what is the difference between a switch and a hub? I like to have lan parties and need to get something to link but I dont know the difference between the two. Also what brand or model should I get?
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what is the difference between a switch and a hub? I like to have lan parties and need to get something to link but I dont know the difference between the two. Also what brand or model should I get?
Get a switch. With a hub you will be sharing the LAN like a telephone party line. The results are collisions and less thruput.
Switches for the consumer market are a commodity item. Any of the leading consumer brands will do - SMC, LinkSys, DLink, NetGear, . . .
With a hub, what goes in one port simply gets retransmitted out all the other ports. It's like if you were to go into a room and shout at the top of your lungs to a friend. Sure, he got your message, but you interrupted everyone else to get it to him.
A switch looks at the destination address of incoming data and directs it to only the specified recipient. That way, you could go into that hypothetical room, walk up to your friend, and have a conversation while other people (computers) are having conversations among themselves at the same time.
A switch is like a smart hub that allows multiple data "conversations" to be going on at any given time, while a hub is like a shouting match -- or like ua549 pointed out, a telephone party line.
definitely a switch! Price is so cheap now!
ditto on the switch.
One phrase simply describes the need for a switch: Full-duplex :D