Disadvantages of using Hub

Network hubs are at a disadvantage against switches in every technical area. Switches and hubs perform the same general function of connecting computers, as well as computer-like devices, to a network, but switches do everything better.

The only advantage of a hub is that it costs less than a comparable switch, but networking equipment is becoming increasingly affordable, making this price difference negligible. Hubs support networking, but they do not prioritize or sort traffic. The switch acts as a smarter version of the hub and improves the network experience.

The Hub can only communicate in half-duplex mode

Network hubs can only communicate in half-duplex mode. They can only send or receive data at any one time. A hub in the network constantly switches between sending and receiving data, which creates an inefficient data flow process. Network switches can communicate in full-duplex mode, sending and receiving data from every connected device at the same time, without having to switch modes.

No dedicated bandwidth

Disadvantages of using Hub Picture 1

Network hubs share all of their bandwidth between every connected device. In a hypothetical situation, a 100-base hub has 100Mbps of bandwidth for four different computers sharing the connection. If one computer is sending a large file to another computer, it will take up all the bandwidth and cause the other two computers to access the network slowly.

Network hubs are at a major disadvantage against switches in providing dedicated bandwidth to each device. For example, if 2 of 8 computers connected to the same network switch are sending large files back and forth, the remaining 6 computers will still have full bandwidth.

Hub cannot distinguish devices

Disadvantages of using Hub Picture 2

Hubs are at a disadvantage compared to switches, because hubs cannot distinguish between devices on the network. If one computer is trying to connect to another computer in a hub-based network, the hub sends messages to every other computer on the network, consuming bandwidth for each transmission. If one computer is trying to connect to another computer in a switch-based network, the switch recognizes which computer the information needs to go to and sends it only to that computer, which significantly reduces traffic. data.

Network size

Disadvantages of using Hub Picture 3

Hubs cannot support large networks like switches, because hubs send all traffic to every device on the network. The more devices you add, the slower the network becomes, eventually becoming unusable. In contrast, switches transfer network traffic directly so they can be used with networks with dozens of devices without problems. The Hub may start to have performance issues when more than 8 devices share the connection. Network hubs are often far behind switches when it comes to handling this problem.

Micah Soto

Update 28 October 2023