21 Apr
2002
21 Apr
'02
6:53 a.m.
On Apr 21, 2:34, Chad Fernandez wrote:
I'm finally going to work on hooking up a home
network, so I guess I
need a hub. What should I look for? I don't know much about networks
yet. I have potentially 7 computers that I'd like to have connected.
It'll need to be 10Base-T, but 100base-T may be involved too. I thought
I'd look for something on Ebay, hopefully, not too expensive. Maybe
something commercial grade, However. I thought about something from IBM
or 3Com, any suggestions??
What do you mean by "commercial grade"? The difference between upmarket
devices and small SOHO devices is mostly that the ones used in larger
commercial networks are managed devices. That means you can configure them
remotely (with SNMP or a web interface), get statistics from them, etc.
You really want a switch rather than a hub. Not many people are making
hubs (repeaters) these days, even at the low end of the market. A switch
will ultimately give better throughput, especially in a peer-to-peer
network.
Go for autosensing 10/100baseT. If you're going to spend any amount of
money, you want to protect your investment by including 100baseT capability
even if you don't need it right now.
If you see a decent modern 3Com hub or switch, that's fine but most of the
second-hand stuff I've seen is 10baseT only. I wouldn't bother looking for
IBM. Baystack, 3Com, HP, Cisco are the ones you're likely to see. And
Netgear, which is almost entirely unmanaged kit, but quite good quality.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York