[DM-MUG] OT- Switch vs. hub vs. router

[CW Smith]

Mostly reiterating and agreeing with Dave's comments, and adding one  
or two of my own:

> Your DSL modem is probably doing routing so you would just want to  
> get a plain switch between your airport and your DSL modem.

Some, but not all, DSL modems act as routers. If you have only one  
Ethernet port on the back of the modem, and no wireless capability  
built-in, then the modem probably is *not* a router. If you have  
multiple Ethernet ports and/or built-in wireless, it probably *is*  
able to act as a router.

If the DSL modem is *not* acting as a router, the AirPort base station  
can/will do so. Probably the best setup in your case would be:

	DSL modem ---> AirPort base station ---> Ethernet switch --->  
individual computers

With the caveat that only one device (DSL modem *or* AirPort) should  
be assigning DHCP. If they're both trying to do the same job, you will  
have conflicts.

Hope you find both Dave's and my comments helpful.

Peace,
CW

-------------------------------------

CW Smith
guitar, bass, percussion, Macintosh

cwsmith7 at gmail.com
http://cwsmith.spymac.com






On Apr 8, 2008, at 9:24 AM, Dave Weis wrote:

> Chris Tyrrell wrote:
>> Good morning all. DirecTV is now offering On Demand programming, but
>> it requires a broadband connection. I have Qwest DSL, which feeds my
>> Airport, which in turns serves my iBook and Dual G4. It seems that my
>> best option would be to connect a hub to my DSL modem, then run a  
>> line
>> to my Airport and a line to my satellite box.
>> But, is a hub what I want? Or do I need a switch? Or a router?
>
> A hub and a switch are similar but a bit different. A hub hooks  
> together multiple things but when one box talks all of them hear it.  
> They don't really make them any more because they aren't very  
> efficient. A switch keeps track of what is on each port and only  
> sends the data to each one that it needs.
>
> A router is used to connect two different networks together and  
> possibly provide some firewalling or address translation to put  
> multiple devices behind one address.
>
>
> dave
>
>
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