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View Full Version : Hub VS Switch


Stimpson
04-18-2002, 10:21 PM
My hub just recently died on me so i went out and bought a switch. both 10/100 autoswitching but one was called a hub the other was called a switch. The guy there told me the switch was faster. but since i am not an expert by any means i was wondering if this is true and would a switch cause my SEQ to stop working all of a sudden? Seems obvious to me since it is the biggest change of my setup but i am not sure.

Stimpson
high_jeeves
04-18-2002, 11:00 PM
SEARCH!
SEARCH!

Over a third of the posts on this forum are DEDICATED to this issue!!!!!!!

--Jeeves
Stimpson
04-18-2002, 11:07 PM
sorry i havent seen any explinations on what a switch was i will look again sorry if you had to waste your time saying search search.
Cryonic
04-18-2002, 11:16 PM
Standard response to a FAQ question:

will a switch work?
USE SEARCH. This has been answered before

to the not so FAQ part:

is a switch faster than a hub?

Yes and no.

A hub is a simple broadcast repeater. It takes information from one port and sends it down all the other ports. The problem is that this only allows one machine to "talk" at a time, the others have to wait for a silent moment. So your total bandwidth is divided by the number of systems on the hub (This is fine for most home setups where there isn't Gigs of information always flowing across the network).

A switch actually does some processing and filtering of the packets so that it only sends packets destined for a machine down just that port. The advantage: multiple systems can be talking to each other, as long as they aren't trying to talk to the same machine. The disadvantage is the only way to sniff this kind of network is with ARP table poisoning (too advanced for this general discussion).

a can talk to b while c talks to d, but a can't talk to b while c talks to b.

This allows for potential bursts of packets up to DOUBLE the network speed (if the cable can handle it). So a 100Mb SWITCHED network can burst up to 200Mb.
Stimpson
04-18-2002, 11:18 PM
Awsome thanks now i know what i bought. and knowing how a switch works i know the answer to the first question.