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What's the difference between a Hub, a Switch and a Router?

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If you have multiple pcs in your house the best way to connect all this with out any effort is to purchase a wireless router. you either need a DSL router or Cable. you connect your modem to router and from router u make one wired connection to set it up. on other computer to get wireless just purchase a wireless adapter usually £15 and this connects through usb simple.
if you want to conect it wired then you will need cable or UTP as known to the router port.

Posted by: farad at December 15, 2008 7:12 AM

Hello Leo!

I have quite a question for you! I am lucky to be connected to the Internet via a Fiber cable, offering me a 100MBit/s download speed and 10Mbit/s upload speed from/to the internet.

I have run a local speed test (bredbandskollen.se) which gives me a speed of roughly 94Mbit/s download speed when connected directly to the LAN outlet in the wall. As soon a I connect one of my routers to the network, routing that internet connection to my computer through it, the speed drops instantly to about 35-40Mbit/s! That feels like an enourmous drop in speed.

How should I share this internet connection in my house and maintain maximum bandwidth? Obviously the router eats more than half the bandwidth as of now.

Thanks for your input in this matter!

You may end up having to invest in a higher quality (and higher cost, no doubt) router. Most consumer routers aren't expecting a 100Mbit WAN link.
- Leo
22-Dec-2008
Posted by: henkisdabro at December 21, 2008 12:48 PM

Do you have any routers you'd recommend in that range that would do the trick?

Sadly, no. It's not a space I play in. (Wish I did ... I envy your 100 megabits :-). Typically one thinks fo Cisco, but that's as far as I can take it, and I know there are many others.
- Leo
23-Dec-2008

Posted by: henkisdabro at December 22, 2008 4:15 PM

i was taking a cisco(router, switch hub etc) class, but i dropped it because it seems all networking jobs are offshore, do you think it is still possible to make a career as a network Tech in the states? thank you

I would think so. There's still a ton of networking equipment in the U.S. that needs technicians.
- Leo
02-Jan-2009

Posted by: Diego at January 2, 2009 6:34 AM

Thanks alot for this, you sumerised it perfectly with the word intelligence, or lack therof. Much confusion over this question. Thanks alot Leo.

Posted by: Adam O'Rourke at February 23, 2009 5:45 AM

how are IPs destributed to the computers by routers, hubs, and switches?
I have a modem at home with one internet plug but provider says i have possibility to have two dynamic IPs in pararel and for that i have to use kind of switch. I dont get it. Because to the switch or to the router I could connect 5 or more computers. Which of the computers will get which IP?
Thanks for the answer.

Posted by: nanojedi at February 26, 2009 12:48 PM

Hi,
Iam not able to routing in ospf and eigrp protocols plz help me

Posted by: rauf at February 28, 2009 11:09 PM

i owned prolink adsl2+ modem/router locked to my old isp. i changed my connection to a new one and wanna use the router... but i can't. can you help me make use of this old router of mine? please.... really need help.

Posted by: degil omictin at March 4, 2009 6:47 AM

I have a friend that has 5 computers in a network. Currently we are using the 2Wire HomePortal 2701HGV to connect 4 computers to each other and the web. My question is how can we connect the 5th with a lan cable to this configuration. Do we need a Switch, or a router? One computer is a file server for Quickbooks so we need all 5 computers to be able to see each other over the network and be able to access the internet independantly of each other. Also it would be good if we could plug a networked printer in the jumble to. so maybe an 8 port switch im thinking but I dont know if that will work. What about if we just used the 2 wire 2071 single port modem, if you plug that to a switch will it work the same????? Any help would be great. Thanks Steve.

Posted by: Steve at March 6, 2009 1:05 AM

Hi Leo,

I'm a student, i still getting confuse of what is the different between hub, switch and router. i though that i can connect a hub to a router? is it ok to do that? and is a hub is the same as switch?? what i mean is, can i put this hub and switch together???

Posted by: Justin at March 6, 2009 6:19 AM
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