Router, Switch, hub....what's the difference????

[Pers]

PLEASE HELP ME! I am rather confused, probably because i am new at this. Regardless, please clarify the differences between these 3 things. I am under the impression that you must have a router to share an internet connection. Also, i believe you need a switch to share files between to computers. A hub, from what i read is less advanced compared to a switch. Obviously i am in need of help because what i just wrote makes little sense. Thanks

 

[GKar]

A hub simply connects several networked computers together, and broadcasts all packets on every port.
A Switch is the same as the hub, but can understand where the packet is going, and only sends it on the correct port (if it knows which it is).
A router connects two or more networks together. eg, LAN and Internet, two LANs - 192.168.1.0 + 192.168.5.0. (a linux firewall can be considered a router.

Hope that clears things up.)

 

[Gorgonzola]

just a couple of notes to help you out:

you dont need a router to share an internet connection.

you can share files between two computers with either a switch or a hub (or just a crossover cable for that matter). a switch is a more advanced version of a hub. instead of sharing the bandwidth between all ports like a hub does, a switch provides full bandwidth between each port and its attached device. provided a switch knows the destination address it also only forwards data to the port with the destination device...as opposed to all ports which is what a hub does.

switches are faster than hubs but for home use where not many files are being sent, a hub will be just fine.

 

[JackMDS]

Hub, Switch, Router, DHCP, LAN, WAN, NAT, etc. - Basic Primer.