Networking question

[purple]

This has probably been asked before but I didn't have any luck with searches. I also haven't done my homework answering this question myself, so I'm just looking for an easy way out.

I've recently been moving big files around a lot on my home network and the gimpness of the 10 mbit crappy 1995 3com hub I use for my main EQ box and my linux box is really bumming me out. Can anyone recommend a 100mbit or faster hub that is actually a damned hub? Or is there a better avenue I should take like a low end router that would allow me to specify routing? I don't have an indepth knowledge of networking, but I know a bit. But I don't know what the feature of duping packets like that to multiple machines would be called, so I can know what to look for when buying something.

I don't want to put two ethernet cards in my linux box and route all traffic through it at this point, but if that's what people do to get reasonable network speeds and not bottleneck themselves I guess maybe I should just do it. Right now I have 6 machines behind a cheap linksys cable/dsl router with a cheap linksys switch for 4 of the machines and an ancient 3com hub for the packet sniffing.

Thanks for any help you guys wanna give me.

[Cryonic]

Modem - Router - Hub (with SEQ box) - Switch (with rest of systems)

[petermonoscan]

I've been using a netgear hub for years. Try here:

http://www.netgear.com/products/hubs/dualspeed.php?view=sb

Rock-solid, never goes wrong.

[purple]

You know Cryonic, that's a great solution and probably should have been obvious to me. 10mbit is plenty for my outgoing connection. Thank you very much.

[StopMeNow]

I've noticed some folks on these boards recommend the Netgear DS104 and DS108.

Is there any reason to prefer these over the EN104TP?

Time to replace my old hub after I set my desk on it in the last move. :o

[purple]

10/100 instead of 10.

[fryfrog]

Modem - Router - Hub (with SEQ box) - Switch (with rest of systems)

This is definatly the way to go. This lets your entire network run at 100mbit switched speeds between themselves while still allowing you to sniff ANY traffic to the internet.

Another small modification to that configuration I would do is IF your ShowEQ linux computer does more than just sniff (ie, samba or ftp server), throw in a second nic and attach it to the switch. In this way, you can get 100mbit switched speeds to the other computers and still sniff traffic. I do this on my server. eth0 is connected to the switch and gets an IP. eth1 is connected to the hub and does not bother getting an ip. I just do "ifconfig eth1 up" and it comes up w/o an ip. Then I simply point showeq at that interface.