Get me out of THIS trap.. SWITCH,HUB,ROUTER

[healtheworld]

Hello friends,

Considering myself a fool , i m asking this (THESE) questions from u masters out here. Please do not laugh at me .. And help me to understand it..

Although i now know a bit about networks and TCP/IP

How to connect ..
(a) HUB to HUB
(b) HUB to SWITCH
(c)SWITCH to SWITCH
(d)SWITCH to ROUTER
(f)ROUTER to ROUTER




And a term VLAN .. AND how to create it...
and What is an uplink port .


Is connecting procedures also depend on types of cablee (Straight or crossoverl ) devices

PLZ gimme info about it.
======================================

[beanman2k]

Sounds like you're getting ready for an exam.

[BigFred]

Hi Heal

I see you are new to the board, welcome.

I guess you are trying to answer an exam question, but so long as you are not expecting us to do your work for you, some of us are happy to give you a little information that will help put you on the right track.

Firstly do you know what each of these devices are?

A hub is a device for joining multiple ethernet devices together.

eg the network card 'NIC' in a computer, can be connected to the 'HUB' using 'UTP' cable with RJ45 connectors on each end. Normal cables are connected such that pin 1 on the RJ45 at one end connects to pin 1 on the other end, and so on up to pin 8.

The hub actually crosses over these connections internally so that something that comes from the send pins on one computer arrives at the receive pins on all the others.

Some hubs have a port designated 'uplink' which is designed to connect to another hub or similar. Obviously this is still a source as far as the other hub is concerned so we don't want this internal crossover to occur.

Sometimes a port can be used as either an uplink or a normal port, in this case it has a switch labeled 'mdi' 'mdix' which either places or removes the crossover.

To join two hubs together without the uplink port or the switchable port, it is necessary to use a crossover cable, ie the pins are not connected 1 to 1, 2 to 2, and so on. To find some details on this go to a search engine and enter 'Cat5 pinouts'

Now 'switches' are hubs with a little intelligence, they know what device is connected to what port, and whereas a hub will send data received on a port to all ports, switches will send it only to the port that it is intended for.

Both of these devices work as layer 2 devices. ie they works on hardware addresses. Search for 'ISO seven layer OSI model' for details.

A router is a much more complicated device it works at layer 3 and uses IP addresses.

Search for each of these terms if you need more information. Armed with this information you will be able to work out the answers to you question.

After you have done this, if you have a specific question, please come back and ask. Best of luck BF

[Train]

http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/index.htm
A good place to start.

[Rapmaster]

Originally posted by BigFred


Both of these devices work as layer 2 devices. ie they works on hardware addresses. Search for 'ISO seven layer OSI model' for details.

I'm pretty sure a hub is layer 1 (physical)

[ecross]

You're right Rapmaster.

An active hub works at the layer 1 (the physical layer of the OSI Model) which their main part is to regenerate signals carried over the cabling, and they can work at different speeds within the same network segment. The network interface cards also operate at layer 1. Switches operate at layers 1 and 2. Although routers primarily based on Layer 3, they can operate on layers 1 and 2 depending on the specific features.

[BigFred]

Yes Rapmaster

I've also seen hubs defined as layer 1 devices, and I guess it could be seen as splitting hairs but the definitions for layer 1 concern, types of media, types of connectors, voltage levels, frequencies and the like.

The definitions concerning passage of data, framing and the like don't start till layer 2.

However a hub being a passive device will deliver whatever is put into it (within reason of course) so I can see that some credibility could be given to calling it a layer 1 device.

Cheers BF

**EDIT** You beat me Eric, but let's not get too carried away on semantics here, confusion will reign for our new member.

**2nd EDIT** Now for the bit I left out VLAN, this stands for 'Virtual LAN'

One of these knowlegable chaps might like to put some effort into explaining just what a virtual lan is.

After all you were left sitting there for over 5 hours with nothing except for a statement of the bleeding obvious, and then as soon as I give you something to work on, we start getting holes picked in it.

I hope someone else can come up with a laymans definition of a VLAN and not get picked for it. BF

[ecross]

It's a good idea to understand LANs first before you know about VLANs. LANs connect to peripherals, terminals and other devices within a limited geographical area. VLANs are basically a group of devices on different physical LAN segments which as if they were on the same LAN segment. Switches can create VLANs. They are commonly referred to as layer 3.