Hub/switch vs router?

It depends what capabilities your modem has. If it has a LAN side and handles DHCP assignment, then you don't need a router unless you plan to create multiple subnets within your LAN.

If i were you, I would buy a router (linksys or netgear) over a switch for your home network.

A switch is used to increase the number of available ports within a given subnet and a router is used to connect multiple subnets.

It depends on the modem from your provider. Some modems also provide other services like DHCP, NAT, Firewall protection, etc. Assuming your modem does provide these services, a switch would be your best choice for attaching another computer.

A hub and switch would essentially have the same result. The main difference is that when a hub receives a packet from one port, it sends that packet out ALL ports on the hub. Devices that should not receive this packet will then discard it. A switch determines what port the packet should be sent to based on the receiving devices mac address. Therefore the switch will make your network much more efficient.

If you just have a basic modem I suggest getting a router to add a second computer. The home office routers will generally provide DHCP, NAT, Firewall, wireless automatically out of the box.

So I would contact your provider first for info about your cable modem.

No, in a home setup, they are not the same, and they function differently.

The line coming in from the ISP provides you with one IP address that's seen on the outside. Everything that comes in and out hits that address. If you only have one computer connected to the modem, then you're okay.

However, once you want to add additional devices, you have a problem. The outside IP is still a single IP, and all traffic is going to come and go to it. So something has to sit between the modem and all the devices that routes the traffic to the correct device on the *inside*.

The router creates an internal network, hidden from the outside world. It also assigns an individual IP address to each device connected to it, from a pool of "private" IP addresses not seen on the outside.

As the traffic comes in and out, the router magically notes which device is sending or receiving, and moves the data to and from the right device...even though on the *outside*, all the data is coming to the SAME external IP address.

A hub or switch won't work because neither on has the capability of marking the data packets to send them to and from the right place. A hub is simple a repeater...all the data travels to each port until the correct one is found. A switch is more intelligent, but not enough to do the routing part.

Now, you can plug a hum or switch into a LAN port on the router, and add additional devices (home routers handle four, hub and switches can add 8, 16, 32 or more). Since the traffic across the hub/switch is still traveling through the router, the router will do the correct IP assignments and packet routing.

Even is you manually assigned IP addresses to all your devices and stuck them on a hub or switch, you would still need a way to route the traffic to and from the public network (Internet).

Hope that's clear! ;-)

If there is only one ethernet presentation on your Cable Modem, I would suggest that you need a SoHo cable router which will provide DHCP and NAT would be the right answer - something like NETGEAR RP614 for wired connection or the NETGEAR WGR614 if you want to create a wireless node as well. (Note there are loads of other routers out there these are just two of them)

No they are not. The hub / switch does not provide services known as DHCP or NAT. A router is the appropriate device for this situation. It will protect your computers with a firewall from the outside world.

Trust me and don't mickey mouse your setup. A hub or switch connected directly to a cable modem will leave your computers wide open to intruders. Routers are cheap and are designed exactly for what you are describing.

The Router will serve as your Internet Sharer/Server and a Hub.

A hub only connects all your computers together. But with this, you'll need to keep a pc always running to share the internet to other pc.

With router, any computer you turned on can access the internet without the need of a dedicated Server PC

They are totally different. A laptop does not look much like a desktop, but they are both computers. A hub or switch is a device for connecting machines together to communicate on a local network. A router has the ability to isolate the packets from each machine to pass them to another network, in this case the internet, and then co-ordinate the returning packets and pass them back to the correct machine. Both the others can not do this.

Router. The router acts as a computer and allows the internet to be shared with other computers. If you have a laptop with Wi-Fi make sure you get a router that has Wireless G in it. If the laptop came with a Wireless N card, than you can get the N router. They are more $$$.

A switch just allows other computer to be connected to an existing network, or to create one. You cannot hook one up to a modem since the modem is looking for a computer or router to be connected to.

You need a router.

A hub or switch is a layer 2 device. All it can do is replicate the data that comes in from one port across all the others, it has no means of directing data to a specific location.

A router that you buy for your home is actually 2 devices in one, it is a router and it is a gateway.

A gateway permits the connection of two different computer networks; namely your home network and the internet. Without it you would not be able to access the internet from any machine other than the first one turned on.

The router also provides address translation - this means that any data coming to your pc from the internet gets sent to your pc and not to any others on the same network! Other features such as address resolution, firewalling and port forwarding also offer security and the ability to network your home pcs together effectively.