Hub or Switch ?

**2die4** · 29th December 2002

I've just got ADSL in my new place.

I'm wanting to split the net connection between my PC Laptop and my bird's Apple Mac. checked a few shops out and they have network hubs and network switches. The hub is a little bit cheaper than the switch.

Anyway, what are the differences between them and which one do you guys recommend ?

**GEEZA** · 29th December 2002

get a SWITCH

The difference (without getting into too much detail) is

A hub broadcast's data packets to every port so if you have a connection of 100mbps on a 10 port hub every port gets 10mbps even if it isnt used.

A switch is not as dumb it forwards data packets based on mac addresses and dedicates full bandwidth to every port so again if you have 100mbps and a 10 port switch only the used ports are sent data and its sent at 100mbps to all used ports.

Hope this is helpful

**2die4** · 29th December 2002

excellent ! Cheers for your help GEZZA !!

Will there be any compatibility problems due to the fact that it will be connected to a PC and a mac rather than just 2 PC's or doesn't it matter ? (please excuse the n00b questions !)

**Aido** · 30th December 2002

doesn't matter mate, ethernet is ethernet so anything will work in there that's got a 10/100 compatible network card that uses utp..

just to put your mind at rest i'm using a few pc's, a mac and an xbox here and there are no problems..

**2die4** · 30th December 2002

thanks for all your help guys ! Much appreciated !!!

**GEEZA** · 30th December 2002

make sure the protocol you are using is tcp/ip on both machines

**kracken** · 30th December 2002

nice info m8 , i dont want to jump on the bandwagon , but i got a quick question to ask m8 ...

currently i have 2 pcs networked and an xbox , all plugged into the same 10/100 hub , if i wanted to get rid of my hub and change it for a switch can i just swap them over or will the current network settings be lost and get screwed up ?

the reason i ask is that on me 2nd pc it has satellite broadband installed via PCI Broadband Adapter and its a right pain in the a$$ to set back up agen on its ip address and the very thought of changing the registry hardware settings on that pc will screw up me sat card

[well not the sat card itself but the applications i use for running it]

many thanx and i appreciate any comments