What's the difference between a hub and a router??

[Spielwurfel]

What is the difference??

 

[jjw]

Simply, A router connects 2 different networks and a hub or switch connects devices on the same network.

Most routers for home use have a built in switch now days. Hubs are very rare now.

 

[Spielwurfel]

but can the hub, switch or the router distribute STRICTLY the internet bandwidth for the computers??

For example... I have 2 pcs in my house and the max download speed of my internet is 60 kbp/s... can I limit this bandwidth for each computer to have a max of 30 kbp/s of download speed?

 

[burn-e86]

I thought that a switch was to connect 2 network (Hubs) together rather then computers e.g.

Internet ~
Switch
-Router 1 --PC 1 --PC 2
-Router 2 --PC 3 --PC 4



Does this make sense to anyone..?

 

[jjw]

A managed switch can do this. Some routers claim to be able to, but fall short. Hubs are 'dumb' devices that just mirror traffic on all ports.

Burn: Switches connect devices on the 'same' network. In your example, the two routers are on the same network (the internet is a network) --PC1/2 are on another and PC3/4 are on another. The routers allow the 3 networks to be connected.

 

[burn-e86]

ah cheers for that

 

[Spielwurfel]

thanks!

 

[El0him]

A hub is a layer 2 device and a router is a layer 3 device.

 

[Spielwurfel]

And does it means??

 

[El0him]

A layer 2 device is called a layer 2 device because it makes forwarding decisions based on a layer 2 address, aka MAC address. How these devices operate depends on whether they are bridges, hubs or switches. A layer 3 device makes forwarding decisions based on a logical layer 3 address, i.e. IP address.

 

[Spielwurfel]

Hmmmm... thanks for the help!

(Y) :arrow: if you know what this means...

 

[jjw]

I didn't think a hub did anything except act as a repeater. (a signal going in a hub is repeated on all ports)

it doesn't 'act' upon MAC addresses or IP info...

 

[Sakaris]

You're right, a hub is simply a multi-port repeater. As such it doesn't require any type of processor or often any additional power aside from what comes through the patch cable that is connected to it. When switches first came around they were called "smart hubs." While a hub simply repeats the same signal to all ports, a switch has some sort of processor and software (though this may simply be a few kilobytes on a flash module) and would only have to do this once, after which it would send information to the specific MAC address of the intended device (i.e. the NIC card of a specific computer) through a virtual circuit.



P.S.
I haven't had any conversation containing the OSI model in a long time, its nice to get back into networking nerd-dom.

 

[icemann77]

a hub does not have any routing capability not unlike a router which can share your one internet ip from your isp to be shared to the pc's behind the network.

 

[xiii]

Hubs and repeaters and Layer 1 (Physical) devices
Bridges and most Switches are Layer 2 (Data Link) devices
Routers are Layer 3 (Network) devices

Some switches are layer 3, and some routers reach to layer 4, but hubs are strictly layer one, they just mirror the data as jjw very well said.