[NTLUG:Discuss] Router or switch?

[Greg Edwards]

Joel Sinor wrote:
> I have recently found that a lot of switches being sold these days in
> the $30 range have no uplink port but any individual port can
> automagically become an uplink.  They call this feature auto MDI/MDI-X
> Crossover Detection.  Essentially an uplink or a crossover reverses two
> pins on the normal ethernet cable, so with this auto MDI-X feature the
> switch switches the pins automagically whichever way they need to be for
> connections to happen.  I bought an 8-port off brand from Fry's this
> weekend for $35 which had this feature.
> 

You may pay a little more for a smart hub but if you run very much data 
they're worth it.  I run the 3Com OfficeConnect hubs and they have 
smarts that direct traffic to only the addressed port rather than 
broadcasting across all ports.  If the destination port is not on the 
same hub then no data is passed to the other machines on that hub.  Only 
to the port (up or down link) that falls in the route needed to get to 
the destination gets traffic.

-- 
Greg Edwards
New Age Software, Inc. - http://www.nas-inet.com
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