Ethernet Hub - Uses

Uses

Historically, the main reason for purchasing hubs rather than switches was their price. This motivator has largely been eliminated by reductions in the price of switches, but hubs can still be useful in special circumstances:

• For inserting a protocol analyzer into a network connection, a hub is an alternative to a network tap or port mirroring.
• When a switch is accessible for end users to make connections, for example, in a conference room, an inexperienced or careless user (or saboteur) can bring down the network by connecting two ports together, causing a loop. This can be prevented by using a hub, where a loop will break other users on the hub, but not the rest of the network. This hazard can also be avoided by using switches that can detect and deal with loops, for example by implementing the spanning tree protocol.
• A hub with a 10BASE2 port can be used to connect devices that only support 10BASE2 to a modern network. The same goes for linking in an old 10BASE5 network segment using an AUI port on a hub. Individual devices that were intended for thicknet can also be linked to modern Ethernet by using an AUI-10BASE-T transceiver.