----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Alfille"
On Wednesday 01 February 2006 12:14 am, suse_gasjr4wd@mac.com wrote:
On 1/31/06 11:20 PM, "JB"
wrote: Hi gang,
My girlfriend recently got satellite internet. Her daughter of course needs to use it also (as will I soon). I thought a router would be the thing to use for all 3 of us to hook into to use the 'net, but a friend here said a hub/switch will be just fine. Which is better? Which would allow all 3 of us to be 'online' at the same time the best (meaning, which/what would try to even out the bandwidth we use if all 3 of us were online at one time?)? Is the switch good enough? It seems to be working well enough for the two of them as it is, but I'm just curious if there's something that might be any better.
Hate to disagree, but I think you really wanted a Router, probably with a firewall built it, and possibly with wireless capabilities as well.
Typically, the service provider only allows you to have a single IP address, usually dynamically assigned. They think that corresponds to one computer.
The router will do NAT, making all the internal computers look like one external one. It will also limit how much of your internal network is visible from the outside. Most routers also include a 4-port switch.
Prices are under $100 US.
Some routers even have embedded linux internally, and there are projects that allow custom versions of linux with special features. See OpenWRT.org
Paul Alfille
What you need to find out is what's connecting the other two users to the internet connection at the moment, a router may well be in place already. If your connection is not high speed then this may all be purely academic. The Hub or Switch decision will have little impact on an internet connection smaller than approx 4.5 Mbps, which is the theoretical maximum you can get from a 10 Mbps half duplex hub (The Hub equivalent of the lowest for of life). A Switch will give you a "dedicated" or rather switched 100 <or insert switch port and corresponding NIC speed here> Mbps across the LAN, but you can never achieve 100 Mbps over an internet connection which is not 100 Mbps or more in capacity so having a 100 Mbps link to it . A Switch will however let you copy files from one PC to the Other more quickly, so for that size of network it can't really hurt A firewall is also a VERY good idea, some might even say essential.