Is an Unmanaged switch actually a Hub?

[Rahul Koul]

Hi Guys,

I want to know what is an Unmanaged Switch? Is it a Hub or not is what I want to know actually.

We know a Hub has one collision and one broadcast domain so let' say if I connect multiple devices to a Hub and if even two of them try to send at the same time there will be a collison causing data corruption etc. Now, if an Unmanaged switch is nothing but a Hub then wouldn't I face the same problem if two or more than two devices try to send or receice at the same time?

[bgroves · Accepted solution]

With a hub all workstations are essentially on the same wire and every port sees every packet.

A switch will build mac address tables and forward most traffic intelligently.

So a dumb switch isn't a hub.

I guess you could say the switch, even a toy one, operates more at layer 2 in the OSI model where the hub is purely layer 1.

[pkyadav062]

Dear all i m explain deference between hub and un managed switch 

HUB. hub is a un managed device it using in basic connectivity use of hub in large network it not good because hub is a broadcast device if sender send any packet in network it is passing through hub then hub send packet with all device which are connected with and which device packet it will accept now in large network if happening like that it is creating traffic in network and our network will be busy also second device need to send packet it will be wait so first hub create network traffic.

Unmanaged Switch. un managed switch working like first it do broadcast and and then it will create a table of all device in network and second time it will do unicast means second send by switch only to particular who need this packet switch do that with help of table that is why switch is a intelligent device.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

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Posting

An unmanaged switch is one you cannot configure (i.e. you cannot manage it, ergo its unmanaged).  It is not a hub.  BTW, there are (or were) manageable hubs.

[chandra_rc16]

Hey Rahul,

An un-managed switch is not an hub. I've a cyber-cafe.... earlier my LAN was built using Hubs, however i've replaced them with un-managed switches.

I see a lot of difference in the speed of my LAN. And i don't think the unmanaged switches maintain a MAC table. I believe the difference between those two is: Hub acts like a bus topology, whereas the un-managed switch acts like a star topology. And even hub operate at 10mbps whereas an un-managed switch can operate between 10-100 mbps. The unmanaged switch helped a lot for me to enhance my cafe..

While using hubs the video streaming was very slow it is used to stop for every few mins then again buffer like this... but now there is no latency at all using unmanageble switches.

Please don't forget to rate the helpful posts.

Regards,
Chandu

[cadet alain]

Hi,

And i don't think the unmanaged switches maintain a MAC table

That would mean they would flood all the time so basically act like hubs and in this case I don't think you would have seen a performance increase in your network

Regards

Alain

Don't forget to rate helpful posts.

[chandra_rc16]

Hi Cadet,

I'm not sure about it.. but i can say my network performance enhanced exponentially. So i might have to agree with you in this case since if they don't have MAC table then they'll flood you are right.

But is there any way to see their MAC table ?

Regards,
Chandu

[cadet alain]

Hi,

As they are unmanaged , no you can't view the MAC table but if they flood everything you will see it by sniffing on another PC linked to the switch, if it doesn't flood unicast you'll only see unknown unicast frames but not known unicast frames.

Regards

Alain

Don't forget to rate helpful posts.

[devils_advocate]

An unmanaged switch is just that, unmanaged.

Its still a switch in that it maintains a MAC addresss table and forwards frames based on this.

A hub and an unmanaged switch are not the same thing.

[Rahul Koul]

Thanks everyone for your replies! You have cleared my doubt!

P.S. I have rated all the posts that I found helpful!

Cheers,

Rahul