10 vs 10/100 BaseT Hubs

[Fierce]

Ok, I am about to make a network with a couple of computers in my house, and all I need is the hub...I saw a 4 port 10BaseT hub for x amount, and a 4 Port 10/100 BaseT hub for y amount. What difference will I see between them?? I want to use it (network) for gaming. Thanks!

[weazel]

if you have 10/100 nic cards in the computers then you want the 10/100 hub so they can communicate at the highter speed. if you use a 10baseT hub then that is the max speed the systems will communicate with eachother not being able to utilize 100mbs. Then again if you only have 10mbs nic cards it doesn't matter because they will only communicate at 10mbs.

[gbbone]

For just a few bucks more get a 10/100 switch.

[Fierce]

I am currently studying networking...so bear with me. I now I have 10/100 BaseT NIC's in each computer, but what is the difference between a switch and a hub, and what do they each do?? TIA!

[weazel]

basically a switch channels data to specific ports at the full bandwidth of the computer that requested the data...basically with a switch your not sharing bandwidth with other computers on the network....with a hub all the data that comes into the hub goes out to all the computers connected to the hub...only the computer that requested the data accepts the data while the other systems just drop the data not addressed to them...this makes for alot of traffic on the network...depending on the size of the network and how you have it subnetted determines whether this traffic is going to slow things down. On a small home network you probably won't notice the difference.

[http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum1/noncgi]

You won't see any difference between a 10BaseT hub and a 10/100BaseT switch for Internet stuff or transfering small files, and (assuming you have a networkable printer), probably won't see an increase in printing speed. However, when transfering LARGE amounts of data, the difference can be dramatic. It takes nearly an hour to transfer my art collection (several gigabytes) from my server to my laptop if the laptop is plugged into a 10BaseT hub, but if it's plugged into a 100BaseT switch, it only takes about 10 minutes. Remote folder navigation will also have fewer delays and will react more like a local drive.

The difference in price is small enough now days you should buy a 10/100 hub at minimum.