Does plugging multiple devices into a Ethernet hub slow down the speed of each device's connection?

[Bleedingyamato]

I've got a 5 port Ethernet hub connected to our wifi router with a 50ft cat5e cable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N99BBC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000JDF6/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I've currently got 4 devices (PS4, Xbox One, smart tv for Netflix, secondary desktop) with the 5th port being used for the cable to the wifi router.

 

I want to get a hub with more ports on it so I can plug in my main deaktop when I'm streaming from my PS4 or Xbox One since they randomly started having issues when my main desktop is connected to wifi vs using Ethernet.  

 

What I'm worried about is having 5 or more devices all plugged into one Ethernet hub connected to the wifi router with a cat5e cable slowing down the connection to each device.

 

Is that possible or am I worrying about nothing?

 

 

[Mr.McMister]

It only matters if you are accessing more than 1 device from the primary switch from more than 1 device on the secondary. Your limited by the bandwidth of the single cable connecting the 2 switches. If all that matters is internet access then there's no need to worry as your limited by the speed of that connection which is often less than the connection between switches, but if you have a lot of internal traffic this could create a bottleneck.

[MimigaKing]

11 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

I've got a 5 port Ethernet hub connected to our wifi router with a 50ft cat5e cable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N99BBC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000JDF6/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I've currently got 4 devices (PS4, Xbox One, smart tv for Netflix, secondary desktop) with the 5th port being used for the cable to the wifi router.

 

I want to get a hub with more ports on it so I can plug in my main deaktop when I'm streaming from my PS4 or Xbox One since they randomly started having issues when my main desktop is connected to wifi vs using Ethernet.  

 

What I'm worried about is having 5 or more devices all plugged into one Ethernet hub connected to the wifi router with a cat5e cable slowing down the connection to each device.

 

Is that possible or am I worrying about nothing?

 

 

your router has a maximum throughput of 1000Gbps across all connected devices. wether you have 4 or 100 devices, it can only ever go as fast as it's max throughput. 

 

With only those 4 devices, you're nowhere near even 10% of it's maximum throughput. 

 

Don't worry

[tlink]

ofcourse its possible, but this is a gigabit switch. this can literally handle 1000mbit per second over every port internally. so if you split the one internet connection over 4 left you get 250mbit per client. in reality this will be lower so lets take it safe and say you got about 200 left per client. this is more than adequate for any internet connection 99.9% of the consumers have.

[Oshino Shinobu]

That is a switch, not a hub (they are different things)

 

If you have a single Cat5e cable going to your router, everything that goes through that cable is going to be limited to a maximum of 1Gbps. So, any data from the devices connected to the switch that needs to go outside your network (ie. to the Internet) is going to be limited to a collective total of 1Gbps. Unless you have an internet connection of 1Gbps or greater, this is not something you're going to need to worry about. 

 

For local transfers, it can limit your transfer rates if you're transferring from multiple devices on the switch. With 4 device on the switch, it would theoretically limit each to 250Mbps each (250Mbps both ways at the same time due to full duplex), but it doesn't actually quite work like that. 

 

For the devices you have on the switch, it shouldn't cause any issues.

[zMeul]

1. it's a switch, not a hub - very very big difference
2. with your current setup there is no way that a gigabit switch will limit that available bandwidth to any of the devices connected to it

 

if you have a gigabit internet connection and two clients will request hi bandwidth access to that internet connection, then the switch will throttle those two to fit in that gigabit - theoretically, each will connect with 500mb/s

 

here's another scenario when the gigabit switch will throttle the clients: one gigabit client connected to the switch is accessing the gigabit internet (let's assume you have gigabit internet) via the router, now a client connected to that router (let's say via WiFi) is trying to access a 2nd PC connected to that switch

for this to happen, the switch will have to throttle the 1st PC down to accommodate the connection to the 2nd PC

 

---

 

here, I made up a scenario to better explain it:

PC1 to 4 are connected to the SW via gigabit; switch is connected to the router via gigabit, laptop is connected to the router via 150mbps WiFi (because it's shitty WiFi), the router connects to the internet with 1 gigabit/s bandwidth

 

now let's add some traffic trough that switch and router:

PC1 will connect to the internet at full 1 gigabit/s

 

let's add another connection:

PC3 will connect to PC4 at full 1 gigabit/s

how will the switch manage it? well, both connection will continue at full 1 gigabit/s - there is no limiting factor

 

but what happens when the laptop will access the PC2 at 150mb/s?

how will the switch manage all connections?

because the PC1 to internet and laptop to PC2 have to share the same "path" (connection from switch to router is 1 gigabit/s), the switch will throttle down the PC1 to internet connection to accommodate the laptop to PC2

but, the PC3 to PC4 connection will continue at full 1 gigabit/s because there is no limiting factor

 

^* this in theory, actual practical scenario will differ

[Bleedingyamato]

1 hour ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

That is a switch, not a hub (they are different things)

 

If you have a single Cat5e cable going to your router, everything that goes through that cable is going to be limited to a maximum of 1Gbps. So, any data from the devices connected to the switch that needs to go outside your network (ie. to the Internet) is going to be limited to a collective total of 1Gbps. Unless you have an internet connection of 1Gbps or greater, this is not something you're going to need to worry about. 

 

For local transfers, it can limit your transfer rates if you're transferring from multiple devices on the switch. With 4 device on the switch, it would theoretically limit each to 250Mbps each (250Mbps both ways at the same time due to full duplex), but it doesn't actually quite work like that. 

 

For the devices you have on the switch, it shouldn't cause any issues.

What's the difference between a switch and a hub?

 

My internet isn't very good.  I don't know exactly what but the speed is nowhere near 1Gbps.  

 

That's why I was asking about connecting several devices to the switch.   With my limited internet speed I'm concerned that the switch is splitting my already crap internet between devices and I'm not getting even my full internet speed on those devices.

 

Or am I understanding this wrong?

 

Is it that my internet has enough bandwidth (is that the right term?) to give my full internet speed to any device connected to the internet modem whether they're connected via wifi or an Ethernet switch connected to the wifi router?

 

Though the Ethernet switch connected devices are of course limited by the speed of the cat5e cable divided between them.  Though that is further limited by my internet speed since my internet is not 1 Gbps.    

 

1 hour ago, zMeul said:

1. it's a switch, not a hub - very very big difference
2. with your current setup there is no way that a gigabit switch will limit that available bandwidth to any of the devices connected to it

 

if you have a gigabit internet connection and two clients will request hi bandwidth access to that internet connection, then the switch will throttle those two to fit in that gigabit - theoretically, each will connect with 500mb/s

 

here's another scenario when the gigabit switch will throttle the clients: one gigabit client connected to the switch is accessing the gigabit internet (let's assume you have gigabit internet) via the router, now a client connected to that router (let's say via WiFi) is trying to access a 2nd PC connected to that switch

for this to happen, the switch will have to throttle the 1st PC down to accommodate the connection to the 2nd PC

That's good it won't be an issue.  

 

 

To both of you: So getting a switch with more ports won't be a problem?

[Oshino Shinobu]

4 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

What's the difference between a switch and a hub?

 

My internet isn't very good.  I don't know exactly what but the speed is nowhere near 1Gbps.  

 

That's why I was asking about connecting several devices to the switch.   With my limited internet speed I'm concerned that the switch is splitting my already crap internet between devices and I'm not getting even my full internet speed on those devices.

 

Or am I understanding this wrong?

 

Is it that my internet has enough bandwidth (is that the right term?) to give my full internet speed to any device connected to the internet modem whether they're connected via wifi or an Ethernet switch connected to the wifi router?

 

Though the Ethernet switch connected devices are of course limited by the speed of the cat5e cable divided between them.  Though that is further limited by my internet speed since my internet is not 1 Gbps.    

 

That's good it won't be an issue.  

 

 

To both of you: So getting a switch with more ports won't be a problem?

The switch is just a way of connecting multiple devices to a network through wired connections. It doesn't split your internet connection any differently than if the devices were all connected wirelessly. Your internet speed has no impact on your local connection speeds. Your internet connection will be the limiting factor, the switch will not limit anything. 

 

Your connection speeds are not limited by the internet speeds. If you want to transfer a file between PC 1 and PC 2 on the local network, they can transfer at 1Gbps (provided all of the links within your network support 1Gbps, as your switch does) regardless of the internet speed. Getting a switch with more ports is no issue, it just expands and improves the local network, it won't have any impact on your internet usage or bandwidth, just as if they were connected through WiFi (but faster and more stable). 

 

Hubs and switches perform somewhat similar functions in that they are used to connect multiple devices on a network. A hub will take a packet of data that is sent through it and it will broadcast it to all devices on the network and then only the destination device will accept the packet. This is extremely inefficient and causes congestion on the network. It also has no collision detection or avoidance measures, so if two packets are sent to the hub at the same time, they can collide and cause the hub to stumble. On a very active network, this can cause frequent network freezes. 

 

A switch will actually direct a packet to its destination using MAC addresses (for normal layer 2 switches. Some have some layer 3 routing functions, but you don't really need to worry about it), so there's no unnecessary network traffic. It also has collision prevention measures, so if two packets are sent at the same time, one will be sent, then the other. That ensures that packets don't collide. It's very, very important for active networks as it prevents the network from getting clogged up and freezing. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

^

 

Wayl not true, if the switch can only support a certain bandwidth coming from the router (ie 100Mbps, 1000Mbps) then that's all it's going to be able to dish out. But if it's a Gigabit switch that bottleneck is probably a lot higher than your internet speed.

Well, even at 100Mbps it's not going to limit his internet connection based on what he's already said. The (current) switch in question is gigabit. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N99BBC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=linus21-20

[Bleedingyamato]

59 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

The switch is just a way of connecting multiple devices to a network through wired connections. It doesn't split your internet connection any differently than if the devices were all connected wirelessly. Your internet speed has no impact on your local connection speeds. Your internet connection will be the limiting factor, the switch will not limit anything. 

 

Your connection speeds are not limited by the internet speeds. If you want to transfer a file between PC 1 and PC 2 on the local network, they can transfer at 1Gbps (provided all of the links within your network support 1Gbps, as your switch does) regardless of the internet speed. Getting a switch with more ports is no issue, it just expands and improves the local network, it won't have any impact on your internet usage or bandwidth, just as if they were connected through WiFi (but faster and more stable). 

 

Hubs and switches perform somewhat similar functions in that they are used to connect multiple devices on a network. A hub will take a packet of data that is sent through it and it will broadcast it to all devices on the network and then only the destination device will accept the packet. This is extremely inefficient and causes congestion on the network. It also has no collision detection or avoidance measures, so if two packets are sent to the hub at the same time, they can collide and cause the hub to stumble. On a very active network, this can cause frequent network freezes. 

 

A switch will actually direct a packet to its destination using MAC addresses (for normal layer 2 switches. Some have some layer 3 routing functions, but you don't really need to worry about it), so there's no unnecessary network traffic. It also has collision prevention measures, so if two packets are sent at the same time, one will be sent, then the other. That ensures that packets don't collide. It's very, very important for active networks as it prevents the network from getting clogged up and freezing. 

I guess I'm not really worried about device to device connections since my game consoles to my desktop are really all I currently use that for.  

 

It's internet usage/bandwidth stuff that I think is what interested in.  Having several devices all connected to the switch and then the switch connected to my wifi router through the cat5e cable won't negatively affect the connection speed of each device will it?

 

What I mean is will each device connected that way I just described get my full internet speed or will the bandwidth (again hopefully I'm using the term correctly) get divided between devices and potentially slow their internet connection down?

 

[Oshino Shinobu]

5 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

I guess I'm not really worried about device to device connections since my game consoles to my desktop are really all I currently use that for.  

 

It's internet usage/bandwidth stuff that I think is what interested in.  Having several devices all connected to the switch and then the switch connected to my wifi router through the cat5e cable won't negatively affect the connection speed of each device will it?

 

What I mean is will each device connected that way I just described get my full internet speed or will the bandwidth (again hopefully I'm using the term correctly) get divided between devices and potentially slow their internet connection down?

 

It will have absolutely 0 negative impact. In-fact, it will likely improve latency, stability and reliability of the connection for each device on wired. 

 

Your internet bandwidth will be shared between any devices accessing files on the internet. That holds true regardless of what kind of connection they have to your router (Wireless, wired, powerline etc.). Let's say (for example) you have an internet connection of 100Mbps (just for simplicity's sake, base 10 numbers are easy to work with). If you have wirelss device 1 and device 2 both downloading a file, they will (theoretically) have 50Mbps of bandwidth each, allowing them to both download at 50Mbps at the same time, thus fully utilising your 100Mbps internet connection (Your internet connection is for all data leaving your network, not per device on the network. To your ISP, it doesn't matter if you have one device using 100Mbps or 100 devices using 1Mbps each, it's still 100Mbps either way). Now, take that same scenario and connect them to a switch instead. You now have wired device 1 and 2 downloading a file at 50Mbps each (again, theoretically, bandwidth is rarely shared equally), thus fully utilising your 100Mbps internet connection. All that has changed here is the way they are connected to the local network. Their internet usage remains the same as if they were connected wirelessly, but you have improved their latency (wired connections are generally faster than wireless) and local bandwidth capabilities (most WiFi connections will cap out before 1Gbps).

 

If you added a third, wireless or wired device (it doesn't matter what connection type it is, what matter is how much internet bandwidth it uses) that also downloads a file, this is going to impact the download speed of device 1 and 2. Theoretically, it would then drop to each device downloading at around 33 Mbps (1/3 of 100Mbps) as you have 100Mbps of internet bandwidth to share among 3 devices in this scenario. 

 

All of your devices can potentially have all of your internet bandwidth, provided no other devices are using your internet bandwidth at the same time. If you have 10 devices connected by switch, but only one is using the internet (and no others are using it that are not connected to the switch), it will have full access to your internet's bandwidth. When other devices start using the internet, that's when the internet bandwidth will start being divided. 

 

Basically, the way the devices are connected doesn't matter in terms of their internet usage. What does matter is how much they use the internet. Just having a device connect to the switch doesn't mean your internet bandwidth is going to be immediately divided. Only when it's actually using the bandwidth will it start dividing between active devices. So if you have a PC plugged in that is just watching a movie using its disk drive, it's not going to be using any bandwidth (provided it's not downloading a file or something similar). If the PC is streaming a Youtube video, then it will be using some bandwidth. 

[Bleedingyamato]

4 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

It will have absolutely 0 negative impact. In-fact, it will likely improve latency, stability and reliability of the connection for each device on wired. 

 

Your internet bandwidth will be shared between any devices accessing files on the internet. That holds true regardless of what kind of connection they have to your router (Wireless, wired, powerline etc.). Let's say (for example) you have an internet connection of 100Mbps (just for simplicity's sake, base 10 numbers are easy to work with). If you have wirelss device 1 and device 2 both downloading a file, they will (theoretically) have 50Mbps of bandwidth each, allowing them to both download at 50Mbps at the same time, thus fully utilising your 100Mbps internet connection (Your internet connection is for all data leaving your network, not per device on the network. To your ISP, it doesn't matter if you have one device using 100Mbps or 100 devices using 1Mbps each, it's still 100Mbps either way). Now, take that same scenario and connect them to a switch instead. You now have wired device 1 and 2 downloading a file at 50Mbps each (again, theoretically, bandwidth is rarely shared equally), thus fully utilising your 100Mbps internet connection. All that has changed here is the way they are connected to the local network. Their internet usage remains the same as if they were connected wirelessly, but you have improved their latency (wired connections are generally faster than wireless) and local bandwidth capabilities (most WiFi connections will cap out before 1Gbps).

 

If you added a third, wireless or wired device (it doesn't matter what connection type it is, what matter is how much internet bandwidth it uses) that also downloads a file, this is going to impact the download speed of device 1 and 2. Theoretically, it would then drop to each device downloading at around 33 Mbps (1/3 of 100Mbps) as you have 100Mbps of internet bandwidth to share among 3 devices in this scenario. 

 

All of your devices can potentially have all of your internet bandwidth, provided no other devices are using your internet bandwidth at the same time. If you have 10 devices connected by switch, but only one is using the internet (and no others are using it that are not connected to the switch), it will have full access to your internet's bandwidth. When other devices start using the internet, that's when the internet bandwidth will start being divided. 

 

Basically, the way the devices are connected doesn't matter in terms of their internet usage. What does matter is how much they use the internet. Just having a device connect to the switch doesn't mean your internet bandwidth is going to be immediately divided. Only when it's actually using the bandwidth will it start dividing between active devices. So if you have a PC plugged in that is just watching a movie using its disk drive, it's not going to be using any bandwidth (provided it's not downloading a file or something similar). If the PC is streaming a Youtube video, then it will be using some bandwidth. 

I live with my parents and brother so at any one time there's several devices connected to our internet at the same time.  So I assume that means each device is using up some of our download bandwidth.  The problem is my father is a moron who balks at the idea of getting faster internet so I'll be stuck with whatever slow internet speed we have here until I get my own place someday.  

 

I get 1MB/s downloading from Steam or GOG no matter who else is using the Internet and even connecting using Ethernet doesn't change that.  I hate downloading games because it take forever...

 

 

Anyway, do you know which of these switches would be best?

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F3NUUF4/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_10?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TLIVBG/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_11?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A121WN6/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_12?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EVGIYG/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_13?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

Idk what the difference between those are.

 

 

Or would one of the 8 port D-Link ones be good?

 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_keywords_1?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A!493964%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A172504%2Cn%3A281414%2Cp_89%3AD-Link%2Cp_6%3AATVPDKIKX0DER%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A7306161011&bbn=281414&ie=UTF8&qid=1477540964&rnid=5102031011