I have more Macs in a LAN than bog-standard-issue AppleShare will allow; 32. I've never had 32 up and active at a time, and only rarely had to change a manually-set IP address (temporarily) to get two with the same IP address active at once. The usual result if I forget is that the second will be automatically shut down by its System.
I never use the inbuilt ethernet unless it is already 10/100 or irremediable, and add 10/100 to any Mac with a PCI or NuBus slot. Even the antiques that need bridges (EN/SC, LT/EN), AAUI adapters or PC cards, with the exception of PBs 520, 540 and 1400, mix it happily with faster cards, although perforce with a 10Base-T hub between them and the 10/100 switches because they have not otherwise the necessary autonegotiation to work. As a generality, I rarely have more than three or four active in the LAN at the same time, so the fairground is not all that crowded.
Even the 512Ke will shortly leave its EN/LT crutch in favour of EN/SC. I'm almost, but for emergencies, at the point of being able to kiss floppy disks goodbye forever. The point of all this is that for PPC Macs and up, the rewards of forsaking inbuilt 10Base-T for added cards are great.
de
I never use the inbuilt ethernet unless it is already 10/100 or irremediable, and add 10/100 to any Mac with a PCI or NuBus slot. Even the antiques that need bridges (EN/SC, LT/EN), AAUI adapters or PC cards, with the exception of PBs 520, 540 and 1400, mix it happily with faster cards, although perforce with a 10Base-T hub between them and the 10/100 switches because they have not otherwise the necessary autonegotiation to work. As a generality, I rarely have more than three or four active in the LAN at the same time, so the fairground is not all that crowded.
Even the 512Ke will shortly leave its EN/LT crutch in favour of EN/SC. I'm almost, but for emergencies, at the point of being able to kiss floppy disks goodbye forever. The point of all this is that for PPC Macs and up, the rewards of forsaking inbuilt 10Base-T for added cards are great.
de