From: Cliff Sarginson
At 06:29 PM 12/28/2000, you wrote:
Perhaps someone can give me a straight answer to this. What is best to use for a medium sized, 100mbit, possibly heavy used network? Hubs or switches?
A switch is better. In your case a switch maybe better. Depends what you mean by heavy.
Also, can someone *please* explain to me what a switch is, what it does, and how it differs from a hub, and if there are any problems with using switches directly in place of hubs (except for cost.)
A plain hub is a passive device. If Computer A sends data packets addressed to Computer D, the plain hub will simply forward the data packets to all the computers and/or any network segments connected to the hub. This creates traffic and slows down the network.
A switch hub is an intelligent device. If Computer A sends data packets addressed to Computer D, the switch can look at each packet's address and forward the packets to the correct computer or network segment. This reduces overall traffic and speeds up the network.
This is not really an accurate description. A hub or switch pushes packets onto the network that are picked up by the interface on the computer that matches the address of the packet. The switch does not send it to the correct computer per-se (ethernet does not work like that). The advantage of a switch over a hub is that you can segment your network. The switch can decide which segment a packet is destined for and only send it out on that, rather than on the whole network. This obviously can reduce network load, but you do need to carefully decide on your segmantation policy. There is no point putting all the busy computers in putting all the busy computers on one segment. The second advantage of a swicth is it allows you to overcome the distance limitations inherent in ethernets. Each segment can be as big as the maximum allowed for an ethernet. You cannot say switches are "better" than hubs per-se. They are better for your situation. They are a pointless waste of money for a home network with 5 computers on it. <p>Cliff
From: Nick Zentena
You cannot say switches are "better" than hubs per-se. They are better for your situation. They are a pointless waste of money for a home network with 5 computers on it.
Maybe but around here the price for small switches has gotten pretty close to that of similar hubs. I got a Dlink 8 port switch for $100cdn delivered. About $65US. I could have gotten a hub cheaper but not much cheaper. Nick
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 10:18:38 -0800 (PST)
From: Greg Thomas
At 06:29 PM 12/28/2000, you wrote:
Perhaps someone can give me a straight answer to this. What is best to use for a medium sized, 100mbit, possibly heavy used network? Hubs or switches?
A switch is better. In your case a switch maybe better. Depends what you mean by heavy.
Also, can someone *please* explain to me what a switch is, what it does, and how it differs from a hub, and if there are any problems with using switches directly in place of hubs (except for cost.)
A plain hub is a passive device. If Computer A sends data packets addressed to Computer D, the plain hub will simply forward the data packets to all the computers and/or any network segments connected to the hub. This creates traffic and slows down the network.
A switch hub is an intelligent device. If Computer A sends data packets addressed to Computer D, the switch can look at each packet's address and forward the packets to the correct computer or network segment. This reduces overall traffic and speeds up the network.
This is not really an accurate description. A hub or switch pushes packets onto the network that are picked up by the interface on the computer that matches the address of the packet. The switch does not send it to the correct computer per-se (ethernet does not work like that).
That's not quite true. A switch knows the MAC address that is attached to each port and will send packets directly from Computer A to Computer B if the MAC address is in it's address table. If it's not in it's table then it is forwarded to all ports. This means that you can get full speed between A and B, and between C and D at the same time, something that cannot happen on a hub. Once you get 4 or more computers that are talking to each other then a switch is helpful as long as all computers are not always talking to one computer such as a server. In that case an uplink port with a higher speed than the rest of the ports will be beneficial, another thing that a simple hub cannot do. Packets on a simple hub are forwarded to all ports all the time. Greg
participants (3)
-
cliff＠raggedclown.net -
ethant＠pacificnet.net -
zentena＠hophead.dyndns.org