Network Hub selection help needed

From: Doc <doc_at_mdrconsult.com>
Date: Mon Apr 22 01:12:50 2002

On Mon, 22 Apr 2002, Chad Fernandez wrote:

> By commercial grade I just meant that I wanted to avoid the home grade
> stuff that may not have features, or only a few connections. The type
> of thing that Best Buy, Staples, or another cunsumer oriented store may
> carry for your average Windows user.

  Amazingly, the home grade stuff that's on the shelves lately really is
plenty for a home net. The features it doesn't have are next to useless
on a network with fewer than 25 nodes.
  Stay away from the firewall appliances though. They're notoriously
easy to get through.

> What's the difference between managed and unmanaged?

  A serial port, a password, and several decimal points.
  Seriously, a managed switch allows you to define which nodes can "go"
where, force connection parameters - 10Mb or 100, full-duplex or half -
keep transfer statistics, etc. A really good one will cost over a
grand. Like I said, I have one, and I prefer my little $70 NetGear
10/100 auto-sensing switch.

        Doc
Received on Mon Apr 22 2002 - 01:12:50 BST