Introduction to Hub Computer Networking Devices

                   A hub is a centralized network communication device. In an Ethernet network, every computer is directly connected with the hub through the twisted pair UTP/STP cables.  When data reaches at the hub, it broadcasts the data to all the connected computers and the destined computer picks up the data.  This process makes some delay and congestions in the communication. 

                  Hub is not an intelligent device.  It is mostly used in the star topology and when a failure occurs at one computer, it does not affect the other computers. There are three types of the hub i.e. passive, active and intelligent.

                 Hub is replaced by an intelligent network device known as Switch.  A Switch is network communication device and unlike hub it does not broadcast the data to all the connected computers. Switch maintains a switching table, which includes the IP address and the MAC address of every computer.  

             When data packets arrive at the Switch, switch matches the destination address of the data through its switching table and sends data only to the destination computer. It makes the communication process faster and no network congestions occur.  Though in the functionality both the hub and switch are same but the difference lies in the following.

• Hub broadcasts the data
• Switch does not broadcast the data and sends it only to the destination computer.

              Both hubs and switches and available in different ports capacities like 6, 8, 16 and 24 ports. There are different manufacturers of the hub and switch D-Link, Baynet, Baylan, RealTek, Gigabyte, Cisco and Nortel etc.
Before purchasing hub for your computer network you need to consider the following things.

Hub Buying Tips

• Make sure that your hubs and other network devices should be from the same vendor.  In this way you will get performance and compatibility.
• Make sure that there are enough ports in the hub to accommodate all your network computers.  If your computes are more than the ports in the hub then you need to buy another hub and connect both the hubs with the uplink ports.
• It is recommended to buy a hub that has built-in firewall features to block the intruders, hackers and unauthorized users.
• Make sure that your hub is compatible with all the other devices in your network.