A router connects different networks together, LANs and WANs. Although hubs and switches both glue the PCs in a network together, a switch is more expansive and generally considered faster than a hub. Why? When a hub receives a chunk (packet) of data (a frame in Ethernet lingo) at one of its ports from a PC on the network, it transmits (repeats) the packet to all of its ports and, thus, to all of the other PCs on the network. If two or more PCs on the network try to send packets at the same time a collision is said to occur. When that happens all of the PCs have to go though a routine to resolve the conflict. That means the process slows down communication. That's the hub for you, a dumb piece of equipment. Not the switch. An Ethernet switch automatically divides the network into multiple segments, acts as a high-speed, selective bridge between the segments, and supports simultaneous connections of multiple pairs of computers which don't compete with other pairs of computers for network bandwidth. It accomplishes this by maintaining a table of each destination address and its port. When the switch receives a packet, it reads the destination address from the header information in the packet, establishes a temporary connection between the source and destination ports, sends the packet on its way, and then terminates the connection. Picture a switch as making multiple temporary crossover cable connections between pairs of computers. In other words, it is more intelligent than the hub. It is like a multiple bridge which is another type of hardware. Routers are like a combination of switches. All routers have a Wide Area Network (WAN) Port which connects it to the internet and it also has multiple Ethernet ports to connect more than one PC or hubs to form a LAN. These ports allow the PCs to share the WAN port/broadband Internet connection and perform LAN functions, such as Windows file and printer sharing. Snowshelbi <SnowShelbi@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: May I ask what is the diff between a switch a router and a hub!?! And which should be used when 2 computers are sharing one internet connection!? -----Original Message----- From: mswindowsxp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mswindowsxp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Neil Atwood Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 3:17 PM To: mswindowsxp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [mswindowsxp] Re: Firewall Configuration =20 You're quite right Joe - but it was the *purpose* of a hub/switch v a router that I was querying. ;-) ____________________________________ ,,,,, Neil Atwood - natwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx=20 =D4=BF=D4=AC Sydney, Australia=20 Decorate your Christmas with peace http://www.toongabbieanglican.org/christmas =20 =20 -----Original Message----- From: mswindowsxp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mswindowsxp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Joe Parker Sent: Monday, 16 December 2002 7:10 AM To: mswindowsxp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >That's a little puzzling, because routers (in the context we are >discussing here) are not interchangeable with switches or hubs.=3D20 >Different purpose all together. True, but these days the line is quickly being blurred by the cheap SOHO routers that are widely available. They all come with built-in switches. Owner/Moderator of "My Computer Headaches" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mycomputerheadaches/. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now ================================== To Unsubscribe, set digest or vacation mode or view archives use the below link. http://thethin.net/winxplist.cfm