What is the difference between a Switch and a Hub?
A hub is an http://whatis.techtarget.com/defin […] l"OSI Layer 1 device that repeats data received at any of its ports to all ports in the device. A switch is a Layer 2 device that uses the MAC address in each data packet to send it only to the port connecting the device the data is intended for. Switches can improve network speeds in busy networks because they allow full port speed to be used for every pair of devices connected to the switch. Switches have essentially replaced hubs in even consumer networks because chip-level integration has driven the cost difference to essentially nil. Hubs still are useful, however, when using network analyzers (“sniffers” ) because all network traffic can be viewed at any hub port. Note, however, that using a hub will slow down traffic on a busy network, possibly hiding the problem that is trying to be analyzed.
