Cheap ethernet hubs at computer show.

[Tim]

When I go to a computer show in my area every once in a while, there's usually someone there selling some ethernet hubs (or is it routers, I always mix that term up?) very cheaply. I mean under $10. And they are new in the box.

I once asked why it was so cheap and he said it was a 10 Mbps hub. He said if I put it on my Comcast high speed connection to handle several computers, they would ALL be slowed down to the 10 Mbps speeds.

Is this true? I wouldn't mind having an ethernet hub to have several computers connected all at once, but not if it makes my main computer system slow down too. Comcast has 4 Mbit downloads in my area, and I can frequently download at 500-550 KB / second.

The next computer show is this coming weekend.

[Gargoyle]

It won't slow down your internet speed. If your Comcast DL rate is 4 megabit, the 10 megabit hub still has plenty of headroom. If you think you'll be doing a lot of file transfers between your computers, a 100 megabit hub might be nice, but 10 will work just fine.

[Tim]

The other computers will be folding and maybe be used for internet access once in a while, but my main computer does lots of internet stuff and huge file uploads and downloads because of my weekly webshow, "Online Video" at www.loudmouthtim.com. I don't plan to try and transfer data between the computers, I'm not even sure how to do that.

I'm just too cheap to blow $60 on a Linksys ethernet hub like everyone else.

If there are 8 bits to the byte, a 10 Mbit transfer rate still = 1.25 million bytes per second, which would equal 1,250 KB / second, right?

If that is true, my 500-550 KB/second downloads should be fine, I think.

[JB]

you probably want to avoid the hubs and get a switch. Hubs broadcast every packet to every port, so if you are doing a lot of transferring across the hub speeds will slow to crawl because of all the collisions. I can also vouch for that as my first network was a 10baseT hub and it was horrible at file transfers and more than 2 computer gaming.

[shwaip]

you can get a 5 port linksys switch @ newegg for $16. Switches aren't expensive - routers are a little more pricey. Routers are used for sharing your internet connection over the network.

[Tim]

Even though I plan to use only my main computer 99% of the time, I'd like the other computers to have internet access all the time also, so they can send / receive work packets from folding without my having to do anything. Right now, I have to switch the ethernet and mouse cables, get the connection going, wait for the work packets to transfer, then switch everything back to the main computer. It's getting old.

Will a switch do that? Allow the other computers to send / receive when they want to?

[shwaip]

you'll need a router. They're fairly cheap, especially if you don't get one with wireless. I suggest Netgear/Linksys. Not D-Link.

[GrayFox]

I also suggest a linksys or netgear definitely not a dlink.

[TheSmJ]

Or if you have an old (as slow as a 486-66) machine around with a couple of extra NICs to put in it, you'll be able to make a router using Smoothwall for free.

[Tim]

I currently don't have anything that old, I just want to plug in a few ethernet cables and have a couple computers running on their own with no speed loss on the main system.

Someone define "router" and "hub" and "switch". I never really knew the difference and which would be better for my application.

One of the computers that will be folding for me (my Abit BP6) has 3 unused PCI slots in it, could that one be made to do this Smoothwall program on top of the folding it'll be doing?

[Camman]

I currently don't have anything that old, I just want to plug in a few ethernet cables and have a couple computers running on their own with no speed loss on the main system.

Someone define "router" and "hub" and "switch". I never really knew the difference and which would be better for my application.

One of the computers that will be folding for me (my Abit BP6) has 3 unused PCI slots in it, could that one be made to do this Smoothwall program on top of the folding it'll be doing?

Switches and hubs just connect several computers (or devices) together so you can do file transfers and things like that, they don't assign IP addresses, so unless you lease extra IP addresses from your ISP (Comcast Northeast does it around here for like an extra $10/month for 3 additional IPs) you will need to get a router.

A router takes the one IP address that you get from your ISP and uses a thing called Network Address Translation for you to have a whole bunch of IP addresses inside your network at home and they will have access to the internet through your cable modem using just the single IP address. This is your best solution for sharing internet among a bunch of PCs, a hub or switch will do nothing for you if you only have one IP address.

You probably could run your main machine as a router as well (I've never used smoothwall so I cant personally vouch for it) but most people say to use an old junk machine lying around so that it can just sit there and be a router and the rest of your network wont be affected if you use a main machine and then restart it and such.

As several people have mentioned, standard non-wireless NAT routers from Linksys, Netgear, and others (I also recommend those two brands, I personally use a Netgear) are getting pretty cheap now.

[Tim]

I went to the computer show yesterday and picked up a cheap $10 Dynex 4 port ethernet router yesterday. $10 new in the box. I hooked it up this morning and so far it works good.

Is Dynex some junk brand? I've never heard of it before, but for $10 it can't be very good. As long as it works, I don't care.

[Enverex]

My switch is made by "Shock" lol, works perfectly though and has been for the last 5 years or so under heavy load.

[Tim]

So far this cheap router is working well. I haven't noticed any speed losses in downloads or uploads.