Hubs

Hi, sorry about all the questions. Anyway, I use a hub to connect my computer and my roommates computer to the one internet jack in the wall. But I am confused how hubs work. Does everything I do also get sent to his computer, which just ignores it, as well as the internet port? I'm really confused as to how packets work.

 

You are correct about the hub. The simplest ones are essentially repeaters, take info (or packets) in one port and send it out to all other connected devices. Your friends computer ignores the info because it is not "addressed" to his computer.
Packets are the blocks of data that are transmitted and received. The different protocols (like TCP/IP) add headers and trailers to each packet to identify the different aspects of communications - source, destination, error, size, etc.
Google on OSI model and network protocols and that will give you some info on packet structure and use of protocols.
Hope that helps.

 

To put it in functional perspective.

Because of the lack of selectivity using a Hub in a large heavy traffic Network result in Network slow down.

However in small Networks (less than 10 computers) it does not make any difference whether you use a Hub or a Switch.

 

If your wondering if your room mate can see the data you transmitt over the network the answer is no unless he is using a packet sniffer or your sending it to the address which is his computer.

All of the computers and routers on your network have an address like this: 192.168.1.122 . Not necessarily that exact address but numbered like that. When you send packets, they are sent to a specific address.

 

I just wanted to add to what cat5e said. Hub's themselves are simply repeaters, whatever comes in one port goes out all the other ports. If you want to be selective and note waste bandwidth then you get yourself a switch, which is exactly the same thing as a HUB but it's selective and only repeats to the ports it needs to.

To be honest, most places these days will not sell HUB, they just sell switches. Or they sell what is called a switching hub which is really just the full name for a switch.