RE: [Thinkpad] Ethernet hubs

I am assuming that you have UTP (phone type connectors) not co-ax (BNC connectors) on your network.

Either a Hub or a Switch will do what you want. A switch will be better if the machines plugged into it are talking to each other more than to the rest of the network as it will reduce the load on the rest of the network. If it is typical office/lab use, then either will work fine.

It will be easier to set up if the hub/switch if it has an "uplink port" which is the one that connects to the wall socket. Without one of these, you need a crossover network cable, which are easy to get hold of, but don't work if used in place of a regular (non-crossover) network cable, and thus cause headaches (think null modem cables vs straight through serial cables, but without the difference in connectors)

I have had very good success with the NetGear hubs. (http://www.netgear.com/products/hubs/dualspeed.asp?view=sb) These are bright blue (so can't get lost), metal cased (so bomb proof), and can be wall mounted.
I use a dual speed one at home, since I once had both 10Mbps and 100Mbps systems on the network, and it converts between the two speeds. If you know that you are on 100Mbps, the 100Mbps only units are a little cheaper.

I have bought from Dabs (http://www.dabs.com) for this sort of thing and always had really good service, the only problem is that their ordering system can be a little optimistic on when more stock is coming in if it is out of stock, but in stock items always ship really quickly, like order at 3:30pm one day and have it delivered at 7:30 am the next day, on standard postage rates.

Wow, that was longer than intended!

Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Watson [mailto:simon.watson@ed.ac.uk]
Sent: 08 July 2003 3:16 pm
To: Thinkpad Mailing list
Cc: Frederic Orade
Subject: [Thinkpad] Ethernet hubs

Hi Everyone

Not strictly a TP question but relevant to me as I'm a thinkpad user!

I work in a university lab office with insufficient fewer network access points to accommodate all our laptops. On one bench we have three users with access one point. I know you can buy devices called 'hubs' and 'switches' that allow several users to use one connection point. From my very basic knowledge I think we want a switch as a hub only allows one computer to attach itself to the LAN at a time.

Two questions; firstly do we need to get a 'switch' or 'hub' or something else altogether. Secondly is there much variation in performance between different models or should we just go for the cheapest available option. We have high-speed access the internet via the university LAN and don't want to diminish this performance excessively.

Finally, anyone in the UK want to sell us the equipment for a good price!

With best wishes

Simon Watson

Edinburgh
United Kingdom

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Received on Tue Jul 8 11:04:47 2003