Neil Croft wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:
 MB> apart (unless an intermediate repeater is used).  The general
 MB> Ethernet rule that there cannot be more than three repeaters between
 MB> any two nodes applies here.
 NC> Can you point me to a reference for this? I know it's right
 NC> but we have a customer who insist's you can daisy chain
 NC> forever and won't believe that's his prob. We're blowed if
 NC> we can find a technical reference to prove the point. 
This is written directly into the IEEE 802.3 standard.  The easiest book to 
pull off the shelf on this issue would be the "LAN Times Encyclopedia of 
Networking," edited by Sheldon.  The 1994 edition is finally being updated; 
here's what WWW.AMAZON.COM has to say about it:
   Lan Times Encyclopedia of Networking
   by Tom Sheldon
   List: $39.95
   Our Price: $31.96
   You Save: $7.99 (20%)
   Availability: This title usually ships within 2-3 days.
   Paperback, 1006 pages
   Published by Osborne McGraw-Hill
   Publication date: April 1, 1994
   Dimensions (in inches): 9.10 x 7.38 x 2
   ISBN: 0078819652
And the new edition:
   Encyclopedia of Networking : Electronic Edition
   by Tom Sheldon
   List: $69.99
   Our Price: $55.99
   You Save: $14.00 (20%)
   Not Yet Available: You may still order this title. We will ship it to
   you when it is released by the publisher.
   Bk&Cd Rom Edition
   Paperback, 1104 pages
   Published by Osborne McGraw-Hill
   Publication date: December 1, 1997
   ISBN: 0078823331
For what it's worth, I'll reprint my own Amazon.Com review:
   rating=9: Among the definitive essential networking reference books
   An extraordinary amount of reference material packed into one book,
   all highly reliable. There is extensive coverage of protocols,
   architectures, commercial products, and even applications. Care is
   taken to prevent bias regarding any particular vendor or system,
   although the 1994 publication date makes the book fairly dated by 1997
   when a new edition is scheduled. Many charts and diagrams. The
   alphabetical encyclopedia format is the main drawback, but the index
   is good.
 
-- Mike
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