Need an explanation....

What's the difference between a switch and a hub? They both do the same basic thing, and I've used both many times for the exact same thing and noticed no difference in performance or anything else.... what makes an ethernet switch different from an ethernet hub?

(obviously, these are wired devices I'm discussing LOL )

 

Mmm, a hub is passive, it broadcasts across the network, whereas a switch actively passes the connection to the next node (that's my rough guide anyway ).

 

Good little explanation - http://www.meyercomputer.net/Article-Hubs&Switches.htm

 

I've always followed the lines of....Hubs are dumb, they get devices together. Switches are smart, they also get the devices together, and they get things right. Switches are programmable, they route things correctly. I could go further, but not sure what ye need on the differences between the two.

Is this for home usage? If so, then, a Hub is probably what ye want.

Btw, a router is, in some cases considered a switch.

 

No, it's not for home use, I have a client that seems to have perpetual problems with the office network. There's about 6 or 8 systems and two printers on the network; the printers are connected to PCs directly and shared from there, they do not have their own print server or built-in ethernet or wireless. They were running off of an OLD Linksys 8 port switch which was failing (it worked OK with 2 or 3 systems connected, but when all 8 ports were filled, it would randomly assign erroneous IP addresses to random PCs; so you might be able to access the network/internet just fine for a couple of hours, then BAM! suddenly the printers and network shares/HDs and the internet would be gone) and when I first started this thread we were wondering which would suit their needs best: a hub or a switch. We had a brand new 8 port switch (TrendNet I believe, nothing fancy) handy so we ended up using that 'cuz it was there and ready and so far all is well....

So, what's the difference between a managed switch vs. an un-managed switch???

And thanks for the input everyone!

 

Managed switches have interfaces or "consoles" unmanaged just do there thing.

 

Thx! :-D