Hubs vs Switches

A switch is basically a smart hub. A switch remembers where all of the devices are and learns about new devices as they come online. When a switch gets a request it sends it directly to that device therefore reducing network broadcasts. A hub just sends out a broadcast to the network for whatever device has information.

Of course this is a simplistic overview of the advantages of a switch and you should do some more research. Techrepublic has some good articles on the topic.

One of the articles titled "How can switches benefit your organization's network?" is a good start. Here is the link

https://www.techrepublic.com/article.jhtml?id=r00220001123ggr01.htm

Good luck and hope this helps.

Answer 1 has superbly explained hubs and switches do.

In terms of network printing, if you are now experiencing network printing slow downs (and I am assuming you are using TCP/IP printing), then you should be seeing appreciable increase in speed.

Much the same for Internet service, as switches will directly route IP packets to your gateway/router.

For exact quantity measurements of your network traffic, you have to use hardware- or software-based programs, i.e. LanAnalyzer, etc. on every network segments.

Hope this can be an eye- or idea-opener!!!

Replacing your hub with a switch will only offer a significant speed advantage if your network has a lot of traffic. Here's a quick way to estimate. Look at the access lights on your hub or on one of your NIC's. If the traffic light is only winking your load is light. If it's on half the time your traffic is heavy. If it's on more than that you're clogged.

Remember that slow printing can be due to factors other than network speed.

If you decide to install switches, get one with enough ports for all your nodes. Look for stackable model so you can add more ports later. For maximum performance you want only one switch or switch stack, and attach one node per port. If you have to compromise be sure to attach the nodes with the highest traffic to their own port.

If you have a larger installation you can start with a central switch and continue to use hubs in the local data closets and still see a performance gain.

All the above answers are "technically" correct, but not a 1 has hit on the real difference between a switch and a hub.

Both are rated by line speed, either 10mps or 100mps, or autosensing.

The DIFFERENCE is, the switch delivers true line speed to each and every port.

the hub "shares" the line speed between all ports with devices attached.

ie, a 100mps switch with 10 nodes delivers 100mps to each node, or 200mps in full duplex.

a 100mps hub with 10 nodes MAY, and only MAY, be capable of delivering 10mps to each node.

All things being equal, thats a 20X speed increase between a switch and a hub.

Of course, you will never get all that, but theoretically, that is the difference.

Higher end switches have capabilities built in to segregate traffic, ie keep your surfers away from your printers, so collisions are reduced, and have the benefit of delivering traffic ONLY to the station requesting it, instead of being a "party line" as is the case with hubs.

In summary - 20X speed increase depending on your equipments capabilities.

Approximately 50-60% reduction in collisions and network overhead due to better handling of traffic.

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