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

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Hi Leo. I have 5 PCs and a printer conected to a hub, which is connected to the network in my company (I don't know but I thint it's a LAN). These computers share a lot of traffic. In fact, we use one as a server, and usually all of us work on the server's documents. We also use VNC to see each other's computers remotely (and take over them from time to time), so there's a lot of traffic between the computers in our group.

My questions are:
1. I think that if I buy a router, the computers connected to it will be making a smaller network, freeing a lot of space from the company's network. Is this really going to happen?

2. I think that a router will enable us to be a separate, independent network, right?

3. If we are, then, will it be possible to work on the server's documents, even when the company network isn't working?

4. I've seen in some forum that there two types of routers, and that most people talk nowadays about the routers used to share an internet connection between several PCs at home (Cable/DSL routers). What is the other type?

5. I have a Cable/DSL router at home, and the hub we're currently using. I tried usting the router at the office, but didn't seem to work.
Will a cable/dsl router work for me, or should I be looking for the other type of router? Or maybe I was doing something wrong...

6. Does a router need an IP address? It seems hub don't.

Thanks in advance for your reponse, and congrats for a great site. Very enlightening!

Those are all great questions, but unfortunately the answers rely heavily on how your companies network works. For example, using a router might allow your little network of machine to work just find ... and not be able to see the companies machines. I'm sure it could be configured to do so, but again exactly how depends on how the company network is set up. I would ask your company's IT people or whoever is responsible for network operations most of the questions you've asked here.

For #4: there aren't really "two types" of routers - there's dozens or more :-). What most conversations seem to be about are the NAT routers that most people have in their homes. "Other" routers vary in their capabilities, often include NAT, sometimes not, and are often quite programmable. What's appropriate for your situation is, I'm sorry to say, not clear.

Leo

Hi,
i am having internet cafe with a no. of 20 PCs i have the adsl line connection and it is divided to all the PCs with a hub. my problem is i am alloted the speed of 256 Kbps and this speed is shared by all PC. if sombody downloads something on any PC the speed gets slow. i want to know what i have to do so that the download dosent effects the speed of the internet on the network... puzzeled from this situation please help me..

What you need is called "bandwidth throttling" - essentially it allows you to restrict the rate at which any single connection can send or recieve data.

Unfortunately I don't know of any cost effective solutions off-hand. Higher end wired routers can do this, I believe, but they're *very* expensive.

The good news is that your situation is not unique.
The wireless community in particular has grown, and there are a lot of people providing wireless hotspots who are facing the same kind of problem. I believe that this will lead manufacturer's to bring that functionality to your market in some cost effective way.

Best of luck!

Leo

its a very good site and i got my basics cleared about routers,hubs and switches.thanks a lot leo.you have indeed done a great job.

Hi Leo,

I have two PC's, in one I have Red Hat Linux while in the other Windows XP, I want to use a router to conect them both to Internet and among them eventually, however, looking at all the variety of routers, I can see that not all of them support Linux, which router do you recomend me to buy?

Thank you very much for your time

Herbey

It really depends on what you're doing - by that I mean what services you expect your Linux box to be access over the internet. If it's standard stuff (web, ftp, telnet, and so on) most any of the routers that work with Windows should work just fine for you.

Leo

Thanks alot man u really helped me out.

Regarding the questions about using a 486 as a router,
Linux routers, and "throttling" bandwidth -
There is a tiny Linux distribution called "Coyote Linux" that
fits on a floppy and makes a real nice router.
Like most Linux distros, it's a free download.
The Windows based disk maker tool makes it easy to make a floppy
that will turn your old 486 into nice cable / DSL router.
You should have 16 MB of memory in the router, but 8 MB wil work.
No hard drive needed.

As of the time I write this, the development version includes "quality of service" (QoS), the Linux term
for bandwidth throttling and priotitizing.
QoS is available as an addon for the release version.
As of early March 2004, there is not yet an easy to use interface
for setting up QoS, you'll have to do some studying.

PS - The explanation of hub vs. switch is missing one
key detail. When connected to a hub, all of the network
cards in the computers or other devices have to listen for
something called "collisions" when they transmit (upload).
That means that they can't send and recieve data at the same time.
When connected to a switch, they can run in "full duplex" mode,
meaning that they can send and receive at the same time.
That is one major key to the increased speed with a switch.
This is absolutely necesary for me if you want to use something
like a Vonage phone on your LAN, which I do.
If you haven't heard of Vonage, it's something that most people
sharing a high speed internet connection will want to look into.
It's an internet based phone that plugs into your switch or router
and gives you local phone service with unlimited long distance
for around $30 per month.
I think they give you an even better deal the first month
if you mention that you were referred by an existing customer.

Ray Morris
support@webmastersguide.com

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