Network Newbie Question...

[L0w]

I plan to purchase a Netgear RT311 in the near future. From what I can gather from reading some of these posts is that you also need to purchase a hub or switch to be be able to hook up two computers to share the same internet connection. It also seems, although I'm not to clear on this, that a switch will offer superior performance, compared to a hub, when coupled with the RT311 router.

My question is this though. If I purchase the switch, before the router, can I use that switch to simply share the resources between two computers, while I wait to buy the router at a later time?

Thanks.

 

[obenton]

Hardware routers also function as hubs/switches, so you shouldn't need both. So, while you're waiting to get your router, rather than buying a hub that you later won't need, connect the two computers using a crossover cable.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Obenton....What do you mean "Hardware routers also function as hubs/switches"? You need to do some reading up before you make statements like that. For a general description...A hub splits a signal...it allows multiple users to connect to each other...Using a crossover cable or an uplink port you can connect multiple hubs together and build a network... A switch is essentially a smart hub which allows you control over what ports see what and the ports also only see the information they requested. A router "routes" protocols to where they need to go and in the case of the Netgear311, it acts as a gateway/virtual firewall to share an internet connection by creating ip addresses and providing DHCP services for your network.

Now for your question L0w. If you are going to buy the netgear, you will also need a hub or switch. If you are getting DSL, your max bandwidth is only going to be 7mbit, but if you want a SUPERfast network, you can go with a switch, but your internet connection speed will not increase much if any if you just buy a cheap 10m/bit hub(I used to pull down over 560k/sec on a 10mbit hub with fiber-in)...just depends on how many computers you plan to serve and how much money you wish to spend. So...Finally, if you purchase a switch it will serve all your filesharing and gaming needs until you get your router...

 

[IceStorm]

See this thread for "what is a router?" http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=36&threadid=193518

The NetGear RT311 is a two-port router with a DHCP server and NAT capability built in. You will need a switch or hub to connect more than one PC to it. One port services the internal network, the other goes to the cable or DSL "modem".

You will want a switch if you move large volumes of data between machines - hundreds of megabytes to the gigabyte range. If you're just sharing a printer and moving small files between machines, a hub would be fine. A properly tuned Win9x box with 100Mbit full-duplex capable network cards will easily outperform a 10Mbit hub.

100Mbit hubs, in my opinion, aren't worth buying. For a little more, you can have a switch. Swiches perform better when multiple computers are shoving volumes of data around the network, and I've had problems with 100Mbit hubs not playing well with my Intel network cards.

Just my $0.02

 

[L0w]

Hey guys, big help there. Appreciate it.

I think I'll go ahead with my purchase now, in that order, with confidence. Thx again