Network question

[Peter Korsten]

Mikael Hansson schreef:

> I hope I'm thinking right about this: When two gigabit-connected devices 
> talk to each other they won't have to go through the router (which would 
> reduce speed) instead they have a direct connection through the switch?

That's the point of a switch, yes. The difference between a switch and a 
hub is basically that a switch will only connect two ports together 
based on MAC address of sender and recipient, whereas a hub copies all 
incoming data to all ports.

A router is used to route (duh) connections that your local machine 
doesn't know how to handle. Your machine talks to the router, and the 
router takes care of it from there. Of course, your router may have its 
own router, which can have its own router, etcetera.

Now, the question is what your local machine doesn't know how to handle. 
This depends on your IP address and your subnet mask (and those of the 
target machine). But since every machine gets those from the DHCP 
server, it's not an issue.

- Peter