Ace 0 Posted January 7, 2004 I'm finally getting ADSL and I'm not sure what to get to split the internet between 2 computers and a Xbox and to also have a small home network. The Hub is only suppose to split 2 IP's, a router splits one IP for different computers to use it but what's a switch? And could someone clearly explain better how is a Hub, router and switch all different? Share this post Link to post
jmmijo 1 Posted January 7, 2004 I personally use the Linksys xDSL/Cable Modem Router/Gateway, model BEFSR41 which you can check out here. Has everything you need and should be ready to go out of the box, at least it was for me Share this post Link to post
evaldez 0 Posted January 7, 2004 I'll explain using an analogy: a hub is like your local city block, it allows you to travel from one address (computer) to the address (computer) down the street with very little effort. As more people try to get to other addresses on the street, you start to get congestion, and eventually, collisions. A switch creates a special "road" between you and the address you want to get to, a road only you get to use to go back and forth. A router, is like the interstate, meant to get you from one town address (network A) to an address in another town (network . Now what this means to computers. A hub is meant to transfer data between a small group of computers. There is no means to direct the data, the computer wishing to send waits for a gap and starts sending data to the receiving computer. All the computers receive the data, but only the computer meant to receive it responds. As you can see, this creates a lot of traffic, and lots of collisions of data. When data collides, it must be resent from the transmitting computer. If you get to many computers on the hub, you get a traffic nightmare. A switch, brings traffic control to the hub. When a switch receives data, it reads where the data is going and creates a "switch" that connects the two computers together. Now only their data is being transfered back and forth, the ohter computers don't see the traffic. A router is for connecting a computer to the internet or connecting two or more networks together. It is a much smarter switch. Most "routers" for the home or small office have 1 to 4 switch ports so that a small network can share an internet address using it instead of a computer for internet connection sharing (ICS). A bit wordy, but I hope it explains it enough. Share this post Link to post
Ace 0 Posted January 9, 2004 One more question, can a switch give the internet to all three systems even though I have only two IP's? Also, at the moment my ADSL modem is connected directly into my computer and the cable is a ethernet crossover cable. When I connect the modem to a hub, switch, or router does it still have to be a crossover cable? Also from the hub, switch, or router can they all be normal cables to connect to 2 other computers or do they have to be two other crossover cables? Thanks Share this post Link to post
jmmijo 1 Posted January 10, 2004 If you purchase something like the Linksys gateway you will only need the one IP address, so you can give one of them back to your ISP and not have to pay that extra, which most ISP's charge for. The reason is that a gateway device will act as a proxy server providing NAT/DHCP services to the LAN. Also you'll want to get a gateway device that has at least 4 switch ports on it as this will allow for future expansion of more machines. You can if need be purchase an additional soho switch if you need to add more then 4 machines to the same connection. Also you will not need to use the x-over cable anymore, just straight Cat5/Cat5e cabling is sufficient as each will connecto the the gateway devices switch ports. Share this post Link to post
Ace 0 Posted January 10, 2004 Well the thing is that my ISP gives us two IP addresses as a minimum. So we can't give back one of our IP's. Also I don't want to spend lots of money on a router or gateway. That is why I am leaning towarads a hub or switch. So can a switch provide internet for 3 devices? Share this post Link to post
jmmijo 1 Posted January 10, 2004 No becuase you need to NAT one of those WAN IP addresses that your ISP gave you. Basically then the only other *cheap* way of doing this is to configure one of the machines with Internet Connection Sharing and install a second NIC in this box. One NIC will be used on the WAN side connected to the xDSL modem and the other will be connected to the LAN side via a switch or hub. Since ICS does it's own NAT service it will provide a pool of private IP addresses, usually in the 192.168.1.xxx octet range. Then you connect up as many other machines as you want to the hub/switch or as many ports as you have that is Here's a Microsoft KB search on the subject of ICS. Share this post Link to post
