genius needed !

[hand of LAW]

i own 2 8 port hubs and 2 8 port switches what is the best way to connect all of them together for overall network performance, am setting up gaming lan.


thanx in advance

 

[relder]

How many computers?

Overall, switches give better performance that hubs. Hubs will pass all network traffic through every port. Switches create a virtual circuit to the destination computer. Traffic does not pass through the other ports.

One switch would work fine for up to eight computers.

 

[hand of LAW]

i need al of them 20+ pc's, should i put switches b4 hubs or other way round, wots the best way to setup all of them together.

pretty pls

 

[relder]

The ideal way would be to use all switches.

If only 16 PCs are needed for gaming, put them on switches. Connect the others into the hubs.

If all PCs are needed for gaming, the best way would be to connect all four through the uplink (or crossover cable into ports)

switch, hub, switch, hub.

The hubs will still push all traffic through each port.

 

[clutch]

I would use the switches as the backplane, so it would appear like hub, switch, switch, hub and then run all the high demand systems (servers and admin workstations) on the switches. Afterward, just use the uplink port from a hub A and connect it to switch A, then likewise for hub B and switch B. After that, connect the switches together via an uplink and now they will behave as a backplane/backbone for your network. Most network vendors support this mentality by offering highspeed options to their switches via custom SCSI-like, fibre, and Gigabit-over-copper cabling interfaces that allow separate switches to be linked into a single large virtual switch.