Networking questions

[ANUPLUCIFERGAMER]

Hey guys! Okay..This is a noobish Kinda question,But here you go...

 

What is a switch? I'm asking all these as i'm going ti host a LAN party and still i don't fully understand routers,modems and switches/hubs.

 

Things i need to know:

What is a switch?

What is a hub?

Where does a switch come in handy?

Why is a switch used?(Whether it be in servers or in LAN parties)

Where should i plug the network cable? (i mean, i saw a youtube video in which a guy said,"If you have a modem cum router/anything that's out of ports,The switch comes in handy.You just have to remove one of the cables in from the router and then plug it into the switch. And then you get a free port in the router. Then get a Ethernet Cable and then Insert one end in the Router and the another one in the switch.Boom! You're ready to go!")Where should i plug the cables? Should i put any cable in any port?

 

Well,to say, i need to know everything possible about switches,modems,routers,hubs,networking.

 

Plus,i have a D-link ADSL2+ 2730u modem cum router.(Yes,Fu*ck D-link, Didn't know that they were so..bad. Right now using the stock router.)

 

Anyways,Please help me! If there's anything i need to know,Let me know.

Used google,wikipedia,youtube,etc. none of them seem to satisfy me!

 

Thanks and i apologize for these many noobish kinda questions!

[ANUPLUCIFERGAMER]

Will anyone please help me? I'm really in need of professional help! . Please guys! Someone!

[Guest Kefuren]

A hub is a device that send the input data to all the ports on it.

 

A switch basically is a smarter kind of hub (and better, use these instead of hubs!). It's a device to allow you to connect more devices to the network. Unlike a hub, it sends the input data only to the device that requests/needs it.

A switch comes in handy when you just need more ports for a network, and don't necessarily want to assign them to a different DHCP pool (a scenario like this can be a lan party for example).

 

A router is a device that doesn't necessarily bridge devices/networks together, but instead can create a "sub-network" into the already existing network, by using an integrated DHCP server.

 

 

Not sure what you mean by "where should I plug the network cable", but I'm assuming you mean how to plug the switch into the modem to just have it "extend" the network.

For this you'll want to have the cable going from your modem/router/whatever to just one of the ports on the switch (assuming it's autosensing, if it has a port labeled 'uplink' or 'WAN', plug the cable into that instead). Then just plug in the computers to the other ports in the switch and plug in the power, then you should be good to go!

 

I hope that answered your questions.

[rufee]

Read the Networking FAQ most of your questions are covered there.

[ANUPLUCIFERGAMER]

Any more answers?

[kirashi]

Hey guys! Okay..This is a noobish Kinda question,But here you go...

 

What is a switch? I'm asking all these as i'm going ti host a LAN party and still i don't fully understand routers,modems and switches/hubs.

 

Q: What is a switch?

A: A network switch is basically like a power bar for your AC wall outlet. It allows you to add additional RJ45 jacks onto and existing network, and as most switches today are "smart", they automatically communicate with your router to handle DHCP and IP addressing. Every [consumer] switch I've encountered in the last 6 years has been smart enough to function simply as an "extension" for your router, and KNOWS the source and destination of each packet so as to send it out to the appropriate computer. Some can even handle QoS\Throttling instructions sent out from the router, thus saving the router some overhead in processing the packets.

Q: What is a hub?

A: A hub is almost the same as a switch, except, as @Kefuren stated, doesn't normally know about the packets intended IP destination or source IP location, and thus all the connected computers get the same information. It's then up to the receiving computers to determine whether or not they requested the data, then to discard the garbage data if they did not. (Correct me if I'm wrong) but most common situations, even in businesses, no longer require or even want hubs being used as someone could potentially be archiving everything that broadcasts over the network.

Q: Where does a switch come in handy?

A: Switches are incredibly useful when you run out of ports on a router and need to add more ports without replacing the router, or when you've only got 10/100 ports on your router, but you'd like 10/100/1000 Gigabit speeds. This is my exact situation, where I'm still lovingly running a DD-WRT installation on a Linksys WRT160Nv3 router with 10/100 ports. Rather than upgrading to an unfinished AC-spec router for full price, I am using a Linksys SD2008 10/100/1000 Gigabit switch, which passes through the IP's from the router. Once the IP's have been passed through, if I'm transferring data within my LAN, the switch is smart enough to skip passing it back to the router, and patch me through directly to our home theatre PC, saving time and money.

Q: Why is a switch used?(Whether it be in servers or in LAN parties)

A: See above answer. It's about speed. LAN parties love switches because everything is local, or within the LAN, so speeds are generally faster than if passed through a router, which someone may be using to download a large file.

Q: Where should i plug the network cable?

A: See @Kefuren's diagram because I'm too lazy to draw another picture. And because it looks like he used Microsoft Paint. Such good quality. Or google networking diagrams.

[Darren]

Most switches today are "smart", they automatically communicate with your router to handle DHCP and IP addressing. Every [consumer] switch I've encountered in the last 6 years has been smart enough to function simply as an "extension" for your router, and KNOWS the source and destination of each packet so as to send it out to the appropriate computer. Some can even handle QoS\Throttling instructions sent out from the router, thus saving the router some overhead in processing the packets.

 

Not really. Your consumer switch is most likely unmanaged. Refer to this for info. Tl;dr, dumb switches don't do nothing but forward your ethernet frames. It will even handle VLAN frames, because it doesn't care what it is. An unmanaged switch won't take care of QoS or throttling. It handles stuff like DHCP by forwarding the frames to where it thinks is right.

 

Your answer on hub is also quite flawed. Hubs work in a way that connected computers are actually sharing the same wire. Each inbound packet on a hub will go to every device. This works since devices will drop any packets not destined for it unless it's in promiscuous mode. A hub is an upgrade from the ol' Tee connector wiring apparently. I was around a guy who first studied networking a decade before I did and briefly listened to what he was saying whilst drinking (Work function) and he was going on about it. Good times.

 

Your switch will bypass the router when it learns (adding it to it's forwarding table) that the destination can be reached by sending the packet out a certain port rather than sending it to the router, only to be sent back through. Unmanaged switches have this capability.