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what is d difference between a router , a switch and a hub? - exoticnapster

Best Answer: A hub is typically the least expensive, least intelligent, and least complicated of the three. Its job is very, very simple: anything that comes in one port is sent out to the others. That's it. Every computer connected to the hub "sees" everything that every other computer on the hub sees. The hub itself is blissfully ignorant of the data being transmitted. For years, simple hubs have been quick and easy ways to connect computers in small networks. A switch does essentially what a hub does, but more efficiently. By paying attention to the traffic that comes across it, it can "learn" where particular addresses are. For example, if it sees traffic from machine A coming in on port 2, it now knows that machine A is connected to that port, and that traffic to machine A needs to only be sent to that port and not any of the others. The net result of using a switch over a hub is that most of the network traffic only goes where it needs to, rather than to every port. On busy networks, this can make the network significantly faster. A router is the smartest, and most complicated of the bunch. Routers come in all shapes and sizes, from the small four-port broadband routers that are very popular right now, to the large industrial strength devices that drive the internet itself. A simple way to think of a router is as a computer that can be programmed to understand, possibly manipulate, and route the data its being asked to handle. For example, broadband routers include the ability to "hide" computers behind a type of firewall, which involves slightly modifying the packets of network traffic as they traverse the device. All routers include some kind of user interface for configuring how the router will treat traffic. The really large routers include the equivalent of a full-blown programming language to describe how they should operate, as well as the ability to communicate with other routers to describe or determine the best way to get network traffic from point A to point B. - atif_iba2007

simple explanation - a router is a network device that is capable of hading out network addresses and letting multiple computers on a network connect to the internet using one high speed internet connection a switch is a network device that allows computers connected to it to see each other. It has some intelligence and can route computers to each other without querying each computer. a hub is a network device that does teh same thing as a switch, but has no inteligence, and is the least desirable in most home networking environments. anyway, those are just very simple, basic answers and are by no means the full details. - liquidninja13

READ THE OTHER FRIGGIN QUESTIONS!!!!!! DO YOU PEOPLE DO ANY RESEARCH AT ALL??!?!? ARGHHHH!!!! and the answer by jlee is wrong - Ronin

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