Do Hubs Slow Down DL Speed?
I have 4 PCs at work all running XP HOME. The all connect to the net (and each other) via a commercial cable modem/router/firewall provided by Comcast. All 4 have a download speed of over 9MB.
I have a old (probably over 6 years old now) hub that we used to use when we used ICS and dial-up. It is a Netgear EN104. It has 4 ethernet ports - one of which can be used as an uplink so that it can be used in a cascade.
If I setup the Netgear hub between my PC and the cable modem/router in a cascade configuration, my dl speed drops from 9MB to less than 5MB. I assume that the drop in speed is a function of the hub even though there is only 1 PC attached in to it.
I am asking about this because there is some talk about adding a couple of PCs to out network and, because the cable modem only had 4 ports, we will be looking at adding the new PCs in a cascade configuration.
Is the drop in speed for a PC connected to a cable modem through a hub normal? Are newer hubs any different in this regard? That is, would I get a better speed in a more modern hub?
Thanks in advance.