Hubs, Bridges, Switches and Routers are used to build networks.

If you are trying to design your own LAN (Local Area Network at ho!e, then you "robably need to know what they do and the !ain differences between the!. I will try to co#er all that in addition to so!e networking details to culti#ate the article and "ro#ide better understanding of how the internet works. After all, always re!e!ber that the internet as you know it is nothing !ore than a network of networks$ Hubs are used to build a LAN by connecting different co!"uters in a star%hierarchal network to"ology, the !ost co!!on ty"e on LANs now a day. A hub is a #ery si!"le (or du!b de#ice, once it gets bits of data sent fro! co!"uter A to B, it does not check the destination, instead, it forwards that signal to all other co!"uters (B, &, '( within the network. B will then "ick it u" while other nodes discard it. )his a!"lifies that the traffic is shared. )here are !ainly two ty"es of hubs* +. ,assi#e* )he signal is forwarded as it is (so it doesn-t need "ower su""ly . .. Acti#e* )he signal is a!"lified, so they work as re"eaters. In fact they ha#e been called !ulti"ort re"eaters. (use "ower su""ly Hubs can be connected to other hubs using an u"link "ort to e/tend the network. 0SI 1odel* Hubs work on the "hysical layer (lowest layer . )hat-s the reason they can-t deal with addressing or data filtering. Switches on the other hand are !ore ad#anced. Instead of broadcasting the fra!es e#erywhere, a switch actually checks for the destination 1A& address and forward it to the rele#ant "ort to reach that co!"uter only. )his way, switches reduce traffic and di#ide the collision do!ain into seg!ents, this is #ery sufficient for busy LANs and it also "rotects fra!es fro! being sniffed by other co!"uters sharing the sa!e seg!ent. )hey build a table of which 1A& address belongs to which seg!ent. If a destination 1A& address is not in the table it forwards to all seg!ents e/ce"t the source seg!ent. If the destination is sa!e as the source, fra!e is discarded. Switches ha#e built2in hardware chi"s solely designed to "erfor! switching ca"abilities, therefore they are fast and co!e with !any "orts. So!eti!es

they are referred to as intelligent bridges or !ulti"ort bridges. 'ifferent s"eed le#els are su""orted. )hey can be +3 1b%s, +33 1b%s, + 4b%s or !ore. 1ost co!!on switching !ethods are* +. &ut2through* 'irectly forward what the switch .. Store and forward* recei#e the full fra!e before retrans!itting it. gets.

0SI* Switches are on the data link layer (5ust abo#e "hysical layer that-s why they deal with fra!es instead of bits and filter the! based on 1A& addresses. Switches are known to be used for their filtering ca"abilities. 6LANs (6irtual LANs and broadcast do!ains* Switches do not control broadcast do!ains by default, howe#er, if a 6LAN is configured in a switch it will has its own broadcast do!ain. *6LAN is a logical grou" of network de#ices located on different LAN "hysical seg!ents. Howe#er they are logically treated as if they were located on a single seg!ent. Bridges are used to e/tend networks by !aintaining signals and traffic. 0SI* Bridges are on the data link layer so in "rinci"le they are ca"able to do what switches do like data filtering and se"arating the collision do!ain, but they are less ad#anced. )hey are known to be used to e/tend distance ca"abilities of networks. In a co!"arison with switches, they are slower because they use software to "erfor! switching. )hey do not control broadcast do!ains and usually co!e with less nu!ber of "orts. Routers are used to connect different LANs or a LAN with a 7AN (e.g. the internet . Routers control both collision do!ains and broadcast do!ains. If the "acket-s destination is on a different network, a router is used to "ass it the right way, so without routers the internet could not functions. Routers use NA) (Network Address )ranslation in con5unction with I, 1as8uerading to "ro#ide the internet to !ulti"le nodes in the LAN under a single I, address. Now a day, routers co!e with hub or switch technology to connect co!"uters directly. 0SI* Routers work on the network layer so they can filter data based on I, addresses. )hey ha#e route tables to store network addresses and forward "ackets to the right "ort.

Gateways are #ery intelligent de#ices or else can be a co!"uter running the a""ro"riate software to connect and translate data between networks with different "rotocols or architecture, so their work is !uch !ore co!"le/ than a nor!al router. 9or instance, allowing co!!unication between )&,%I, clients and I,:%S,: or A""le)alk. 0SI* 4ateways o"erate at the network layer and abo#e, but !ost of the! at the a""lication layer. ,.S. )he ter! 4ateway is used to refer to routers in so!e articles so beware. In this case, the router has gateway software. And 'efault 4ateway is used to refer to the node (e.g. router connecting the LAN to the outside (e.g. internet . Repeaters are si!"le de#ices that work at the "hysical layer of the 0SI. )hey regenerate signals (acti#e hubs does that too . )here is an i!"ortant rule to obey while using re"eaters%hubs to e/tend a local network and is called the ;2<2= rule or the I>>> way. )he rule forces that in a single collision do!ain there shouldn-t be !ore than ; seg!ents, < re"eaters between any two hosts in the network and only = of the seg!ents can be "o"ulated (contain user connections . )his rule ensures that a signal sent o#er the network will reach e#ery "art of it within an acce"table length of ti!e. If the network is bigger, the collision do!ain can be di#ided into two "arts or !ore using a switch or a bridge.