Hub or Switch?

[Hurlmp68]

I have my house networked, sharing a cable connection. Right now im using an AOpen 10/100 Hub, with a Linksys router. Theres 4 computers sharing the connection, and was wondering if replacing the hub with a switch would give me any worth while improvements?

[FriendlyNeigborhoodCommie]

for your situation, unless you do some heavy file transfering, the hub is good enough, I assume you know the benefits of the switch. If I were you I would just stick with the hub, unless you have the extra money.

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Back in the USSR.....

Pretty sad that I know that song considering I'm fourteen

[PDR60]

Go to www.pricewatch.com and do a search for a switch. I picked up an 8 port switch for $55. Thats cheaper than most hubs. Its a generic but it has been working flawlessly for about 6 months.

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BP6 with dual 366@550 and loving it

[Pinky]

I thought 10/100 hub = swtich.

[sww]

Nope, the difference between a hub and a switch is how it routes the data. A hub sends it everywhere simultaneously while a switch only sends it where it's supposed to go. A 10BT hub has a total of 10Mb/s bandwidth, but a 10BT switch has (number of ports)*10Mb/s bandwidth.

Originally posted by Pinky:
I thought 10/100 hub = swtich.

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Fightin' Texas Aggie
Class of '97
Whoop!

[Pinky]

Thanks! I think I thought that because where I used to work my boss would occaisionally mention one when he meant the other. :-)

[LordSith]

A Switch also allows full-duplex communication, whereas a hub can only operate half-duplex.

So, in theory, with a switch you can actually fully utilize your 100Mbps throughput between two computers. Whereas a hub can only truly give you 50 Mbps.

Food for thought.

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LordSith

[sww]

My understanding is that full duplex is 200Mbps, where regular is 100Mbps, hence the advertisements in my switch literature that it has a total bandwidth of 1 Gbps (5 ports).

Originally posted by LordSith:


So, in theory, with a switch you can actually fully utilize your 100Mbps throughput between two computers. Whereas a hub can only truly give you 50 Mbps.


Food for thought.

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Fightin' Texas Aggie
Class of '97
Whoop!

[LordSith]

Lol.... bad time for a typo.

Theory dicates that full duplex can offer up to 200 Mbps of data communication between two computers.




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LordSith