It's not that a hub is any slower or faster than a
router. If it's 10/100 then it either works on a 10Mb connection or a
100Mb connection. Standard ethernet is only 10Mb so it's gonna be the same
bandwidth regardless. The difference between a router and a hub is largely
hardware oriented. A hub is merely a pass through device. The signal
is shared among all the ports on the hub and the computer with the correct
address will pick it up. The other computers just ignore or discard the
information since the networking protocols recognize it is not for them. A
router, on the other hand, is a bit smarter than that. It assigns a
specific address to each computer on the network. Then when a signal is
sent with a specific address, the router will send it directly to where it
should go rather than sharing it across all ports. I suppose this could
make a router seem faster. Also, routers have their own software
controlled interface and usually come with built in firewalls thus makign them
more secure than a hub.
Wulfric
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 7:53
AM
Subject: Re: [EverQuest] Computer
Question
I vaguely recall that hubs are slower than routers so
routers are the way to
go.
winxp network thingy is really pissy.
sometimes you have to reboot multiple
times or even run the network setup
wizard over and over to keep it working.
It is a royal pain. Lately mine
has been ok though.
Oh, as for finding routers you can look them up at www.pricegrabber.com. It
lets you
add in your zip code to factor in shipping costs. It sorts by the
best
price and has customer ratings on the products as well as customer
ratings
of the stores that are offering it. So if the lowest priced store
has a bad
rating, you can choose to get one slightly more expensive at a
more
reliable store. I personally like yesmicro.com. I've ordered from
them
numerous times. I think with yesmicro you get a discount if you order
a
product after locating it on www.pricewatch.com. I tend to look for it
on
pricegrabber then check for it on pricewatch. Another site for info
on
products is www.epinions.com. I tend to use all 3 to help determine
what
product I want.
luv,
-Su