Hi there My boss has asked me to upgrade our 9 port 10Mbps ethernet hub. We'd like to go to at least 100Mbps and preferably not wireless as it's a small office and the cabling is already in place. At this point we have 4 computers on the network. Any suggestions on which brand and/or model to go with? I am not too familiar with switches and hubs so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, MindsEye

Well the newer hubs are 10/100 auto sensing. You'll get 100 mbs with it. Here is a link to some of what consider to be good products. www.linksys.com

Purchase a switch instead of a HUB. Any brand or model will work fine. However, if you upgrade the switch or hub to 10/100 or even 10/100/1000. Your NIC card in each computer has to be rated for the same speed to get any increase in performance.

Thanks Dave02 and Dana. Dave02 ... I found one by Linksys that I am leaning towards ... the EFAH08W. I've heard Linksys is one of the better ones. Dana ... what is the difference between a hub and a switch? Thanks MindsEye

What is the difference between an Ethernet hub and switch? i_XpUser

Without getting into the nittygritty details of the two. A switch is better. If you want the details go to http://www.duxcw.com/faq/network/hubsw.htm. In your case either will just plug in to your network and are interchangable, but the switch is the way to go. When switches first came out they were alot more expensive than hubs, so if the performance was not an issue, you would normally go the cheaper route. But now that the price difference is usually small. It does not make sense to go with a hub.

Thanks XPUser and Dana. After reading all through that ... the switch it is! Thanks again for your help MindsEye