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DSL Router Switch Combo or Switch

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gtgren

MIS
Jan 31, 2003
116
US
I have a Bellsouth DSl modem at home connected to a hub. I have a small LAN at home. My thought was to buy a switch to increase the bandwith for the Internet connections to the PC's. I was going to connect the current DSL Modem to the Switch. Should I buy a regular switch or Cable/DSL Router with 10/100 Switch or maybe there is some other option that I am not thinking of. Help! Please explain why one is better that the other.
 
A hub sends every packet to every device, so if you have traffic that is purely internal, a hub may be slower than a switch

a Switch learns which device is on which port so only has to send a devices traffic to the correct port (but if all traffic goes to the DSL modem it is no faster than a hub)

a router seperates your network from the internet so all your devices need only one public IP address, if your ISP does not restict the number of devices you have online at once, then you do not 'need' a router, unless you wish to keep the world out.

if you do get a switch or a switch router, then get 10/100 so your local traffic can go 100, but again that will not speed up the internet traffic, as it is unlikely to be over 10 meg

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
 
Also other information that might help I am using private IP address and do not have a static IP I am using the IP from their DHCP server.

Also I thought that since my modem was connected to the hub that it was broadcasting that signal which in turn was slowing down the transfer to the PC was connected to the Internet. Wrong thought?
 
if you only get one IP from the ISP, then you want the router/switch, so more than one device can be online at once.

if all traffic has the modem as oneend, then a switch is no faster than a hub, the major speedup a switch offers is keeping seperate 'conversations' seperate.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
 
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