Switch, hubs, or what?

[Hullboy]

Hi

I'm living in London, property prices are insance, and I'm living in a small flat. I can only have one or two monitors. Trouble is, I want to run around four systems.

What I want to know is, should I just get a hub for this, or will a switch be worth the extra cost??? This network will basically be used to educate myself, so speed is not the most important thing, but I don't want it too slow......

Besides hubs and switches, are there any other methods worth pricing up?

Looking forward to some advice from all you anandtechers.......

Hullboy

 

[IcemanJer]

wait.. are we talking about switch boxes for your monitor so that you can use 1 or 2 monitor/keyboard setup for all 4 systems? or are we talking about splitting your 1 internet connection coming into your home so all 4 computers can be online at the same time?

 

[TheOddball]

you need a nice 10 megabit hub... no need for a switch, as your not gonna be handling everyone elses packets, just your own from your LAN...

I'd get an 8 port hub, leaves you open for groth... good hubs are lynksys, cisco and 3com, they are a crap load of dough though, so a good cheap hub is a kingston...

 

[Hullboy]

IcemanJer - right first time!

TheOddball - thanks for the advice.

I just checked out a link. Stats are as follows:

Model
KND800TX
Speed
10/100 Mbps
Ports
8
Uplink
Yes, Last Port
Connectors
RJ-45
Stackable
No


One question - what does stackable mean?? Does this mean that you can use them with other hubs as interconnectors? Am I new to networking? How did you guess??

 

[Russ]

<< One question - what does stackable mean?? Does this mean that you can use them with other hubs as interconnectors? >>



As far as I know, stackable just means that it has a special dedicated interface port. You can still daisy chain them using the RJ45 ports.

I could be wrong on that, though.🙂

Russ, NCNE

 

[L3Guy]

Russ;
In general, you are spot on.

General warning: Some terms are &quot;marketing terms&quot; and do not always mean the same thing.
In general, stackable usually means that they have a propritary cable to interconnect the &quot;stackable&quot; boxes togather. Think of it as a cable backplane.
However, I can think of several boxes that were marketed as &quot;stackable&quot; that interconnected with 10T or 10/100T front pannel connections. In that case, the company &quot;justified&quot; it by sharing redundant power.
If you have questions about a specific piece of equipment, ask.

HTH

 

[Hullboy]

Okay. I now understand that I need a switch box, which is entirely different to a switch, and a hub!

I want to have a switch box which can connect four base units to one monitor. I undertand that switch boxes can be expensive. Can anyone suggest a good price to aim to find for a four port switch box with cables?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Hullboy]

Right,

I got off my lazy ass and went searching for a good price.

After much forum trawling, I'm getting the idea that the Cybex SwitchView for 4 base units is a good choice. I've seen it on a few sites for £150GBP.

The Belkin OmniCube and OmniView are cheaper, but I'm not hearing such good noises about these two, although they have had some praise.

Does anyone out there have experience of this switch-box? How do you feel about it? Any others beat it in your opinion?

Also, does anyone know if this can be gotten cheaper in the uk???

Hope someone can give the benifit of their experience.

 

[Hullboy]

<BUMP>

Can't anyone help? Come on! I'm sure plenty use this hardware at work or home......

 

[tjll11a]

Well i can tell you that i'm useing a Belkin OmniCube 4 port and 2 computers are running 1024x768 85mhz no problem. Would go higher but there on a cheap moniter....




paid about 100 with cables....

 

[Hullboy]

tjll11a

what os do you have on each pc?

has anyone ran linux flavours on either an omnicube or Cybex SwitchView?

Thanks

 

[randal]

i ran windows 2000 and SuSE linux on an omni 2-port ... linux did *not* like to be switched away from and then back; lots of monitor screw up and a wacko mouse.

$.02
randal