Hub or Switch or ??

[Guest]

I have a home network with 5 PC's sharing a cable modem connection (512/256). I have a server running linux acting as a internet gateway and an 8 port hub. The network seems to slow down when more than 1 person is accesing the network.

Is this due to the hub sending info to all computers as it downloads packets and will it be solved by using a switch??

Cheers.

 

[camieabz]

The network will slow down with more people using it at the same time anyway.

A hub is effectively a multi-port repeater of signals. This can cause a lot of unnecessary traffic because they only regenerate the signal and send it out all of thier ports.

A bridge will filter traffic in the network by MAC address, allowing data for specific destinations to proceed.

A switch is effectively a multi-port bridge (hub & bridge combined) and will make decisions based on the NIC's unique MAC address. This can be an effective way of improving the flow of network traffic.

A switch would be the best idea, but bear in mind the data will only travel as fast as the bandwidth capacity of the medium (cable). More users usually means a slower system.



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[Guest]

Cheers, the hub is only 10Mbps and the switch we intend to get is capable of 100 so that should sort things out.

 

[Guest]

I don't know if going from a 10Mbps hub to a 100Mbps one will do the trick. It will help for transfers between PCs on your LAN, but the Internet connection is only .5Mbps, so a 10MBps hub should be able to pass this along without much problem (unless it's a really *really* cheap hub).

A switch is more efficient, but you probably wouldn't notice much difference in this case (only 5 PCs and a .5Mbps connection to the net).

When you say slowdown, what kind of slowdown are you talking about. Say you download something on one PC and then download the same thing (from the same source) on another PC. What kind of drop in speed do you notice?

My guess would be that the Linux router/gateway/firewall might be set up to do something inefficiently (unessesary logging, etc.)?

 

[Guest]

It is a really cheap hub but you could be right i'll have to check the linux setup.

If someone is downloading from the net (mp3) then other people experience slowdown even accessing web pages. This is the same when someone is copying files from the server aswell.

 

[Guest]

Go to http://www.dslreports.com and in their tools section you should see a speed test area. Go to the nearest server (east/west coast) and find out what your speed is (with only one user accessing the net). They try doing the same test on two different PCs at the same time. What are your results? Include some numbers please...