[Darth_Tanion]

I have 2 buildings I want to network together. They are currently being linked by 2 hubs but I would like to replace them with switches. Is there any known performance issues with linking switches together. (e.g. Bandwidth is less on the uplinked switch) I think I already know the answer but I'd like to be sure.

Thanks.

[retsoksirhc]

Replaceing the hubs with switches will give you a performance boost. Depending on how many computers are on the network, this may be a VERY HUGE performance issue if you are still using hubs. Here's how it works.

Switches are the 'smart' for of hubs. When computers are attacked to a hub, the hub retains no information as to what ports are active, what addresses are coming from each port, and so on. All they do is take what comes in on one line and send it out to all the other lines. This means that if 2 computers try sending a packet at the same time, one or both will have to resend the packet, as there will be a collision and the data will not get through (the destination computer will not receive the packet, won't send the ackknowledgement that it has received it, and thus the originating computer will send it again after a time period). The more computers on the hub network, the more collisions there are likely to be (called the 'collision domain', FYI).

A switch on the other hand, monitors what information is from where, and where it goes to. It can start acting like a hub in some situations, but for the most part, anything plugged directly into it will have a significantly less collision domain. When one computer sends a packet, it goes to the switch, and the switch looks at the destination. If it knows that the packet is supposed to go to computer X, and that computer X is connected to port 3, it will ONLY send the packet to port 3. It can keep track of where the computers are through what is called the 'ARP table', which is pretty much just a list of what is where. I'm not sure how it works if the destination address is not directly connected to the switch, but I assume that it will act like a hub and 'broadcast' to all ports on that one. In that case, it's the same as a hub, but for your situation, the majority of communication is probably not going to go between both buildings.

Anyway, replacing the hubs with switches will most likely give you a huge performance increase. Routers might work even better, but they take a little but more to set up. Baby steps, baby steps... lol

[wilfalcon]

Yes do it
Switches will speed thing up if you are having problems
It will reduse traffic between building
Only posaible problem I can see is on the slave switch - the gateway address to the internet
Most of the time it will find this automatically
New switches will find this in the mac tables