Network hub vs. switch?

[Chris]

[quote author=Xenocrates link=board=3;threadid=25;start=0#msg4801 date=1051905922]Switches are prohibitively expensive when compared to hubs. Hubs are just fine if you only want to connect a few people - like about up to 10 people tops.[/quote]

Xeno, the prices of switches are not as prohibitive as when they first hit the market. You can also get as low as a 8-port switch. My recommendation would be to get a switch even for home use, you can never tell what that home network can grow into

[Xenocrates]

They make switches for home use as well? Can you imagine hosting an Unreal Tournament match across the net on that baby with friends connecting via internet and locally?

Wicked sick! ;D

I'll add that to my memory engrams: "Home based switches" - nice...

[finni03]

Switches give you full 100/1000 MB on every port. Plus switches facilitate management systems via http and telnet. Swithes can also do V-Lans as well as packet filtering based on mac addresses. Hubs on the other hand only accept a signal on one port and rebroadcast it on the rest. thus only one person can transmit an recieve on a hub. I this day and age Hubs and swithes are close to the same price. Thus in the words of Cisco Systems: Why buy hubs when u can buy switches?

[deakie]

i love switches more than hubs because you can basically shove any network cable in it and it works. no more worrying if its a patch xover or standard.
buy di switch

netgear does 4 and 5 port switches cheap and they have never given me any probs.

[matronyx]

There is more a chance of packet collision with hubs than with switches. This may not be a big deal for persons who want to run a small lan-party, but in a environment where precision is important, go with a switch.

[kknight]

A hub broadcasts packets all over the network. A switch memorizes the MAC addresses and sends packets to the right nodes. Hence, a switch cuts down on network traffic and saves bandwidth. Replacing hubs with switches will give your network a real performance boost...

[Chris]

Ok, I'm curious about something.

Yes, I know that switches are faster and in many ways better than a hub. But tell me something guys. I have a small 8-port 10/100 hub on my home LAN. I have up to 4 PCs connected to the hub along with my ADSL modem/router. Question - will I really recognize a performance increase if I replace by hub with a switch?

[Xenocrates]

You probably won't notice a performance difference unless you have at least two subnets on your network each running at least 4 PCs each and you're running some HARDCORE network based application like a LAN game.

Note that I said earlier in this same thread (if not here, then elsewhere) if it's for home purposes, a hub is far more cost effective. Buying a switch for your home is like buying a high powered semi-automatic rifle with a top mounted scope with 500x amplification to kill a house fly. It's simply overkill.

Ofcourse people still do it anyways. There are actually idiots who buy 21" monitors to sit at home with, or overclock their pcs to 3.06 Ghz just so that they can read e-mail and surf the net, or buy a 250Gb hard drive to store pictures from their wedding. It's overkill Chris. That's all I'm saying.

Unless you live in a big freaking mansion with several hundred feet of cat5 all over the place with two pcs for every guest room, helper's quarters and for your dog scruffy, stick with the hub. Switches are and will always be for hardcore home network people. For that reason, Switches will never replace hubs.

[deakie]

yes but if you have loads of collisions then the switch reduces that. depends if your hub is being thoroughly used innit.

[Xenocrates]

For a home network of 4 PCs... collisions if any, are negligable.