router or a hub?

[AllYourBase]

right i have a ethernet cable running into my laptop so i can connect to the interweb, i unplug this when i want to connect to my xbox to ftp to it and use a crossover cable.

Now if I wanted to use the internet and be able to ftp to my xbox at the same time (not bothered about LIVE) what would be the cheapest option (I have nowhere to put another network card)

Any links from ebuyer or amazon to cheap suitable products would be great

cheers

[Super Stu]

Any 10 or 100 meg hub/switch will do you fine. Seem to recall my cousin had a 5 port 100meg switch from PC world for ?20 or so.

[AllYourBase]

so the advantage of a router is just so i can share the internet connection? which would be good if i was using xbox live, but not worth it if i am not bothering to?

something like this http://s1.amazon.co.uk/exec/varzea/t...494195-9931648 would seem ok, nice price

[Commander Marklar]

You NEED a router if you're going to connection to the internet.

[Super Stu]

Can't really follow that link in work, but the advantage of using a router would be supremely easy access to Live, yeah. Also, routers more often than not have a switch built in, allowing connection of 4 devices or so.

Depends what you want to do and ultimately how much you want to spend.

[MartyG]

People get so confused over switches, routers and hubs.

A router serves as a gateway to the Internet (or another seperate network) - this handles the connection to your ISP and the traffic between your LAN devices and the Internet, most usually this is via NAT as the majority of ISPs provide a single outside IP.

You can also use a hub or a switch, here you would need a PC to do all the talking to your ISP and act as the gateway and it would have to utilise ICS. The difference between a hub and a switch is the way the destination for the network traffic is resolved.

A router is by far the better option though you definitely do not have to have one as suggested above. The item in your link isn't a router, it's a hub.

Regards
Marty

[Super Stu]

As I said elsewhere, this forum desperately needs a FAQ.

[AllYourBase]

right ordered a router now, i probably only do need a hub but who knows in the future i may want the functionality of a router - yes i have ordered a router and not the hub i linked to before! :-)

[Madbury]

Good choice.

I've had a router for a while now and its been fantastic. Also they're pretty upgradeable through firmware, so a good router will last you many years without the need for an upgrade.

[Commander Marklar]

If you wanted to do this:


Internet
|
hub-------Xbox
|
PC


Then that doesn't work; that's why I said you needed a router

[MartyG]

No it wouldn't, mostly because you can't connect an ADSL line directly to a hub. But you can certainly do

Internet
|
PC
|
Hub-------Xbox

So your statement was incorrect and gave the impression it was impossible

Regards
Marty

[Madbury]

except he'd need an extra ethernet port, which he doesn't have room for unless he connects to the internet through USB?

[Super Stu]

Actually, if he's connecting to the net via a patch, he's probably got either an adsl modem or a cable modem. Can he not wire a hub to that, under the premise that it wouldn't serve as an internet gateway, but a method of wiring all the devices that need to talk to each other (sans net connectivity for the xbox)?

after thought: can the mac address on the xbox not be fiddled to allow the cable modem -> hub -> PC and xbox method? I recall seeing that somewhere.

[Fusion]

i really cannot be bothered digging up my cisco stuff for this, so i'll just ask in this here convenient place.

PC to router. Straight-through, right?

[Commander Marklar]

So your statement was incorrect and gave the impression it was impossible

No I didn't. The way I laid it out was how he was describing his intent. What's the point of having the hub there the other way around?? He already connects directly to his Xbox and like Madbury says, he'd need another port on his laptop

I dunno about your thing Stu, I don't think it works like that. The hub isn't going to forward incoming WAN traffic as it knows nothing of the network topology, just acting as a way to hook up the various connections. There needs to be some intelligence there to talk to the modem properly.