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Topic: Hubs vs. Routers

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Hey Guys !!!!!!!

Just a quick question ... what is the main difference between a hub and a router ??? If you are running a DSL connection with 3 computers attached to the connection ... would a router boost up speed at all ? Or would it just allow equal download speeds ?

Thanks Guys
triplikeido (too lazy to sign in)
 

Posted Mon 24 Jun 02 @ 6:13 am
a router will not boost the speeds
a router will allow you to take one IP and have your 3 computers on the network withouit having to purchase another IP like most ISPs require. A hub, you still need the IP given to you by the ISP.
 

Posted Mon 24 Jun 02 @ 9:20 am
ikkeHome userMember since 2003
If you want to use a hub, I thought you'd better use a switch (or switching hub) because it increases the network speed. Maybe not when you only use 3 PC's, I dunno. Is that right?
 

Posted Mon 24 Jun 02 @ 10:33 am
no...your highspeed internet isnt as fast as the network speed anyways. so it reaally doesnt matter what kinda hub u use.


 

Posted Mon 24 Jun 02 @ 8:27 pm
or with a hub you can configure one machine as the server and the other machines as the clients, and you can have more control
 

Posted Tue 25 Jun 02 @ 5:44 am
aknit44Home userMember since 2002
A router is a computer unit that decides how your route your information from point A to point B, to point C and back. When you request for a website the router knows how to send your request to that address, and the router on the remote end knows how to send to your reply to your router, and ultimately to the requesting machine. All they do is route traffic, and control how it gets to where it's meant to go.

Hubs, on the other hand, are units, not computing units, that share a connection. Most hubs are made as a single wire on a back-plane, which means information coming into the hub is available to each machine connected to that wire. Hubs simply radiate information from a single to point to single or multiple computers connected to the same hub.

Depending on the size of your network, you may want to go for a high speed hub or a switch. Hubs aren't intelligent. Unlike switches, they don't know on which port a computer is connected. This means when computer A send information to comuter B, the hub will receive that information but will ask computer C, D, E, F etc whether they are the destination of the information. Whoever says yes, receives the transmission. Like I said, it's just a wire at the back of the ports sharing information across it.

Switches, however, have computing chips and devices that actually dedicate a port to a single computer, and they know, by using MAC addresses, where a computer is on the switch. This means if computer A send information to computer B, the switch will not ask all the other computers whether they own the information, because it knows where computer B is.

This means switches are faster and more efficient than hubs because they don't share information with all machines, making them more secure than hubs. Also, switches dedicate ports to a single machine, which means computers don't share the 10 or 100Mbps of bandwidth capable by the switch. Each port gets its dedicated bandwidth. Hubs share the total bandwidth, and would cause a slow-down of the LAN if traffic levels rose to high values.

You only need to worry about your router when you are asking for a certain amount of bandwidth from your ISP. Most entry-level routers will support from 64Kbps to 512Kbps, an example being the Cisco 800 series. However, higher-end routers can handle from 64Kbps to 2.048Mbps, and even up to 320Gbps. Examples are Cisco 1600 series to Cisco 12000 Series. If you feel you will, over time, get more than 1 Meg from your ISP, then go for a Cisco 1603 router, as this will support up to 2.048Mbps. If you are going to go beyond 2 Meg, then look at the Cisco 2620 or Cisco 3660 router, or higher.

Of course, the faster you get on the WAN, the faster you will need to get on the LAN as well. Entry-level hubs, I would suggest, would be D-Link and NetGear. For switches, HP, Cisco and NetGear are also good ones.

Good luck
 

Posted Tue 25 Jun 02 @ 10:47 am
ikkeHome userMember since 2003
And 3COM switches? I get quite a professional ICT magazine here at home (Data News) and when they test switches, they always write that the COMs are very good, but not really cheap ;)
 

Posted Tue 25 Jun 02 @ 10:54 am
I have heard that 3Coms are also in use. Personally, I have never used 3Coms in a production environment, but I've good and bad about them. You might want to hard test one before you make a committed buy.
 

Posted Tue 25 Jun 02 @ 3:49 pm
I know have it running !!!! Holy sh*t the speed !!! Its awesome since now I have a fixed IP adress (for a DSL connection), provided that my provider does not drop the line. Also, the hardware firewall promted me to get rid of zone alarm. Setup was a breeze also.
 

Posted Tue 25 Jun 02 @ 9:11 pm
3 Com Hubs & Switches only work good if you have 3Com Networkcards in your Computer. If not you can get many problems!!!
 

Posted Wed 26 Jun 02 @ 12:00 pm


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