Network Switch 101

By Eric Bliss
published

What is a network switch? Today we introduce you to the many incarnations of this vital appliance to help you determine the right gear for your environment.

Conclusion

The purchase of a networking switch can be a frustrating one, given all of the options that are available. However, it does not need to be complicated if you arm yourself with a little knowledge and remember to take into consideration all of what you want out of your device. Just remember to plan for the future and not just buy for your network as it stands today. Devices are replaced and new ones are added all of the time, which could require extra performance or capacity.

Considerations like speed, port count, size and reliability are all important aspects that must be taken into account. A budget should be constructed for any added expense that a new switch might compel. This could be as simple as extra network patch cables or something pricier, such as adding structured cabling to your house, allowing you to move your connected device away from the general area of the switch. If you find that the added expense of bringing structured cabling into your home is too much, wireless is always a great option, though its disadvantages must also be weighed carefully.

Wireless technology is now a part of our daily lives. However, a wired network connection will most likely give you greater overall satisfaction since it circumvents the pitfalls of wireless, one of the greatest being environmental factors. Wired tends to be more reliable and is subject to less interference from what is around the structured cabling. Most consumers will likely find it within their budget (and needs) to acquire at least an eight-port Gigabit unmanaged switch to let them attach devices like PCs, network storage and consoles, structured cable locations permitting, allowing them to centralize their connections.


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Eric Bliss is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware.

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Eric Bliss
36 Comments Comment from the forums
  • zodiacfml
    The article is all over the place. It will just confuse a basic consumer. Layer 3 switches need not to be mentioned as they are for organizations. Networking "hub" need not also to be mentioned as you cannot purchase a "new" one anymore and the article doesn't explain well why it causes collisions. I also don't know why it has to mention enterprise equipment and racks.

    One thing it also fails to mention are home Wi-Fi routers. They are all in one devices that almost have four extra LAN ports for connecting a LAN cable. These ports are made possible as they have an integrated "switch" device. If that is sufficient then a consumer might not need a switch.

    In some larger homes, you might want to add a switch connected to a Wi-Fi router to increase the number of available of ports. First reason, a homeowner might need LAN ports immediately in wall outlets. Second, for installing and filling the home with Wi-Fi access points. Third reason is for other IP devices such as security cameras, IP phones, and others. So, one major feature excluded in the article is PoE. An advanced home network might need to deploy a PoE switch if it has security cameras and Wi-Fi access points at the same time to avoid the need of using power adapters for each networking device. PoE discussion can be expanded as it has two power level standards which can be an issue with Wi-Fi ac standard access points.
    Reply
  • Vistouf
    Router vs Switch.. That's what I wanted to read about.
    Reply
  • boju
    I fried a switch once...

    Wanted a USB to RJ45 dongle for the WiiU instead of using it's wireless. EB games/Dick Smith didn't sell Nintendo's dongle anymore so got near enough what i thought might work. One of those USB to RJ45 but came with two ends, i thought one end was just another spare LOL. Was a USB to USB extension over Cat5 cable and had the RJ45 straight into the switch, matter of minutes it was a lesson learned...

    Not proud of it, but was funny.
    Reply
  • ubercake
    16362311 said:
    The article is all over the place. It will just confuse a basic consumer. Layer 3 switches need not to be mentioned as they are for organizations. Networking "hub" need not also to be mentioned as you cannot purchase a "new" one anymore and the article doesn't explain well why it causes collisions. I also don't know why it has to mention enterprise equipment and racks.

    One thing it also fails to mention are home Wi-Fi routers. They are all in one devices that almost have four extra LAN ports for connecting a LAN cable. These ports are made possible as they have an integrated "switch" device. If that is sufficient then a consumer might not need a switch.

    In some larger homes, you might want to add a switch connected to a Wi-Fi router to increase the number of available of ports. First reason, a homeowner might need LAN ports immediately in wall outlets. Second, for installing and filling the home with Wi-Fi access points. Third reason is for other IP devices such as security cameras, IP phones, and others. So, one major feature excluded in the article is PoE. An advanced home network might need to deploy a PoE switch if it has security cameras and Wi-Fi access points at the same time to avoid the need of using power adapters for each networking device. PoE discussion can be expanded as it has two power level standards which can be an issue with Wi-Fi ac standard access points.

    You are pretty critical of a "Switch 101" summary on a web site. You want to read about home wifi routers and PoE in a "Switch 101" article that does a good job of bringing the definition of the basic functionality of a switch to people. Maybe you're looking for the wrong information in an article that clearly isn't called "here's how you connect and configure your entire home network 101".

    This article sticks to the subject of switches and brings it down to a pretty understandable level for most people. It really is well organized and summarizes things at a general level.

    I would think PoE and the like could be addressed in a 102 article that describes what else a switch is capable of and also get into topics on managed switches and their value.
    Reply
  • ghavadi
    Router vs Switch.. That's what I wanted to read about.
    you can't compare two different things.you only can compare layer 3 switches with routers.but still not the same functionality.
    Reply
  • joex444
    You can easily compare a router and a switch. Switches have ports that are treated equally and do not have a DHCP server built into them. Routers have one port that is designated a WAN port, meant to connect to the Internet, and shares that connection to its LAN ports (and wireless clients) thanks to its built-in DHCP server.
    Reply
  • joex444
    To be clearer, if you have a DHCP server *somewhere* on your network and you connect an Ethernet cable that ultimately connects to your DHCP server to one port of, say, a 5 port switch then the other 4 ports will automatically become DHCP clients of the DHCP server that is "upstream" via this 5th port. This is why connecting a desktop to a switch that is connected to a router also works.
    Reply
  • ghavadi
    16364909 said:
    You can easily compare a router and a switch. Switches have ports that are treated equally and do not have a DHCP server built into them. Routers have one port that is designated a WAN port, meant to connect to the Internet, and shares that connection to its LAN ports (and wireless clients) thanks to its built-in DHCP server.
    Hmm great point.But layer 3 switches like the Cisco 3750 you can create Dhcp-pools,and can work as a dhcp server.

    Reply
  • falcompsx
    full duplex vs half duplex is not the cause / solution to collisions on a network. That is mostly caused by a hub vs a switch. Hubs function as repeaters, every packet of data that a port receives, is sent out every other port. This creates a lot of unnecessary traffic. On a switch, there is a MAC address table and every packet is routed to the port that has the destination MAC address connected and only to that port. Collisions occur when two devices are sending simultaneously and their transmissions "collide" causing a spike in voltage and the data is then destroyed. TCP/IP protocols handle this event by detecting the increased voltage and basically doing a reset(i'll not go into the specifics of how this happens, but it does). The reason a hub can cause this to happen and switches are almost immune to the problem is simple. Imagine you have a 4 port hub, if two devices transmit at the same time, bam, collision. If you replace that hub with a switch, assuming the two sending devices are sending to different recipients, the switch is smart enough to basically route the data to the correct port. Its almost like having a traffic light instead of an uncontrolled intersection. In an example with a 4 port hub, this doesn't really present a problem, but as you grow to a larger and larger hub with more and more connections, the problem grows exponentially and happens more and more frequently. Switches on the other hand, just keep on sending data only to one port or the other.

    Back to duplex, assuming an ethernet connection, half duplex vs full duplex will NEVER cause a collision because transmit and receive are on seperate wires. The real difference between half and full duplex are bandwith. Full duplex is effectively double the bandwith of a half duplex connection. 100mbps half, can send, or receive at 100mbps max. Full duplex can send AND receive at 100mbps in each direction at the same time without any delays, so effectively you have 200mbps of bandwith. What is useful about this is for troubleshooting purposes, if you have a slow network connection, one of the first things to check is the negotiated speed. If you have a gigabit network, you should see 1gbps as your connection speed(1gbps is always full duplex, 1gbps half duplex doesn't exist in ethernet specs) if you see 100/half, you know something is wrong. Either a bad cable, driver, or some other issue is preventing your connection from negotiating properly at the maximum supported speed.
    Reply
  • ubercake
    16364909 said:
    You can easily compare a router and a switch. Switches have ports that are treated equally and do not have a DHCP server built into them. Routers have one port that is designated a WAN port, meant to connect to the Internet, and shares that connection to its LAN ports (and wireless clients) thanks to its built-in DHCP server.

    You don't even need a DHCP server running to connect devices to the internet through a router.
    Reply