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What is difference between Hub vs Switch??? [ FORUMS : THREADS : REFRESH : NEXT THREAD ]

G

gredodenda

Senior member
I'm going to buy Linksys FAST ENET NETWORK 10/100, but there are two versions and I don't know the difference.

Model #FENSK05
This is the one that created monster sale
It comes with a HUB

Model #FESWSK5
Slight more expensive than FENSK05 and it comes with a SWITCH. not a hub.

What is the differnce??? What is hub and switch used for?
Sorry for dumb questions, but I really need to know. Thanks
 
A hub shares the entire total bandwidth between all the ports (ie, 10MB 4 port hub = 2.5MB per port). A switch provides a dedicated connection to all ports that equals the switches rated speed. A 10MB switch will be faster than a 10MB hub.

There are more differences between them, but that's the best one to remember when shopping... 🙂

Dave
 
A hub is a repeater, the simplest OSI model device. It takes the data that comes into a port and sends it out all the other ports in the hub. It doesn't perform any filtering or redirection of data.


Bridges work at OSI model Layer 2. This means they don't know anything about protocols, but just forward data depending on the destination address in the data packet. This address is not the IP address, but the MAC (Media Access Control) address that is unique to each network adapter card.
Bridges are very useful for joining networks made of different media types together into larger networks, and keeping network segments free of data that doesn't belong in a particular segment.

Switches are the same thing as Bridges, but usually have multiple ports with the same "flavor" connection (Example: 10/100BaseT).
Switches can be used in heavily loaded networks to isolate data flow and improve performance. In a switch, data between two lightly used computers will be isolated from data intended for a heavily used server, for example. Or in the opposite case, in "auto sensing" switches that allow mixing of 10 and 100Mbps connections, the slower 10Mbps transfer won't slow down the faster 100Mbps flow.


From Practically Networked
 
to put it on a performance wise basis:

generally switches will be faster, but you wont be likely to see much of a difference until you get alot of computers on the network.

switches send the requested data to the exact port that requested it, while hubs send it to all ports, and its up to the 'guy on the other end' to determine if they asked for that particular data. so if you hear people say that switches are more intelligent, thats what they mean, because it keeps track of what port asked for what.

i'd say buy the switch, it's worth the few extra dollars you'd pay.
 
Jinsonxu, nicely written.

Gredodenda, if I had a choice, I would choose the switch version over the hub one. Frankly speaking, I think that they should stop making hubs--the technology is as outdated as the serial port. Its old, but ppl are still using them.
 
roc919,

I would have to disagree. Even with a 10 PC little network (which would be very big for the average consumer) you would't be able to notice the speed difference (although it would be measurable). And because a switch is usually a lot more expensive, any home user should buy a hub and put the money in something useful.


btw, Cisco, nice products


Cap Gemini Ernst & Young
Network Infrastructure Solutions
 
Hansel: 'alot more expensive'

what are you talking about, have you looked a the prices at all? there is often very little price difference, if any at all. there is usually about a $10 difference between the two.

i agree that a hub is usually sufficient, but if you're a computer enthusiast, what's an extra $10 to get superior performance (however minimal)?

roc919: jinsonxu copied that from a site, see his little annotation at the bottom? 🙂 it was a good clip tho, but much more info than our friend needed i think.
 
a switch is like a multi-port bridge, but very fast (line speed), layer 2 traffic.

with a hub, all packets are propigated to all ports, which leads to cpu usage on all nodes, and extra latency on the network. also, it can lead to security problems on large corporate networks, because all packets are sent to all nodes, a rogue employee with a packet sniffer can steal corporate passwords and traffic that wasn't supposed to be for him.

with a switch, the switch has a bridging table with all nodes mac addresses, and remembers which port a node is on, thus only that nodes get the packets.
 
Thanks for great inputs. Sorry about my late reply, but this was more than helpful.
Thank you all

Now, it's time to buy a switch....
 
Thanks for great inputs. Sorry about my late reply, but this was more than helpful.
Thank you all

Now, it's time to buy a switch....
 


<< And because a switch is usually a lot more expensive >>

Netgear 8-port 10/100BaseT hub: $78
Netgear 8-port 10/100BaseT switch: $113

Yeah, I know it's not a Cisco switch, but it's still a hell of a lot better than a normal hub. Case in point: I once had eight computers hooked up to my 8-port switch, playing DiabloII, and we had no lag problems whatsoever. As an experiment, we switched to a 100BaseT 8-port hub, and there was so much lag, the game was unplayable during battles. I also can capture a TV video stream across the network without dropping frames while two other computers transfer files and another surfs the net, something I can't do with a hub.

The average home LAN may have no need for a switch, but then again, the people on this forum aren't average. 🙂
 
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