Hub vs. Switch vs. Router?

[jaw04005]

I have an Airport Extreme Base Station, and I need to add LAN ports so that I can network my old PC, my iMac FP, and my iMac DV together. Do I need a hub, router, or switch?

 

[stoid]

You should be able to use a hub, because the Airport Base Station is already a router. However, either a router or a switch would also work if you can get one cheaper than the hub.

 

[kgarner]

The AirPort Base Station should function as a router for you in this situation. I would just get a switch as they are a smarter version of a hub and generally less expensive than another router (which you don't need).

 

[Cuckoo]

Hi,

Well, first of all, you don't need a router, you've already got that.

So you either need a switch or a hub. In function they are the same, so you can't miss. A switch is faster than a hub (even a 100mbit switch is faster than a 100mbit hub).

Hubs are a bit 'oldish' in technology, but there is no reason to reject them for that reason since they do everything they need to do.

Although i wander if you can still find a hub, it's totally up to you.

(performance difference is hard to say, but i'd expect it to be like 5-10%, but is very dependant on what kind of data you transfer and the number of simultanious active nodes)

Hope that helps a bit.

Cuckoo