So what is the advantage of a Switch over a HUB ? Let's try to explain it simple: as said, a hub works basically as a repeater device; it will get a data packet from a computer and sends it towards all the other computers. If at any given time 2 or more computers send a data packet at the same time, the packets collide and both have to be retransmitted. A switch is a somewhat more sophisticated device. When it receives a data packet the switch will look at the packet and will then read where the packets is going and only sends that packet to the port on the switch that the destination computer is plugged into. The Switch will read the MAC of the NIC (network card). A MAC is the unique hexadecimal serial number as signed to each Ethernet network device to identify it on the network. With Ethernet devices (as with most other network types), this address is permanently set at the time of manufacturer. Each card has a unique MAC address, so that it will be able to exclusively grab packets off the wire meant for it. If MAC addresses are not unique, there is no way to distinguish between two stations. Devices on the network watch network traffic and look for their own MAC address in each packet to determine whether they should decode it or not. Special circumstances exist for broadcasting to every device. With the help of the a 4k MAC address table you can switch and refresh instantly when you plug in a cable into a port. The switch significantly reduces packet collisions by far and will boost performance. Using a switch is also a lot safer as secure data will not be broadcasted to all PC's but straight to the proper PC. Can you image credit card information being broadcasted to all PC's in one network? It's happening with a HUB.

So basically there are two primary reasons for choosing a Switch over a HUB:

• Network bandwidth - the ds-1216 can coop up-to 3200Mbit data at the same time.

• Network security - sending out data packets to the right node secures the fact that somebody might be receiving and 'sniffing' your data.

The DS-1216 is Full-Duplex. When two Auto-Negotiation devices with multiple capabilities are connected together, they find their highest performance mode of operation based on a priority table. The Auto-Negotiation protocol contains a set of priorities which result in the devices selecting their highest common set of abilities.

The full duplex mode of operation is given higher priority than the original (half duplex) Ethernet, since the full duplex system can send more data than a half duplex link operating at the same speed. Therefore if the devices at both ends of the link can support full duplex operation, and if they also both support Auto-Negotiation of this capability, then they will automatically configure themselves for the higher performance full duplex mode. With N-Way Auto-Negotiation, it is capable of self-configuring for the highest possible operation mode between two nodes.