Re: home network
>I am planning on building an ethernet netowrk at home. What do I need
>to do it (other than NICs and cable, of course)? What is the
>difference between a hub and switch? Any recommended brands/models?
>Do I really need a hub/switch or can I use an old box with a lot of
>NICs instead? Is there anywhere I can RTFM all of this?
Old Box with lots of NIC's will cost more than a hub and won't be reliable.
to put it very simply a hub has shared bandwidth while a switch has unshared. So if i'm transferring at 100Mbps between 2 machines across a hub then to open similar connection between another 2 machines will reduce the trasfer rate to 50mbps for all concerned.
whereas a switch will let all connections through it operate at full speed.
unless you are looking at serious data storage or multimedia manipulation a cheap taiwanese 8port 10Mbps hub will be a reliable and cheap way to go.
slightly upmarket I use netgear hubs and swtiches because they have nice auto-sensing and configuration.
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