[geeks] Hubs vs switches [was Re: router[s] sought]

[Mouse]

>> For that matter, so is "it's a hub rather than a switch, so I can
>> easily snoop all the traffic", in at least some cases.
> There are 100Mbit hubs, but, there are cheap managed switches that
> run 100Mbit switched that allow you to set up a mirror port quite
> easily.

Not as easily as with a hub, though.  And, unless you force everything
to half duplex, with significantly greater risk of losing traffic when
running at aggregate throughput approaching the speed of the mirror
port; if you have more than two ports talking, even forcing half duplex
may not be enough to avoid overruns.  They also rarely will let you
mirror to more than one port, whereas with a hub all ports see all
traffic (though admittedly that rarely matters).

And, of course, each option has its own collection of other advantages
and disadvantages.  For example, hubs generally have lower latency than
switches, sometimes significantly lower - though as load increases you
start to lose that advantage to collisions.

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