Ask Leo! by Leo A. Notenboom

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

Search First! Then browse: Categories | Full Archive | By Date | Newsletter

Home » Networking

Comments

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

Also, I have read above that many people question if a hub and/or switch can be connected to a router. Well... they can. You can connect a switch to a hub, a hub to a router, or a switch to a router. This is how many large networks connect all of their devices to the internet. They usually have a single router with several switches attached to it which have switches of their own, and so on. Usually the computers themselves are connected to a hub that connects to a switch. Of course it all depends on the amount of network-requiring devices. You don't want 50 switches for 50 computers is what I'm saying. Maybe like 5 switches (one for every 10), or something. Maybe even less. It all depends on how fast the connection needs to be and how much money the IT department has lol.

Posted by: Nick at July 22, 2009 12:01 AM

what is the basic security settings we can apply for routers and switches? some sort of security checklist to check whether this devices comply or not.

That would be this article: How do I secure my router?
Leo
29-Jul-2009

Posted by: Mohd Yunus at July 28, 2009 7:32 PM

I have a Pentinum 90 Mhz running Win 98SE and new
Compac laptop running Vista Home with a RJ-45 crossover cable connecting the two. They won't talk to each other. Will a switch or router solve the problem.

Posted by: Steve at August 21, 2009 2:07 PM

OK, my question is simple I am still confused. Why would I use a switch over a router?

When you don't need (or want) a router's "smarts". Switches are most commonly used in addition to routers (and instead of hubs) to increase the number of places to plug in devices.
Leo
24-Aug-2009

Posted by: Jim at August 23, 2009 7:33 PM

i want to 10 diffirence in hub & switch

Posted by: chandn at August 28, 2009 8:16 PM

i am having problem with my network.
problem is my modemis wimax which can be connected directly to a computer with rj-45 cable
now i want to share this internet with other computers what to do now?
here the main problem is for this the ip address will be changed for every 20 seconds
a single computer connects with an option obtain ip address automatically
what to do now
a router will help or ethernet switch

Posted by: rajvinay at September 6, 2009 5:28 AM

But you have not indicated that we also have layer 3,4 and 7 switches which can in some respect replace routers. They are even smarter than routers.

Posted by: temwa at September 11, 2009 12:51 AM

1)Hub is a broadcast unit .Hub is take a data and sending to all conneted networks but
2)Swich is unicast sending data only one machin to connected switch

Posted by: sandip at October 2, 2009 8:40 AM

I have a very interesting setup that I am working on for a client right now. We are located in a very remote part of the world and the client has purchased the fastest speed available in the region - a 512K dedicated line (for $3,000 a month mind you). The client has a network of about 25 users. They are experiencing very very slow internet load times (slower than one would expect even if the slow connection is shared over 25 computers)

Their current setup is as follows:

The DSL modem is connected to a switch provided by the ISP which is then connected to a 24 port switch, which is then connected to a wireless switch. Most computers are connected directly to the 24 port switch and a few connect to the linksys wireless access point.

Does this setup seem reasonable or is there something else we can do to speed up the internet?

Thanks

Posted by: BobR at October 27, 2009 11:09 PM

how much the equal distribution between the hub and swither?

Posted by: mockelz at October 28, 2009 1:32 AM
Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.
Post a Comment

Question? Ask Leo!