A network is also limited in its maximum size, when Repeaters and/or hubs are used to extend a Thin Ethernet (10base2)  or Twisted Pair Ethernet (10baseT/UTP) network, on large configurations, a Switch may become necessary to optimize network utilisation.. On Thin-Ethernet, the rules are: - minimum 0.5 m between T-connectors - maximum 185 m cable length - maximum of 30 nodes (i.e. connections) An cable can be extended by installing Repeaters, which amplify the signal: A Repeater counts on each segment as a node and can be connected at ANY location in the Thin-Ethernet cable. However, if a network needs more than 2 repeater: the following limitations apply: When an Ethernet signal travels from its source to destination station, it can travel through: - maximum of 5 segments - maximum of 4 Repeaters/hubs - maximum of 3 populated segments (Populated segments have more than 2 nodes connected, un-populated segments have only a node at each end, so a 10baseT-segments is a non-populated segment). And for this discussion, a 10BaseT-Hub is like a repeater and a 10baseT cable can be treated as a cable 10base2-cable with just 2 systems on it. There can be more repeaters/hubs in the complete network, and an Ethernet signal can pass-by more than 4 Repeaters/hubs, as long it does not have to go THROUGH more than 4 Repeaters/hubs. If these rules are violated, the network becomes unreliable.