Switches and Hubs

Hubs connect different computers with each other on an Ethernet network based on UTP cabling. A hub has several connectors for RJ-45 cabling, a power source, and signal lights to indicate network activity. Most hubs are stackable , meaning that if you need more ports than the hub contains, you can connect it to another hub to expand its capabilities.

A hub is the slowest connection device on a network because it splits the bandwidth of the connection among all the computers connected to it. For example, a five-port 10/100 Ethernet hub divides the 100Mbps speed of Fast Ethernet among the five ports, providing only 20Mbps of bandwidth to each port for Fast Ethernet and 10/100 adapters, and only 2Mbps per port for 10BaseT adapters. A hub also broadcasts data to all computers connected to it.

caution

If you buy Wi-Fi/Wireless Ethernet adapters and access points from the same vendor, it might work straight out of the box without adjusting these settings. However, the network will be unsecure, enabling anyone with a compatible Wireless Ethernet card to access the network and compromise its contents. For security, enable security settings and upgrade the hardware to support WPA if possible.

A switch resembles a hub but creates a dedicated full-speed connection between the two computers that are communicating with each other. A five-port 10/100 switch, for example, provides the full 10Mbps bandwidth to each port connected to a 10BaseT card and a full 100Mbps bandwidth to each port connected to a Fast Ethernet or 10/100 card. If the network adapters are configured to run in full-duplex mode, the Fast Ethernet bandwidth on the network is doubled to 200Mbps, and the 10BaseT bandwidth is doubled to 20Mbps. Switches can be daisy-chained in a manner similar to stackable hubs, and there is no limit to the number of switches possible in a network.