collision domain too big??

[mightyscotchpine]

I have a network running through a 16 port 3com hub. It has a fairly low amount of traffic going through it (basically 14 telnet sessions and no big file transfers). I need to double the number of connections to 32. Should I just go right to a switch, or would another hub be ok? I just want to avert any future slowdowns due to collisions.
Thanks for any input.

-Scott

 

[krr]

If you just have one server and all clients connect to this server, replacing the hub with a switch will not gain anything. However, with a switch you could upgrade your server connection to 100Mbit (a switch can "translate" between different speeds, a hub cannot). With this setup, an occasional file transfer of one client will not slow down the telnet connections of other clients.

Nowadays a 10/100Mbit switch doesn't cost much more than a hub, if at all. So I'd go with a switch. 32 ports is not a usual number, though. Most boxes come with 12 or 24 ports, meaning you probably need two.

If you want to keep your hub and just hang it off a switch, it will work, but you don't have any advantage.

And keep in mind that you'll have to interconnect the two boxes somehow (e.g. crossover cable), which will cost you two ports.

Cheers *Rob