Network FAQ
Generally, a switch is much faster than a hub and reduces collisions/retransmissions.
Switches send traffic only to the destination device/port, while hubs broadcast the data to all ports. If you have a choice, a switch will provide more reliable and faster transfers of data.
Typically it is hard to notice a difference between hub and switch transfer speeds in small LANs (2 to 3 devices), however the more devices you introduce to the network, the greater advantage of using a switch.
Below are some OS-specific instructions on how to find your Network adapter's MAC address. Note that multiple Network Adapters might be listed.
Windows XP/2k/2k3
- Click on Start > Run > type: command (hit Enter)
- type: ipconfig /all (hit Enter)
- the MAC address is listed as the "Physical Address" number
Windows 9x/ME
- Click on Start > Run > type: winipcfg (hit Enter)
- the MAC address is listed as the "Adapter Address" for each device
Macintosh OS X
- from the dock, select "System Preferences" > "Network" pane
- with the TCP/IP tab selected, the "Ethernet Address" number is your MAC address.
Linux
- login as user with root priviledges, type: ipconfig -a and look at the info for each adapter. The MAC address is listed as "HWaddr".
FreeBSD
- use the dmefg command to display the MAC address.
A bit is a single numeric value, either '1' or '0', that encodes a single unit of digital information. A byte is a sequence of 8 bits.
Usually, data communication speed is measured in bits/kilobits/megabits per second, while storage space is measured in bytes/kilobytes/megabytes.
In data communications, a Kilobit is one thousand bits. It is used to measure the amount of data transferred per second. Kilobits per second is shortened to kb/s, Kbps or kbps (as opposed to KBps, which is Kilobytes per second. Note the capitalization). The lowercase b is commonly used to denote bits, while the uppercase B is used for bytes.
1 kb/s = 1000 bits per second
1 KB/s = 1024 bytes per second
Basically a port is an access channel and a protocol is a standardized way for computers to exchange information.
Computers in a network must send and receive data to communicate. Data on the Internet is sent and received by software that automatically organizes such data to be transferred into packets. These packets are made in a standardized way (a protocol) so other computers can recognize them as data and decode them. Network clients use different ports or channels (that are given standardized numbers)to transfer this data. Generally one port is used to send data and another to receive it, so packets don't collide. The port number (and the destination IP address) is included as part of the header each packet is given. Ports range from 1 to 65535 for TCP and UDP.
Port numbers are generally divided into three ranges:
1. The Well Known ports: 0 to 1023
2. The Registered ports: 1024 to 49151
3. The Dynamic and/or Private ports: 49152 to 65535
There are a few programs available one can use to limit bandwidth for particular computers, set restrictions per application, and view various statistics:
NetLimiter
Shunra Nimbus