Whats the difference between a hub and a router?

Doug62 · 08-05-2006, 08:55

Hi all,
Many years ago, i used to with a few friends and we set up our broadband network using a netgear 4-port HUB. Anyway, i recently purchased a second computer and am looking to set up a home network and have been advised to get a router. Whats the difference? As i only plan on have 2 PC's, is there any advantages to either and what is the price difference as i'm looking to set up this network as cheaply as possible.
Thanks
Doug

08-05-2006, 08:57

Simple answer is a Router shares your broadband connection independantly where as you can only share the net with a hub using ICS

Graham M · 08-05-2006, 08:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

you can only share the net with a hub using ICS

And 2 network cards in 1 PC of course

08-05-2006, 09:02

or usb a lot of standard BT modems are usb and most cable modems come with usb too so no you dont need 2 nics

Graham M · 08-05-2006, 09:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

or usb a lot of standard BT modems are usb and most cable modems come with usb too so no you dont need 2 nics

yep just thought of that. Who'd wanna use usb for networking anyway?!?!

08-05-2006, 09:05

someone with a hub and only 1 nic in all there pcs

Graham M · 08-05-2006, 09:09

yeah but USB... *head spins round* How difficult is it to fit a NIC?

08-05-2006, 09:11

Some people in fact one hell of a lot of people have no idea about whats inside a pc and have no confidence in dabbling inside so all of these woudl find it difficult

Graham M · 08-05-2006, 09:13

hmm there must be a million old PCs on a dump somewhere, lets make a quest to teach all of those who think they cant fit a PCI card and have the PC still work how to do it

08-05-2006, 09:19

Ill leave that to you lol

bmxbandit · 08-05-2006, 09:20

one of my old 'puters actually had a bit built into the usb controller, so you could run a usb cable to another 'puter and it would see it like a network adapter. it was a test mobo, so i don't know if the feature actually made it to market... but it was quite nifty

i agree that a nic is technically more suited to the job... but don't write off usb completely, for the less experenced user it's a godsend

Graham M · 08-05-2006, 09:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

Ill leave that to you lol

Nooo No chickening out now!

handyman · 08-05-2006, 09:47

Hmm no ones actually answered the op's question so I'll have a crack.

A 4 port hub for example takes a packet in on port 1 and broadcasts it on port 2,3 and 4. To be able to work each computer needs either a manual ip address setting to it or a seperate dhcp server to allocate the address.

A 4 port switch takes that same packet but uses a built in address table to send it out only on the port that has the computer attached leaving all other ports quiet.

A router is a switch that it can take your main ip from ntl of 80.x.x.x and give each computer a local ip of 192.168.1.x and translate requests. This means that you have a hardware firewall in that 80.x.x.x cannot be hacked as its the router.

In essence don't be tight buy a router there cheap enough

Gareth · 08-05-2006, 10:43

Yep, just what Handyman says...

A hub is a dumb piece of kit that just rebroadcasts all traffic it receives irrespective of the source or destination, so all machines on a hub receive all traffic.

A router is a much more intelligent piece of kit as it inspects the traffic to determine source and destination, and it then only routes traffic to its specified destination.

For your purposes, a router is much more suited than a hub. You'd eventually kick yourself if you did buy a hub.

Doug62 · 08-05-2006, 12:58

Ok guys, thanks for that, answers my query
It seems it would be entirely pointless for me to buy a hub anyway, as i currently have the two pc's networked together with a crossover ethernet cable and broadband coming in to one of the computers as a usb.This gives me access to the net on both pc's and buying a hub (if ive understood them right) would give me no further advantage to my current set up. I know this is not far from ideal, and was only ever meant as an interim measure, so now it seems that router is the only way to go.
Cheers
Doug

---------- Post added at 12:58 ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 ----------

PS, anyone got any recomendations for a 2 pc router?