hub vs switch

[enhompe]

All other things being equal, should I try to hook my DTA310 to a hub rather than a switch, on the assumption that the switch will introduce a delay, while the hub will not?

[MustardMan]

I think any sort of delay a switch is going to introduce is going to be negligible even for VoIP. Not sure what your going to have connected to it but it can definitely help separate VoIP traffic from less time critical IP traffic. It can also help protect you from broadcast storms and other potentially undesireable IP problems that would not be as much of a problem for non time critical traffic but could be devastating for VoIP. Even some of the cheapest switches have built in safe guards to prevent some of those things.

In other words, all things being equal and the extra couple $'s not being an issue, I would say DEFINITELY a switch

[ctylor]

I thought a hub is always slower and less optimal than a switch. Sort of like comparing DDR SDRAM with ordinary (SDR) SDRAM. When would a hub ever by preferable?

[mvandersluis]

The switch wont introduce a noticeable delay. It is just smart enough to send packets only to the port it knows a device (MAC) is connected too. A hub will broadcast all packets to all ports, this can result in more packet collisions when the network is busy.

[dsuh]

Because of the increased chance of Ethernet packet collision and the retransmission attempts afterwards and the delay introduced because of these attempts, you will have more voice quality problems with hubs.

Hubs are still useful for Ethernet and IP packet sniffing during troubleshooting sessions because you can see all of the traffic on all of the ports.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a new hub nowadays.
That is why I still keep my old hub around.