone did. I think its a fair question to post in this forum, better than "omfg i jus got netbus 1337 haxxorz" that I'm used to seeing.

Anyway, i figure I'll learn a shitload by finding out the answer to this...

Well, if it's based on a MAC-type system, why not just define a MAC subclass that can't be the moderator? That appears to be what they did, from what I can see. (I may be wrong, though -- Token Ring died a horrible death very quickly at the hands of Ethernet.)

http://www.synapse.de/ban/HTML/P_LAYER2/Eng/P_lay287.html

I asked a cisco intructior.

He said he wasnt since he hasn't used token passing in 50 years, but probably not. Unless the special NIC card token ring uses could do it without the computer.