Do you no what the difference is between a hub and switch?
To set up a network, every computer has to be connected to each other. It is common to connect them by a single device such as a hub or a switch. You can also connect them directly to each other but it is much more common to connect them by a device like a hub or switch.

From the outside a hub or a switch are precisely the same and they give access to every computer to send data to each other. The big difference is the way how they send the data.

A switch you can compare with a hub, but it registers the IP addresses of the computers which are connected to it. When a switch receives a message, the message will be send only to the computer which needs to receive the message. Switches will increase the unnecessary network traffic.

Let me explain.



Hub
You can see a hub as a house with 4 rooms, 4 persons and 4 telephones but with 1 telephone number. Every person in the house has the telephone to their ear and they can communicate to each other, but if one person speaks everyone can hear it either it was meant for them or not. So if person 2 wants to send a message to person 4 he first has to say that the message is meant for person 4 and then he sends the message.

Switch
Now the same situation, but now every room has its own telephone number. This is the situation with a switch. If person 2 wants to send a message to person 4, he can call directly to the room of number 4 without disturbing person 1 and 3. this means that at the same time that person 2 and 4 are talking, person 1 and 3 can talk also without interrupting the conversation.

So the difference between a switch and a hub is that a switch can handle more communications between the connected computers, where a hub can handle only one communication at a time. If there are only two computers sending data over the network a hub works about the same as a switch but if there are more computers sending data over the network a switch will work much better.

I hoped this article helped you about a hub and switch.





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