What's the difference between a hub, a switch, and a router?

What experience I've had with Bluetooth on PCs has been spotty, so I have a hard time recommending that. I'd get a "real" network card for the other machine (they're inexpensive these days) and set up a normal network. This article has more: http://ask-leo.com/how_should_i_set_up_my_home_network.html

Hi Leo, great advising and we trully appreciate it.

Now, I have a question as to if I should use a switch or a router for my situation. I am able to connect a regular ethernet cable from my computer to a wall jack provided by my apartment for broadband internet access. My problem comes in that I want to hook up additional computers/laptops, but there is no modem provided. I was wondering if a router would be able to work connecting directly to the wall jack (which I believe is probably connected to a network itself throughout the complex)? If not, would a switch work here?

There is also one option I thought of: can a router be connected to a router in this case and still function properly?

Thank you for your time.

It depends on your your building is distributing the internet. If your IP address begins with 192.168. it;s likely that you're already behind a router, and can simply use a switch or hub. If you have "real" internet IP address, then I'd advise a router.

The simplest answer for all the above. If you are connecting multiple computers (including game consoles) to a cable or dsl modem then you need a router. If you are already connecting through a router, then you need a switch with WAN capability and a network card in each computer. If you want wireless, you need to get a wireless router (either a,b, or g or all the above depending on what kind of wireless adapter you have on the computer.)
Hubs should only be recommended for use if you are connecting multiple computers without external WAN access. It is also possible to use a computer to share an internet connection without a router, but you need two nic cards in that computer in order to do so (or your modem may use usb in which case I believe you can cross between usb and your nic.

I have a router and a switch. The linksys switch user manual said to hook up this way: Internet->cable modem->router->switch->pc
I want to hook up this way:
Internet->cable modem->switch->router->pc

One reason I want to do it this way is because I have a second router and hooking it up to the first router prevents VPN from working. (I guess because it's going through two routers.) If I hook it up in the second configuration, I can hook each router to the switch and VPN will work on both routers.

Is there any problem with doing it the second way beside not having any kind of firewall protection until the routers are reached? I plan to hook a vonage voip box to the switch (instead of the router) as well.

Well, if it's working for you, that's pretty much your answer right there. I'm guessing you could put the router up front, but you would have to configure some ip-forwarding on the router to make your other applications work. And yes, the Vonage box will need to go as close to the internet as possible, I believe.

I did some more reading and evidently if I hook up this way Internet->cable modem->switch->router->pc then the ISP will attempt to assign multiple ip addresses whereas a router has one IP address assigned and then doles out IP addresses on the other side to the various ports. A switch only has the ability to assign MAC addresses. Therefore it appears the router must come before the switch unless the ISP is wiling to allow multiple IP addresses.

We are having trouble getting internet for our house. We have 6 PCs that need internet but do not need to share files. We have one cable modem and two 4 port routers. The idea was to connect the cable modem to one router and then 3 PCs to that router, then conect the other router through the remaining port for the other 3 PCs. However, only the 3PCs connected to the first router can access the internet. Is is not possible to connect two routers one after another? Do you have any recomendations?
Thanks for any help you can provide.

I don't recommend the router-to-router configuration. To make it work you need to turn off DHCP on the router the "furthest away" from the internet, and possibly make some other changes to it as well. The simplest is to use a hub or a switch instead.

hey,
i am having a problem. i have 3 three computers connected to a hub and the cable modem connected to the hub. when i tried getting online only two of the computers could and on the third a message would pop up indicating low connectivity. why is this happenning and and how can i fix it.
Thanks for your time