The "active" components
of a network are those powered devices which connect the cabling together.
The most common active component found in schools are switched hubs,
more commonly known as "switches".
- Switched
Hub (Switch)
- Switches have now replaced hubs in school networks.
Switches provide every computer on a network with 100Mb (or 1000Mb) access (rather than the "shared" 10Mb access of the old hubs),
by establishing simultaneous 100/1000Mb connections between ports.
Most switches have uplink ports to cascade to other switches. Often these uplink ports run at a faster speed that the ports that connect to computers.
- "Dumb" Hub
- No longer used
in new installations (and often found stacked in storerooms!) 10Mb hubs were the most common active devices
found in school networks. (These hubs look very much like the switched
hub shown above). Don't be tempted to retrieve some of these from the storeroom to use on your network!!
Router- Routers are
used to connect together two different networks - eg your local area network (LAN) to your ISP's
wide area network (WAN).
