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Router vs hub vs swtich?
Hello-
I am probably going to buy a WAP11, it's a wireless access point. As I was looking over the Linksys products, I saw routers, hubs, and switches. I looked on google to try to figure out what all these were, but I just got confused. So, could somebody tell me what each one is, what it's for, and how it works, about? And, for those of you who have a WAP11 or know wireless well, what would a WAP11 be considered? Thanks -Jim |
I'm sorry I don't know much about about wireless products. But in terms of wired technology let me attempt to break it down.
A hub is low cost, but it does not discriminate between data source and data recipient. It will send information to all it's ports. It's like a cable splitter. It does not filter data which is sent through it. A hub is an inexpensive way to split an internet connection to 2 or more computers. A switch is like a hub, but it performs intelligent actions to determine which port to send data to. It does not automatically send data to all ports. For this reason it creates less latency (or lag) on the network. This would be the preferred method of creating a network, however switches are more expensive than hubs. Routers perform two functions, path determination and switching. They are primarily used to get you out to the internet. However if you are using broadband, your modem acts as a router to get you on the internet. Routers also usually have a built in switch to allow computers on the network to "talk" to each other so you can use them to build a network. However routers also have built in firewalls, which are used to help filter out threats on the internet. This is good and bad for you. Good because you are better protected, but bad because it requires the router to perform computations on the incoming data to determine if its friend or foe. This increases latency on your network. In other words it increases the time it takes for data to get to you from the net. It is only on a scale of milliseconds, and when browsing the web, you won't notice. But in terms of gaming, where you are always seeking the lowest latency possible, it may seem unsatisfactory. Let me know if that was too confusing, follow up with whatever questions, I'll try to answer them. |
Heres my two cents worth.
A hub only amplifies the signal, it does not have any intelligence at all. Ie. when a packet is received from a computer, it is then sent out all ports, for the computers to decide whether it is for them or not.. very network resource intensive as you can imagine. A switch works by keeping a "cached database" of MAC (hardware) addresses. It keeps track of which machine is plugged into which port and knows them by mac address. Trouble is, all ip packets are sent to ip address, so it has to maintain a lookup table of ip address to mac address. But it will only send the data out to the specific port it knows the computer is on. Less resource used on the network, but still a little extra time to perform the lookup. A router will keep a record of the ip address that is attached to each port. therefore it is the quickest of them all but also, due to the extra processing required, usually the most expensive. it will only send data out to the port that has the destination ip address on it. It will also perform "routing", ie it will perform "network address translation" on the information going from one network to another (ie your home network to the www). |
Quote:
So why use routers? Without getting into the nitty-gritty of the OSI model, what happens is that switching doesn't break up networks into subnetworks, but routers do. While switching will only send data to the addressed host (unlike a hub), a broadcast on a network (like negotiating a DHCP address) sends traffic to every connected device on a switch. However, broadcast are limited to a single network, so routers will break up broadcasts--someone on Verizon's network cannot broadcast to hosts on AT&T's network, for example. So anytime you need to internetwork, you need a router, but for a single network, you can use either a hub or switch. Sorry if that was a little long winded :D A WAP11 is a combination switch and router, as is common on most home/small office "routers". On the inside, you will have a four port switch (actually five ports, if you include the port that connects to the "router" portion) and then there will be a router between the four port switch and your internet connection. Because it is a wireless device, too, then I believe there is the moral equivalent of a 256 port switch for the wireless portion, too. But, I'm not a wireless expert, so don't quote me on that. Hope this helps! |
I have to agree with RWallet, if I remember a router is the slowest of the three because it is software driven. However a hub creates more conflicts because it doesn't differentiate between destinations, it just broadcasts. A switch is best because it strives to create no additional latency. Is this correct RWallet?
PS. Collisions is the word I'm thinking of...hubs create more collisions, routers try to reduce them...is that accurate? |
If it is any use to you all. Here is a web site that tells ALL. Not only for Hubs etc, but EVERYTHING.
The web site is... http://computer.howstuffworks.com/lan-switch.htm That explains how they work. Keep on Linuxing - - - - - - - |
Now I understand. But I head that switches allow data to flow through the cable in both directions at
the same time, called fullduplux or somthing, where routers and hubs don't? -Jim |
Jim
“I saw routers, hubs, and switches” On your question I would explain it as follow: • Routers are used to connect your local area network to your ISP or to another router/LAN over a telecom data line. • Hub’s and switches are used to connect devices on to a common LAN, Hub will receive a broadcast from one device and echo it to all the other devices connected to the hub. Switch on the other hand will send the broadcast to the device it was addressed to saving on network overhead. • I think you AP would work on the same principal as a HUB? Cheers Karel |
Hubs, switches, routers and WAP11
The previous discussions of Hubs and switches and routers was mostly correct. The mental image that I have in order to use them is the difference between a PA system and a telephone system. Thee hub is the PA system. All messages go out to everyone. You have to wait your turn to get your message thru. Only one person can talk at a time (that is really pushing the metaphor a little to far but it helps in seeing why the traffic is slower) A switch is more like the phone system. Each machine has a discrete address and the messages tend to go more directly to the other machine. Which to use is determined by the number of users on the subnetwork that it is on. If you are setting up a network with more than 10 - 15 users that mostly only cruise the internet (A classroom or a small business for example) use a switch. The network can get too 'chatty' between the computers and you can start to see some system degradation. Given the cost differencebetween a hub and a switch (minimal) Ialmost always use a switch. Even for small networks.
A router does divide up the network into subnets directing infomation to each appropriate subnet. Routers tend to perform one other important function in a small network (Like your home I am assuming) They act as DHCP servers. Each computer on your system needs a separate IP address that is specific to its own subnet. (Roughly seaking your home is a subnet of your ISP's network) When you turn your computer on, It sends out a broadcast message asking for an IP address so that it can talk to its neighbors. A DHCP server gives it one. This functionality is incorporated in most machines that perform routing functions these days. This functionality can also be turned off because it is VERY bad juju to have 2 dhcp servers on one subnet. Causes all sorts of problems. On to you WAP11. Its technical name is a bridge. It bridges the divide between your wired network and your wireless portion. It is basically a radio transciever that converts the radio signal into something that the network can understand. It acts like a hub in that aspect because you cannot have specific ports that you can send signals over via radio waves. Personnally, I have used and been very pleased with the Linksys bridge. Good luck. |
The question everyone is missing.
The difference between a hub, switch, and a router has been explained very well, however I think there is a very important question that is being missed. What are you trying to connect too?
If you are connecting to a broadband connection (ie cable, dsl, satellite, ect.), and you want to connect more than one computer at the same time, chances are you will HAVE to use a router, unless you are using another computer as a "gateway". Unless you are paying for multiple IP addresses, cable modems (and i believe dsl but i'm not sure) will only allow one computer online at a time. They will remember the mac address of the first computer that asks for an IP and only allow that computer online at a time. A router will act like a computer (because it really is one) to the cable modem and assign internal IPs to the individual machines on your network. This will allow multiple computers to access the internet at the same time. To use a hub, or hopefully a switch for speed on the internal network, and have multipul computers connected to the internet, you will have to use one of your computers as a gateway. This is definately not the most efficient method. If at all possible, get a router. Sorry if this was already covered sorry for the post. |
Check www.howstuffworks.com/home-networking.htm for some good basic info on home networking devices and practices. This site contains information on just about anything else you can imagin too.
mcnix |
Regarding which is faster, I don't know if it really matters for the average user. This computer is connected through a switch to a router to a wireless bridge to a wireless router to my DSL modem, and it's not noticeably slower than when it was connected directly to the DSL modem.
I would get the cheapest and simplest thing that works for your needs. |
i think alot of people here are confused on what a router is here.
A router is a device that routes one network to another network usually used to subnet a network. what you do when you add a router is you allow one network to belong to a biger network of other computers. Routers dont nativly have more then 2 eathernet connections. Here is where the confusion gets worse. Most of todays routers have built in switches and hubs so everyone things routers have more then 2 connections a switch routes trafic via hardware and also eliminates the need for a uplink port. <-- you see this on hubs because they cant switch the connections in a basic network cable use this to clarify network cable incomming line in cable -----| | ---outgoing line outgoing line in cable -------|uplink port| ----incomming line ok so now we got that idea down here is a little more depth networking works on many levels but none of that is needed for understanding all you need to know is there is a hardware level and a software level routers do stuf on a software level or a network level they make one network have a centeral point to connect to another one switches and hubs work on a hardware level they distribute a local network to other computers comp1 | hub----------------------comp2 | | comp3 now in order to do something like this but this is ineffective on a larg network because you get too much traffic basicly on the example above comp1 wants to talk to comp2 when it sends traffic to comp2 the hub sends it to everyone on the network and comp3 just igonres it because comp 1 isent trying to talk to him. Thik of this like if you went into a room with 10 other people you want to talk to one person but you have to shout out to them and everyone can hear. As you can image if everyone was doing this at once it would get confusing and in fact in a network causes laggyness. ok so whats a switch well here we go comp1 | switch---------------------comp2 | | comp3 ok so in this example lets say comp1 wants to talk to comp2. Well in this example the packets for comp1 go directly to comp2 and comp3 never recives any or isent supposed to :). think of it like the room again with everyone shouting now they are going to the person talking to them one at a time rather then shouting. A switch does other things too like allows 100mb networks to work with 10mb networks and such but thats hardware stuff. now a router is somthing diffrent as well comp2 | | switch------------------------------comp1 | | Router | Internet now what the router has done is add something to the network called a gateway the gateway is where all the trafic that is not ment for our network goes to find another network. so ok this is where all hell breaks loose on confusion comp1 wants to talk to comp2 so the traffic gets sent to comp2 via the switch. lets say comp2 wants to talk to yahoo.com well what happens is yahoo.com is not on our internal network so it sends this request to the router the router then pushes the request out to the internet because it knows everyone on the internal network and yahoo.com is not on there. Think of our room again. with all the people well everyone is haveing a good ol time talking to each other but say someone wants to talk to somone in the room across the hall. Well in order to do this they give the usher at the door a message he then takes this message down the hall for that person and gives them whatever the reply is. here is a example of this kind of communication comp1 | | switch------------------------------------comp2 | router | | router | | switch-----------------------------comp5 | comp6 in this example comp1 talks to comp5 path of packets would be comp1------>switch------->router------->router------->switch------->comp5 I know this is over simplifying what networks do but its enough to get a understanding |
Damnit the post screwed up my diagrams
Ohh well just imagine the | are over the swiches not comp1 :( |
Never mind i fixed it
|
OK, I really understand now
When I got home from school today I read the whole artical on switches, and read
the first part of the router documents on howstuffworks.com A router is something used to connect to your ISP, or to connect networks (switches) together. A switch is used to connect computers on a lan together A hub does this to, but from what I read about hubs, I decided to exclude this from my network plan. See, now that I know how all of these work, I'm going to redo the network in my house, I'll just have to get an extra $100 for switches, but I'm selling my wireless router on ebay, for a WAP11. This is what it's gonna look like- |
OK, I really understand now
When I got home from school today I read the whole artical on switches, and read
the first part of the router documents on howstuffworks.com A router is something used to connect to your ISP, or to connect networks (switches) together. A switch is used to connect computers on a lan together A hub does this to, but from what I read about hubs, I decided to exclude this from my network plan. See, now that I know how all of these work, I'm going to redo the network in my house, I'll just have to get an extra $100 for switches, but I'm selling my wireless router on ebay, for a WAP11. This is what it's gonna look like- [cable modem]--------------[router] | \ [WAP11]---------| \------[switch(5 ports)]-----[node3(W2k, laptop)] / | \ |--------[switch (4 ports)] / | \ | | / | \ | [node4, linux]-------/ | \-------[node1(w2k, desktop)] | [node2 (WXP, desktop)] [node5, linux] As you can see, node5 willnot have internet connection. node4 and node5 are my webserver, and they are clustered. Node4 is also my personal desktop. There is four ports on the switch with the linux computers, and 8 ports on the switch with windows computers because I will probably expan this one day. There is supposed to be a limit of three computers connected to the internet, but how can they tell, if I have a router? :) All of the routers will probably be linksys or d-link, since they are good and d-link are cheap. I wouldn't mind getting suggestions on how to imporve this, that would be liked. Node4 allready has a WMP11 in it. I already have the router, it is a router/switch. Its a BEFSR41. The switches I may buy are EZXS55W, since I can get them of EBay for like $15. And then, the WAP11, I can get off amazon for like $40. Thanks for all of your help though, now I can plot my network out with ease! :) -Jim Your comments are welcome, I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up with 30 some replys. |
sorry about the half of the post, I pressed somthing that started to load the next page!
-Jim |
Interesting, you seem to have mostly figured it out even though no one answered your question...
> what would a WAP11 be considered? A WAP is exactly that, a "Wireless Access Point" and nothing more. It is not a router, it only gives you a way to connect wireless devices to your network! See this diagram: http://www.linksys.com/support/displ...rid=157&scid=7 If you plan on using a WAP11, you'll definitely need to keep the BEFSR41 to do the routing chores. You mention you already have a wireless router that you are going to sell in favor of a WAP. What's your reasoning for this? A wireless router is basically the same as a router and a WAP in one. If you wanted to put your WAP in a different location in the house than the router, I could see wanting seperate components. Other than that there probably isn't any advantage to seperating the two devices. I tried to figure out your network diagram, but it's too botched. If you could fix or re-post, it would help greatly in trying to understand your network plans... /Les |
just don't want two routers
I just don't want two routers. Also, my routers tend to "shut off" every 3 days, and it happened after I brought the wireless router into my network, so now I'm selling it for a WAP11, hopefully with better
luck. Here is a more simple version of the diagram- [cable modem] | [router] |--[WAP11]-------[node4, linux]----[switchb]--------[node5, linux] | | [switch a]-------[node1, windows] |----[node2, windows] If you noticed, there is a node missing, node3. Node3 is a laptop connecting to switch a, but it's not always present and requires the use of VPN, so it can connect to it's VPN server, it uses windows. If I had two WAP11's, could I do this- | [router] |--[WAP11]-------[WAP11]----[switchb]------[linux machines....] | Where [linux machines....] is node4-5, and if I add more nodes to my cluster. But, could I have two WAP11's, just to act like a wireless bridge, even though this is what a wireless router is for? See, I don't want to use a different router since my current wired router has a DynDNS client in it, and I like that. But I would like the windows computers to be able to communicate with node5, and switchb, without setting up a router on node4. So, any suggestions? The switches that I will be using are the Linksys EZXS55W, they are five port switches, I can get those of ebay for a nice price. Unless someone knows of a better switch, I looked at the Linksys SD205, I may use those instead. -Jim |
As far as I know you can't use two WAP11's together to act as a wireless bridge.
For that you'll net a WET11: http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=602&scid=36 [WAN] | [router]----[WAP11]~~~~~[WET11]----[switchB]----[linux machines....] | | [switchA]----[windows machines...] <or> [WAN] | [router] | [WAP11] ~ ~~~~[WET11]----[switchB]----[linux machines....] ~ ~~~~[WET11]----[switchA]----[windows machines] Note: A wireless bridge is not a wireless router. A bridge is just a way to get a signal to a remote location. The only router in the diagram is the BEFSR41. As for a switch, I really like the Netgear FS105: http://www.netgear.com/products/details/FS105.php Also don't forget the BEFSR41 has a four port switch built into itself so you could use it to connect machines directly to it as well... /Les |
There are lots of good explainations in this thread for technical definitions but what you need is to get past the "marketese-speak" that is on the product labels. A wireless access point (WAP) is by it's nature a bridge, it "bridges" the wireless network to your wired network. If it has more than one port then it is most likely also a switch (to oversimplify it, a switch is a multiport bridge) If it has functions to do NAT so that you can use it to share networking they usually call that a router, although it's a lot like a gateway and is sometimes called that too.
So as for what you want, it sounds like you want a WAP, which may be labeled a bridge, but the ones that aren't explicitly labeled as bridges are anyhow. If you get one that has more than one wired network port, it should use switched ports (meaning the wired network part is like a switch, not a hub.) and this may also be on the product info label somewhere. If it lets you share your internet connection it's usually also labled as a router or gateway, it should also have NAT listed in the technical fine-print somewhere. You should get the device you need for your network. If you want just a wireless acess point, those are fairly cheap. If you have more than one computers on your network you may also want one with more than one network port, then you can replace any hubs or swithes on your network with a new device that does their job and adds wireless. If you have an Internet connection that is a network attached device like a DSL router, most of the new ones do the NAT thing already so you don't really need your WAP to do this, but they usually don't cost more, and some are cheaper because of popularity, so it doesn't hurt to have this feature in case you change your Internet service to one that doesn't (or the ISP changes it.) As an example to explain above, Linksys has a WAP54G (54MB wireless G version of the 11MB wireless B WAP11) which is a simple wireless bridge with one ethernet port. Their WET54GS5 appears to be a Wireless switch, it's just a WAP54G with more than one ethernet port. Their WRT54G (or BEFW11S4) throws in NAT, and is proably more popular, and cheaper, than the WET54GS5 even though it does more. This last type of device can also sit behind DSL or Cable-Modem or a Linux firewall to share your one public IP address with your whole network. Some of them can also have the NAT turned off and be dropped into 'bridged' (switch) mode. Devices like their WCG200, if you ever switch from cable-modem or move to where it's not available, can easily become an expensive, dust collecting, conversation piece. Avoid those and rent your access device (cable/DSL) from the ISP since it will probably be obsolete before you would have bought it anyhow. |
OK, WET11's seem pretty cheap, I'll probably buy one of those. I'm at school right now, so I can't make a new diagram.
-Jim |
Darin brings up some good points. Although, I would be careful with trying to use a WAP as a BRIDGE and
vice-versa. It's not that these devices are not capable of acting like the other, but the manufacturers don't include the functionality in the device (for the simple reason that if forces you to buy more hardware). Always verify on their website that the device will do what you intend. I had thought also to mention the WET54GS5 in lieu of the WET11 in my previous post, but didn't want to confuse the issue. Since 802.11B and G are compatible, it should work. The WET54GS5 is a Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge with 5-port Switch built in: http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=35&prid=615 If you use it with a WAP11 it will just drop down to the B speed. The main issue here is price. The WET54GS5 will run you around $150+ since it's a fairly new device. Whereas a WET11 can be had for less that $50 on ebay. So the cost of a switch together with a WET11 is far less than the cost of the combined device. NOTE: If you have an 802.11g network and you connect an 802.11b device, the network will drop down to the lower connect speed (and all of the attached devices will then operate at the lower connect speed). Theoretically once you remove the 802.11b device from the network it should return to the 802.11g speed (although I haven't verified that). /Les |
That's one reason why I didn't select wireless G for my network, it's expensive. A lot of wireless B parts can be bought for less than $50, that is, for homenetworking. When you go to buy one of those industrial strenght wireless points for say a large office, or for like a school/college, they probalby cost
more. By the way, who sells those, a wireless access point that can handle possibly thousands of wireless connections? Anyway, while I was at school, I took in consideration what Darin and Linuxles said, and this is possibly what my network will look like now- [cable modem]-----[router] | | [switch]--[WAP11]~~~~[WET11] / | \ | / | \ |---[switch] [node1]-----/ | \---[node3] | | [node2] [node4]---| |--[node5] Hopefully, that won't get messed up. Node4 and node5 are linux. Any more suggestions? -Jim |
Hello again-
Could I uplink directally from the switch to the WAP11? Like such- [router] | [switch]-----[windows computers, node 1-3] | [WAP11]~~~[linux, node 4]-----[switch]-----[linux, node 5] IF so, I may buy one of those single port routers that are used for routing only and not switching, since they are probably cheaper, I could sell my current router, to buy more switches/other networking equipment. I'm also going to take a look at netgear routers/switches, etc. -Jim |
That looks a lot like my home network, although I'm using an 802.11G bridge pair between floors vs the 802.11b you have specified. I use both netGear and Linksys. You just missed a deal at Office Depot with the LinkSys 5-port switch at $9.99, you might want to take a while shopping around to see if another such deal shows up. I'll attempt to stick-figure my network here but I know the formatting lacks so I'll do a line per network device or two so I can outline the full extent of the equipment:
CableModem -------- Router/4port switch (this connects to Switch1, VPN-Router, Switch2/PrintServer) Switch1 (Linux (VMWare with RH, SuSE, Win98 virtual machines), WinXP, Win98, Win98) VPN-Router (8-port switch with connections to: VMWare (3 Win2000, Linux, and 2 Winserver 2003 virtual machines), Win2000 Switch2/PrintServer [Main floor in house] ( WinXP, 802-11G Bridge-a, plus printers) 802-11G Bridge-b (XP-GameMachine, XP, OS-X) FYI, I'm a Network Engineer plus I test pre-alpha software on various platforms, my wife runnings a home based business, my son and I are gamers as well. So another view of the network in terms of just the ethernet segments would be: {=======Internet=======ISP is providing an additional firewall===} | Cable Modem | Router (minor firewall) | -------------Home Ethernet-------/\/\/802.11G bridge\/\/\----------- | | -------Secure VPN Network----------- If I understood your drawing, your network look similar to this. I've had absolutely no problems with my network and I've run quite a bit of traffic on it as well as many network protocols like IPX and AppleTalk besides IP. I am thinking about putting in an additional router with stronger security to connect directly to the existing router/switch and place the Linux server between the two routers, thus creating a DMZ between the Internet and the home Lan. As you have indicated, 802.11b will meet your home needs quite nicely. I pass a lot more traffic then most home users including Voice, Video, and simulated network traffic. Internally, the slowest link is 100Mbs but the wireless 108Mbs is really somewhat slower due to it being wireless.... There are some things to be aware or with wireless: 1. It works more like a hub than a switch, in your reading it might have talked about 10Base-2 or thinnet, collisions, etc. Wireless takes your network back to those days with a few extra collision framing issues that did not exist on 10Base-2/thinnet/thicknet. 2. Someone alluded the speed issue when talking about 802.11G with a 802.11B device. The whole network slows down to the slowest need. But the slowdown goes beyond the "G"/"B" issue. Assume you have 3 laptops on 802.11b, of the 3 laptops 2 are in the same room as your WEP and normally enjoy fantastic connectivity to the local server. When you turn on the 3rd laptop located in the bedroom you find this computer as well as the first two laptops now have poor performance. The 802.11 devices have a bandwidth step-down they go through based on the packet re-transmittion frequency. If a device is at the fringe of your wireless transceivers radius, it is quite possible your wireless system is running at the lowest rate of 1-Mbs. Metal buildings or metal positioned in exactly the wrong place can create a radio-frequency multipathing condition that can cause a higher rate of re-transmissions making the network under-perform. Do you have 2.4 GHz cordless phones or other 2.4GHz devices that can cause interference? If you have a lot of 2.4 GHz activity near you, you could move to 802.11a (i.e. to 5-GHz) but your cost will increase and the operating radius will be reduced. The operating radius will be reduced because 802.11a devices are not permitted to have anything other than built-in low efficient antennas. Other discussion about what a /hub/bridge/switch/router are (based on ethernet; ignoring how the devices learn): Hub: Interconnects devices in a single broadcast and single collision domain. Which means every device on the LAN segment receive and process all broadcast messages and only one device can "talk" at a time. If two devices try to "talk" at the same time, this collision is detected and they will try to talk again a little bit later. Bridge: Interconnects devices in a single broadcast domain but separate collision domains. Therefore every device will have to process the broadcast (like on a hub) but the collisions will be less frequent because not as many devices are on the same wire (LAN segment). Switch: Generally the same as a Bridge but with a single device connected to each port. Therefore each port is its own collision domain. This then opens up the communication to full-duplex ("talk" and "Listen" at the same time) Router: Each port is a new broadcast domain and a new collision domain. The switching function is generally programmed into the ASIC (as previous post said) and is very very fast. Sometimes when you read the marketing idiots stuff they will double the port bandwidth to indicate full-duplex (instead of saying it is a 10Mbs Full-Duplex port the may call it a 20Mbs... that sort of thing). Routing is more of a software function. The router looks to see the best path to a distance destination (which might be half-way around the world or directly connected). A router can provide some form of network security, but are not strong security devices. I think I likely overstepped what you wanted. :rolleyes: Anyway I hope this helps somewhat. Dan |
Hubs are pretty muchly passe. The term is often used now in a generic way, though. If you can get a switch for a good price, go for it. Twice, I have bought 4 port Fast Ethernet (100 MBPS) switches for $4.99 each, brand new from MicroCenter. I shop on the internet, too. Of course, you can expect to pay more unless you luck onto such deal. If you want to share a broadband internet connection, you will need a gateway-router. I once bought a D-Link 704P (with 4 Fast Ethernet ports) for $19.99. It does everything all by itself, so I don't need a switch or any other unit. I had previously paid $40 or so for a 704P. The 704P does not include a wireless access point, so if you need wireless, you will need a similar unit that also has a wireless gateway. Of course, that will require a wireless interface for each computer that uses wireless connection. Also, wireless access can have problems with range and interference and possibly with security.
Side Note: My Sprint/Earthlink DSL modem has a single port router built in. I had to "bridge" (i.e., defeat) the built-in router before I could use the D-Link gateway. The instructions were on the Sprint DSL web page. Comment: Some of the other comments people have made sound like they came out of a textbook or dictionary. I have taken a course in networking, but, for the most part, you need practical up-to-date advice, not networking theory which ignores the changing face of technology and the fact that certain technology that used to be very expensive has become very cheap. |
I suggested the wireless access points that come with the switch built in because the idea seems to simplify the network. It combines the function of what can be two seperate devices into one unit, less wiring and power plugs needed. It also has a small performance benefit where the wireless network communicates with the wired network using the higher speed of the wireless switch's backplane (it's intercommunication between all the ports works at a speed that is faster than the individual ports so a 100MB switch can handle more than 100MB total since each port could use 200MB, or 100 each way, and the switch needs to handle that speed on multiple ports) rather than the single uplink line connecting the switch to the WAP. It also appears that the wired switched ports that they add to wireless devices could be of higher quality than one of those $4.99 switches.
Think of this as a room analogy where each device: hub switch, WAP or router, is a room and the wires between them are doorways. For the devices on the wireless to talk to wired devices they have to talk through the door (uplink port) and to get to The Internet they have to talk through two doorways and through the other room (the WAP wired to the switch wired to the Internet gateway) where as a WAP with wired ports is like one big room where devices just talk to each other in the same room and only have one doorway to go through to get out to The Internet. The Linksys wireless-B device BEFW11S4 is a WAP with built in 4-port switch (also a router, but that could be disabled if you don't need that function of it) and this shouldn't be much more than a plain WAP11. It could also be cheaper to get than a seperate WAP and switch, depending on how cheap of a switch you get. |
I agree with Darin 100%. That's what I was using until the transmitter on the Linksys failed and I was forced to change to something else. At about the same time as the linksys transmitter failure we decided to move some computers around making a wireless bridge an optimal solution. The office in the basement and the main floor are now fully wired with cat-5, but picking up my son's room with cat-5 would have been a real pain!
Also, if the transmitter on the Linksys was still working, I don't think it would have worked well for the distances and number of walls and floors. When the Linksys BEFW11S4 was working it had a difficult time making it through 1 floor and wall for a distance of about 20 feet. Maybe the newer ones are a bit stronger then the older ones, they might now allow the signals to pass though a wall or two without as much packet loss. If you can avoid using wireless and use cat-5 for everything I think you'd have less neting issues over time. But there are situations that make wireless really nice! My wireless bridge has been trouble free. And I really like the wireless (non-bridge) for the laptops so I'm not hooked to a leash and I can actually work from the deck using 802.11b and a wireless phone (not a 2.4G phone though, that gave me some real problems). What you had listed would work fine. But what Darin said makes a lot more sense. If you are not going to do a long wireless run, I think you'd be happiest with his solution. |
Newbie - just wondering
Just stumbling and have gotten a handle on the differences between a router, a bridge, a switch and a hub but I'm wondering:
1.) I'm under the impression that having just a router (which now usually performs the same functions as the above) is sufficient for most home networkers. Given that, why would someone want/need all the other gear? What are the benefits of my adding a switch or hub to my home network of three wired desktops and one wireless laptop? 2.) Why and how is this used in business? I mean, it seems counter productive to have hundreds of hosts waiting for each other to shut up so they can speak and or having to "shout" above the din of everyone else to get heard - and then have to be heard by everyone in the room (and possibly down the hall) to use the analogy used early in this thread. Maybe I've got this all wrong. I admit, this is an old thread and I'm afraid no one is going to even see this, but I'm just trying to find out what circumstances dictate the use of hubs and switches, especially in wired situations. Is it cost?? |
Quote:
A router is a L3 packet forwarding device. It can be implemented in Software, e.g. a linux pc or a cheapo router, or it can be hardware assisted, e.g. a Cisco router. A l3 switch is simply a router with lots of ports. The confusion arises when a small router has a switch built into it, e.g. Cisco 837, the router is connected to the switch internaly, only switchports are externaly accessible. Most L3 switches are able to run their ports as L3 router interfaces or in L2 switch ports grouped into vlans, a virtual router port can be assigned to a vlan to make the vlan routable, even though the physical ports are running as switch ports. In no case are the number of ports on a router limited to two. |
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