Okay, im thinking about getting a new 8 port something for my network today, because I'm quite sure my Linksys DSL Router died. Ive heard bad things about linksys and havnt been overwhelmingly happy with the router, so im going to get a new 8 port which would be better for lan parties with friends and stuff. But before I go out and buy it i want ot make sure i dont waste my money, im not an expert on networking, but i did stay at a holiday inn express last night, so here it goes:
Routers will assign IPs
Switches will assign IPs
Hubs will not assign IPs
All three will share my DSL correct?

So what would you recommend I get, router, hub, or switch, and what brands do you recommend?

I don't think it is quite THAT simple. You are in the ballpark however.
It all depends on what you want to do. If you have DSL and you just want all of your machines to have internet access, that probably rules out the hub. Besides, as cheap as switches are, I would not even consider a hub anyway. Now, a plain ol basic switch by itself most likely wont do what you want either. Since plain switches don't know inside from outside, etc. You said you had a DSL Router? That is probably what you need to do what you are asking. Linksys is the only kind I have ever used and I've never had problems with them. Does your DSL use static or dynamic ip addressing? How many IP's can you have at once? I'm not going to cover every possibility here but these types of things could influence what you need. I

I would suggest just getting another DSL router/firewall. This gives you extra protection as well as offering features such as DHCP, port forwarding, etc. Neither the hub nor switch is going to offer those things. Besides if you buy the router/firewall, you are basically getting a built in switch anyway. I hope this made some sense and was useful to you. Feel free to post again if I wasn't even close.

Okay i have a same prob, im getting ADSL but have no idea how it works. I have three comps in a LAN, and would like to share internet acces, but ISP provides only one dynamic IP. I now have a dial-up 56k and share conections via firewall NAT/IP masquerade, but its preatty useless since it's so slow.
So basically, the question. If i get a router, can i plug all my comps into it so it can act as a firewall for conection sharing, as well as conecting all my comps in a LAN (for playing games for example)?
Is this the best solution, or can i just stick anothe NIC into the main box, plug it into the phone socket and have ADSL via that, and alter firewall rules to get conection sharing for all boxes on the LAN?
Bah! Am i making sense here? I'm tired, but plz try to answer if possible.
Thanks a lot
-NSKL

What I use at home with Broadband is a Netgear firewall router that uses dhcp to assign all connnected comps a local IP, and the router acts as the main link for the ISP. If you have a hub I believe that you would need to configure all the computers network cards MAC address for the DSL/ADSL/BB or whatever. With a router all you need is that MAC address.

Also, try the networking forum for better info, a search or something. I'll admit though, I had to get loads of advice off my mate to start this networking thing, trying to work it out was confusing.

I share a DSL connection with 2 Windows machines and my Mandrake box using a D-link 704. It was pretty painless to set up in both OS's. It's only a 4 port router, but their 707 sounds like it might be what you're looking for.