[RESOLVED] Hubs vs. Switches

[Mark Lee]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but...

What is the difference between a hub and a switch? Is one better than the other? And on my 5 port StarTech switch, there is an 'uplink' port that seems to be connected to port #5 (indicated by a little symbol). What's that for?

Ok, that's three questions. And maybe they're all stupid questions. So shoot me. ;)

[weazel]

[quote]Originally posted by Mark Lee:
<strong>Maybe this is a stupid question, but...

What is the difference between a hub and a switch? Is one better than the other? And on my 5 port StarTech switch, there is an 'uplink' port that seems to be connected to port #5 (indicated by a little symbol). What's that for?

Ok, that's three questions. And maybe they're all stupid questions. So shoot me. ;) </strong><hr></blockquote>

1. Basically hubs share bandwidth, anything sent thru the hub is sent to all the pc's on the hub whereas on a switch information is sent only to the pc that requested it so no shared bandwidth.

2. Switches are better.

3. the uplink port allows you to connect muliple hubs/switches together. Usually, depending on the manufacturer, the last port is shared with the uplink port so you can only use it as one or the other

[Gollo]

[quote]Originally posted by Weazel:
<strong>
3. the uplink port allows you to connect muliple hubs/switches together. Usually, depending on the manufacturer, the last port is shared with the uplink port so you can only use it as one or the other</strong><hr></blockquote>

You don't have to use a special cable (i.e. crossover) to connect the hubs. You just plug in a straight CAT5 cable into the uplink port and into any open port on the other hub and they link together.

[Alwayslearining]

Dont worry my boss (the ITMANAGER) didnt know what the difference was bettween them either and had the servers connectec using a hub until i told him to use a switch :mad:

[Stalemate]

Whwnever you can, use a switch.

They build up a table of MAC adresses so that packet transfers are handled faster, among other things. If you were to compare a 100Mbps port on a hub and oanother on a switch for throughput, thw switch would show better results simply for the fact that it doesn't have to broadcast packets to all ports as they come in.

Switches can also be configured to accept only certain types of protocols or addresses and you can create VLANs on the better ones. Some can now incorporate firewall or intrusion detection agents.

As for the uplink, up until recently crossover cables were the way to go between hubs and/or switches. The newer hubs now incorporate an uplink port that makes this possible with a standard Cat s RJ45 cable.

[Lt. Cmdr. DaTaMan]

one other small piece of info on the difference between a hub and a switch. Hubs only operate in half duplex. Most switches have full duplex capability. This makes a switch better because there are far less collisions.