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For more info on hubs, including a few words about hub speed, dual speed hubs, and network starter kits, go here.
In the newsgroups, you frequently see a question something like "Why can't I just plug all the computers and the cable modem into a hub?" Connecting the cable modem to the "uplink" or any other port on your hub won't work unless your ISP can provide multiple IP addresses to you. (Read this for more information.) The reason is that the hub is a repeater, not a router. In simple terms, a hub just takes the data that comes into a port and sends it out all the other ports in the hub. It doesn't perform any filtering or redirection of data among different networks. Since you need to create a separate network for your LAN, you need to filter the IP traffic between the networks and not simply pass everything on each network to the other. The hub doesn't provide the filtering necessary to keep the networks apart. There are also messages that advise connecting the uplink port to the cable modem as a way to create two networks. This port is just a convenience provided on some hubs so that you don't have to use a special kind of cable (called a crossover cable) to connect multiple hubs together or connect some devices to the hub. The uplink doesn't perform any filtering or routing. The uplink port is just a specially wired port that has the connections for the receive and transmit channels reversed. This allows connecting hubs together (sometimes called daisy-chaining) to provide more ports, or to connect a hub to some kinds of network devices (like cable or DSL modems). Go to this page for information on how to expand the number of ports on your router, hub or switch.
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