I am buying a hub for my home and I'm going to network a couple of computers to share the cable modem. Also, they'll be used for playing games. If I buy a 10mb hub, will it be considerably slower than the ones offering 100mb? I want to play lag free games in the house against other members of the family. Will I get lag free games with 10mb or will 100mb really make a difference? Thanks!

I would think you'd get very low ping whether you use 10 or 100Mbps. I would strongly recommend 100 though, just for file transfers, etc - it's a bit faster. If all you're doing is sharing internet & playing games though, 10 would probably do okay for you. What's the price difference between 10 & 10/100?

The price difference is around 20 bucks. If I'm playing someone else on my home network, specifically a game, will 100mb really benefit the network?

It might. Especially if you want to play games on two computers, and transfer files on others, etc.

quote:Originally posted by VisionGeek:
It might. Especially if you want to play games on two computers, and transfer files on others, etc.

Yeah, I'd plunk down the extra $20 too.

Actually, the thing that you should really look for is whether or not the hum is 'mananged' or the latest swank term for this is 'switched.' While it is not really a switch per se, it does allow for limited storage of MAC addresses (each NIC has a unique Media Acess Control #) so that each port on the hub gets the full bandwidth. Also make sure you set the device to use 'full duplex' settings. If you are using Windohs, Goto the CONTROL PANEL, and double click on NETWORK. Now double click on the entry that corresponds to your NIC. Under the advanced setting, there should be an option - Duplex control or something to that effect, set ALL on FULL DUPLEX.

The short answer - Either will work. I've got both going in the house (my router is only 10MB ... whatcha going to do?) and they work fine.

For a few dollars more you should get a switch. With a hub packet collisions are a normal fact of life. They cause the net to go into a quiet state and then retransmit the packet. It really hurts performance. A switch prevents collisions because of the way it operates. A 10Mb/s switch will outperform a 100Mb/s hub. A managed switch or a managed hub is not really useful in a home environment. The management feature typically add $500 to the cost as it is an inbedded computer with management software.

There are many small 10/100Mb/s switches available for a very reasonable price. Some are combined with a router/firewall for internet access.

I picked up a Dlink 5 port switch at Compusa for $50 us. I use it with my Linksys Router with 6 systems connected to it and it works great.

Honestly, for gaming purposes it shouldnt make too much difference what speed network you have. Often games are made to work decently over a modem connection, anything more is just that much better. However, if it doesnt cost you too much more (say 10$-15$)I would go ahead and get a cheap 10/100 switch. Even if it doesnt directly help the games, it may well help out setup before the game (when people have to transfer things like patches and game maps). But it isnt important enough to spend a fortune on either.