For those who dont know
Hubs: Multicast all ingress traffic on all egress ports (what comes into one port gets sent out on ALL other ports)
Switches: Learn Mac addresses and hence dont multicast as standard. They forward to the correct learn;t port.
Routers: As per switches but with additional functions such as layer 3 support (IP layer), IP address allocation etc etc
To everyone new to networking, the above is a good guide.
Be aware that there is some crossover between them though - such as L3 switches, which are switches with (normally limited) simple routing built in. As MDTM said in earlier post, hubs that can do FD exist, though they are actually (normally managed) switches set to send all data to all ports on the configured vlan/segment.
This is all enterprise class stuff, and if you have to deal with it, your corporation will normally give you some training. In the consumer space, all you will find are:
Hubs (getting rare now, as switches cheap) - 10 or 100, half dplx only
Switches - 10/100/1Gb, full and half duplex (be aware some cannot do 1000HD, but then as every Gigabit NIC can do 1000FD, thats not an issue)
Routers - normally DSL or broadband simplistic router, often with a 4/5 port hub or switch hanging off the back of it. If wireless router, it has built in AP than normally hangs off one of the ports internally.
Author
Topic: Tech Time- Networking (Read 1484 times)