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Switch vs Hubs and a Router Question

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by andydufrane 1 view

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I am running MS Small Business Server 2000 and a 10mbps LAN in a very small office.
I have two questions:
1) We currently use 2 hubs and the ethernet connections on our router/dsl modem for our connetions. What are the advantages of going to a switch (such as an unmanaged 16 port switch)? Will I see some perfomance gains?

2) We are using the DSL Modem/Router that our ISP provided. I'd love to upgrade to a little Router/Firewall unit (without spending the big bucks for a dedicated firewall appliance). Can I pretty safely just unhook my current DSL Modem/Router and hook up a little Router/Firewall unit? Or will I lose my DSL if I do that (I'm assuming I would, since the Router/Firewall unit would not have the DSL Modem capability)? Or can I keep my DSL modem and just add the SOHO Router/Firewall unit behind it to act as my firewall (this will also hold down my costs alot)?
The firewall appliances I've priced are all in the 300-400 dollar range. If I can get some protection for 80-100 bucks, this would be a big win.

Thanks for you time and help.

Andy

8 replies

by andrew.mizzi

1)

I take it that you have, say two 8 port hubs. The benefit to moving to a switch is that when data comes through one port, it is directly routed to the recipients port, instead of the hub sending the data to every computer on your network. Asyou could obviously see, the benefits here are much greater than a hub, and would dramatically reduce network traffic.

2) I'm not sure of the effects if you put in a new DSL modem/router, I've never had to deal with that before. However, you can certainly put a firewall in between the network and the modem/router. I would just add in a firewall this way, however because I'm not in the US, I can not help you out with costing etc.

by cg it

As Andrew said, Switches are far better for network traffic than hubs. As far as your router and/or DSL modem, they are not the same animal. You do need your modem to communicate with your ISP and the outside world. A router is exactly as the name implies. Routes traffic from the modem.Microsoft Small Business Server comes with Exchange 2000 and ISA server. ISA server is a very good firewall/packet filter program [though there are other products that are even better, but more costly. For security, you COULD purchase a small 4 port router [with it's own firewall] and place it between the DSL modem and your network. For what some might consider overkill, you could have the router AND ISA server between the Modem and your internal network, enable the ISA server firewall and configure port packet filtering.

by cg it

Because ISA server is part of SBS [you don't need to buy it] and a 4 port router [which you'll only use one LAN and the WAN port can be purchase relatively inexpensively [$80.00 and up].

by andydufrane

This is good. I have not looked into ISA server on SBS. Thanks for the help!! These answers are fantastic.

by bchesmer

I am not sure of how your network is laid out/setup. Based on what you said, here?s what I would recommend (It?s about the easiest/cheapest way to provide security & speed things up a bit)

Purchase a Linksys BEFSR41 (Cost about $64.00 with S&H) link listed below;

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=220898/search=linksys%2520router/ut=185eda209a84f4a2

This is a 4 port switch/firewall/router with an extra WAN port for your DSL.

Here?s how I would connect everything:

DSL/Modem to WAN port of BEFSR41

BEFSR41 Port 1 to your W2K server

HUB#1 to port 2 BEFSR41

HUB#2 to port 3 BEFSR41

This configuration would provide you with added security along with speeding up your overall network speed. Any additional questions? Please comment back.

by andydufrane

So this would sit right after my DSL modem, right? This is great. I will look into this in combo with the ISA server mentioned in another answer. THANK YOU!!!! This is going to save me a ton of money.

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