Talk:Network hub

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This is an odd sentence: " If a signal comes into two ports at the same time a collision occurs, so every attached device shares the same collision domain."

I renamed this from "Hub (computer)" to "Ethernet hub" since there are many different types of computer hubs completely unrelated to Ethernet hubs (e.g., USB hub, application hub, Token Ring hub). --Rick Sidwell 23:13, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I move this article from "Ethernet hub" to "Network hub" because the hub can be used not only in Ethernet physical layer, and the hub can be used in Wi-Fi physical layer. QQ 23:57, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Looping

I want to ask question about this sentence: "When a switch is accessible for end users to make connections (for example, in a conference room), an inexperienced or careless user (or saboteur) can bring down the network by connecting two ports together, causing a loop." What the network was running Spanning Tree Protocol. Would Spanning Tree prevent this type of loop?

Spanning Tree would indeed prevent this type of loop. But most low end unmanaged switches don't support Spanning Tree (although they do support Auto MDIX, allowing a standard cable to create a loop and exacerbating the problem). --Rick Sidwell 04:08, 4 November 2005 (UTC)
I've tried it. It works. --Alvestrand 07:13, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
Also if the unofficial link is placed between two switches that are running spanning tree it could become part of the spanning tree potentially considerablly effecting performance (e.g. if it hapeened in a network with gigabit switch-switch but only 100 megabit switch-client). Plugwash 21:30, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Switching hub

I encountered the term "switching hub" but I was never sure what it means. It should probably be explained here, or does it require a separate article? aditsu 22:02, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Speaking as a cynic - it was probably a salesman thinking that his product would sell better if it had "switch" in its name :-)
Speaking more serioiusly... it's likely to be a device that operates like a hub in that it sends all incoming packets out through all links, but is implemented like a switch in that it uses store-and-forward handling. Such a device can have advantages - for one, it's capable of connecting both 10-Mbit and 100-Mbit ports at the same time, something that a "passive" hub can't do.
But these terms are often used very loosely - if it's on the web, paste a link to it. --Alvestrand 07:12, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
Well, several pages, such as [1], [2] and [3], seem to describe "switching hub" being the same thing as "switch".
I had the impression that there was a difference. More exactly, I (vaguely) thought "switching hub" meant one of these two things:
  • a 10/100 hub, as opposed to a 100-only (or 10-only) hub, or
  • a hub that has one special "link" port with a separate collision domain (but I'm not sure if such a thing really exists)
If it is actually the same thing as a switch, then this should be mentioned at network switch, and perhaps create a switching hub redirect to it. aditsu 08:11, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
The references seem to indicate that it's indeed a switch, and the only difference between "network switch", "switch" and "switching hub" is that you can tell that the "switching hub" is an Ethernet switch, and not one of the million other things that are called "switch".... I stand corrected, thanks! --Alvestrand 08:30, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I have a question: Can you connect a dualspeed(10/100) ethernet hub to a singlespeed(10) hub?

[edit] Normal/Uplink

What's the difference between "Normal" and "Uplink" (as shown in the example photo)? The Jade Knight 08:40, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Twisted pair ethernet has a transmit pair and a receive pair. Normally they were connected one way round on the PC and the other way on the hub so that you could use a straight through wired cable. However this would still require a crossover cable if linking two hubs together. The uplink button lets you swap the connections on one of the ports (usually the last one) so that it can be connected to another hub with a straight through cable (some hubs instead had two seperate sockets for the same port wired in the two diffferent methods and modern switches generally have an autosense system). Plugwash 14:43, 21 November 2006 (UTC)