Limit on number of hubs linked on a network?

[Songbird]

I am trying to connect a 5th hub to 4 hubs/switches.

First is this possible or is there a rule that you can only link 4 hubs together?

Second, does including switches to the configuration help extend the possible number of hubs/switches linked together?

Third, if it is possible, do I need to do something extra to make it work? If it's not possible, what do I need to do to add the 5th hub?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

 

[legion]

First off you can add as many hubs as you would like, but there will come a point where your collision and broadcast domain is so large your network will be unusable. I would have to say that 4 hubs off of 1 switch port is probably already suffering from collisions and broadcasts. With massive reduction in the cost of simple switches today there is no reason not to use switches instead of hubs. Switches will break up your collision domain but it's still going to forward broadcasts so the best way to determine what to do is to put a sniffer on the network and see whats going on.

But my recommendation without seeing the net. would be to either replace all the hubs with one good Cisco 1900 switch, or with several cheap unmanaged switches (i.e. linksys, D-link etc.), and you can even do a combo of both using the Cisco as Core layer switch in a sense.

later, Greg

 

[jimbopalmer]

some measure of how much delays is how Many hubs will a packet pass through,

H--H--H--H--H will be 'worse' than



H
||||
HHHH

In the first some packets are passing through 5 hubs, in the seconed no packet goes through more than 3 hubs.

(adding a central switch in the second example is even better, but not crucial) The one thing you can't give for your heart's desire is your heart. - Lois McMaster Bujold

 

[hexn]

I think with 5 hubs you are starting to push it. When I worked for Cisco, I was told never to go beyond 4 hubs cause the signal gets too degraded, and you have alot of retransmissions of data which in turn eats up the entire LAN.

It is however possible to go 5 and up, just dangerous. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

tech@shnypr.com

http://shnypr.com/tech

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Kjonnnn]

Well we've got 11 hubs and 2 switches with no problem.
According to the book, I dont think we're suppose to be working.

 

[jimbopalmer]

it is not the number of hubs or switches you have, it is the maximumm number you have to go through for any packet.

you network is less stable (more likely to have late collisions) if they are all strung end to end than if all the hubs hang off different ports of the switches


S---------S
|||||| |||||
HHHHHH HHHHH

The one thing you can't give for your heart's desire is your heart. - Lois McMaster Bujold

 

[Kjonnnn]

yea i agree with Jim

We've got 11 hubs which go into the 2 switches. No hub connects to another hub. When I switched to that configuration our network improved.

Before i got here, there were as many as 5 hubs daisy chained... and the network was slow.