Subj : Switch vs. router?
To   : Sean Dennis
From : Stewart Honsberger
Date : Sat Mar 09 2002 05:54 pm

Hello Sean!

Mar 09 2002 22:35, Sean Dennis wrote to Stewart Honsberger:

 SH>> Get the switch and pick up a LinkSys 1-port Internet router. Connect
 SH>> the Internet router to your switch and it becomes a drop-in upgrade 
 SH>> to your LAN.

 SD> The router I was looking at has a switch in it.  What I'm wondering 
 SD> is while I have dialup, would the switch work without having to 
 SD> activate the router?

The switch will work irrespective of the status of the WAN port. Economics, 
however, dictate that a regular switch (say an 8-port 10/100) will offer more 
flexibility and be more expansive to your future networking needs. Internet 
routers are reasonable for the two tasks they were designed for; they route 
your broadband traffic and they provide you a 4-port switch. Jack of all 
trades, so to speak.

If you drop your broadband Internet access at some point in the future or 
decide to plug it instead into a PC (or even a real router), you're stuck with 
a device that's costing you money to sit on its ass and be half useless to you. 
If you sell it, you're out a switch and a router.

Since you're on dial-up now it makes little sense to buy an Internet router, 
unless it happens to come equipped with an RS-232 serial port and a PPP dialer.

Then again, I'm old-fashioned. I believe in a single-tool for a single-job 
kinda setup. If you ever want a better or second switch, you're stuck adding a 
second one to the Internet router and increasing latency across the LAN. If you 
ever want a new Internet router, you're stuck replacing the whole she-bang.

[Stewart Honsberger] [blackdeath@softhome.net] [http://blackdeath.2y.net/]

 "But you've got to hand it to IBM, they know how to design
 hardware. The servers all had handles to pick them up and throw
 them out of the window...."  -- Juergen Nieveler in the Monastery

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.0
 * Origin: Stewart's Echomail Node-Holder (1:229/604)

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