On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, D-Man wrote: > I am planning on building an ethernet netowrk at home. What do I need > to do it (other than NICs and cable, of course)? What is the
NICs and cable :} > difference between a hub and switch? Any recommended brands/models? A switch routes each packet only to the port that has the system which is that packet's destination. A hub routes all traffic to all ports. Essentially this means that the capacity of a switch is determined by the bandwidth of that switch's internal electronics; the capacity of a hub is limited to the maximum speed of the network. Switches also allow you to mix 10baseT and 100baseT packets on a network. Generally, you do not need switches for a home network, and one hub is pretty much like another, unless you are going for wireless ethernet; that's a whole other ball of wax. > Do I really need a hub/switch or can I use an old box with a lot of > NICs instead? Is there anywhere I can RTFM all of this? You can, but you need one NIC for every attached system. You also have to use crossover cables, instead of the "usual" cables. If you make your own cables, crossovers are no harder than standard, but if you are buying them premade, they can be a little tricky to find. Generally, I consider three systems (including the router) the limit for using a PC as a switch. Don't forget you also need a NIC to connect to your cable/DSL connection (or a modem if you are using that, which is even more taxing to the host), and 3 NIC's is plenty for an older PC. Besides, any more than that and you are not saving any money, but you're making your network harder to set up and deal with.
