Does it matter if you use a hub instead of a router??

[devilsminion]

Just wondering as a hub is cheaper. Also do you need the iso program to dl to the boxs hd. And does anyone know off hand where to get that program??

[saulin74]

I have a 4 port HUB on my home network. And My Xbox works just fine with it as well.

However I preffer Nic to Nic connection since it is a lot faster than DHCP.

Simply add a second Nic card to your PC. Connect the Xbox to your second Nic card.

Set them both as static and there you go... You should be able to get over 10Megs/s upload from your Xbox to your PC. From the HD that is.

[rms2001]

Ya a hub will work. I use a Belkin wireless router my self b/c I hate having cables run from one side of the house to the other, and that I have cable internet so I have to have a router to scare with the rest of mt PCs.

A hub is just dumb. It doesn’t do any thing but connect computers and what not together.

A switch is a smart hub. It can do packet switching. This would be good if you had a large network.

And a hub, is a smarter switch. Its capable of sharing internet with out the help of a PC.

[JiveTurkey]

I believe thats a typo by rms. The last item says hub but a router is "smarter" than a switch.

It mostly matters on how much bandwidth you need on both devices at once. If you only want to let the computer talk with the Xbox and do nothing else a hub is fine. If you want to LAN your Xbox with some buddies I would get a switch or even router.

P.S. Devilsminion careful on asking for software. Rule #1 of this forum is there to make sure nobody gets in trouble.

[rms2001]

All right, heres every thing you need to know about Hubs, Switches, and Routers.

-HUB-

In general, a hub is the solid central part of a wheel where the spokes come together (think of a bicycle or wagon wheel). The term is familiar to frequent fliers who travel through airport "hubs" to make connecting flights from one point to another. In data communications, the word "hub" means a convergence place where data comes in from one or more directions and is forwarded out in one or more other directions. A hub usually includes a switch of some kind. (And a product that is called a "switch" could usually be considered a hub as well.) The distinction seems to be that the hub is the place where data comes together and the switch is what determines how and where data is forwarded from the place where data comes together. Regarded in its switching aspects, a hub can also include a router.

1) In describing networks, a hub topology consists of a backplane (main circuit) from which a number of outgoing lines can be attached ("dropped"), each providing one or more connection ports for devices to attach to. For Internet users not connected to a local area network, this is the general topology used by your access provider. Other common network topologies are the bus network and the ring network. (Either of these could possibly feed into a hub network, using a bridge.)

2) As a network product, a hub may include a group of modem cards for dial-in users, a gateway card for connections to a local area network (for example, an Ethernet or a Token Ring), and a connection to a T-1 line (the main line in this example).

-SWITCH-

In telecommunications, a switch is a network device that selects a path or circuit for sending a unit of data to its next destination. A switch may also include the function of the router, a device or program that can determine the route and specifically what adjacent network point the data should be sent to. In general, a switch is a simpler and faster mechanism than a router, which requires knowledge about the network and how to determine the route.

On larger networks, the trip from one switch point to another in the network is called a hop. The time a switch takes to figure out where to forward a data unit is called its latency. The price paid for having the flexibility that switches provide in a network is this latency. Switches are found at the backbone and gateway levels of a network where one network connects with another and at the subnetwork level where data is being forwarded close to its destination or origin.

A switch is not always required in a network. Most local area networks (LANs) are organized as rings or buses in which all destinations inspect each message and read only those intended for that destination.

Circuit-Switching version Packet-Switching
A network's paths can be used exclusively for a certain duration by two or more parties and then switched for use to another set of parties. This type of "switching" is known as circuit-switching and is really a dedicated and continuously connected path for its duration. Today, an ordinary voice phone call generally uses circuit-switching.
Most data today is sent, using digital signals, over networks that use packet-switching. Using packet-switching, all network users can share the same paths at the same time and the route a data unit travels can be varied as conditions change. In packet-switching, a message is divided into packets, which are units of a certain number of bytes. The network addresses of the sender and of the destination are added to the packet. Each network point looks at the packet to see where to send it next. Packets in the same message may travel different routes and may not arrive in the same order that they were sent. At the destination, the packets in a message are collected and reassembled into the original message.

The Internet Protocol (IP) Switch
An IP switch is a packet-switching switch that uses the Internet Protocol (IP). An IP switch includes the ability to determine routing. An IP switch performs the functions identified in layer-3 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, the standard multi-layered architecture for network communication.


-ROUTER-

On the Internet, a router is a device or, in some cases, software in a computer, that determines the next network point to which a packet should be forwarded toward its final destination. The router is connected to at least two networks and decides which way to send each information packet based on its current understanding of the state of the networks it is connected to. A router is located at any juncture of networks or gateway, including each Internet point-of-presence. A router is often included as part of a network switch.

A router creates or maintains a table of the available routes and their conditions and uses this information along with distance and cost algorithms to determine the best route for a given packet. Typically, a packet may travel through a number of network points with routers before arriving at its destination.




Any questions?

[JiveTurkey]

Now THAT is a thorough answer!!

Maybe you should write a book about it rms!!