will adding a HUB slow down broadband internet speeds?

[Matt_Smi]

This queston is for a friend. He has three computers online and two PS2's in his house. But in his room he only has one ethernet jack, so whenever he plays PS2 online he needs to remove the cable from his computer and hook it into his PS2. His routers 4 ports are all full so tapping into that is out. So he wants to get a HUB to split the internet between his PS2 and computer in his room. But he is worried that this will slow down his internet surf/download speeds and maybe cause games to lag. So my queston is will adding the hub make anything go noticeably slower? And would a switch be any better than a HUB in this situation? Thanks.

[bailey]

tell him to get a 4 port switch and he will be fine

[Confused]

A hub broadcast received data to all connected PC's. Thus the more PC's connected the greater the chance for collsions and retrasmits.

A switch sends received data to individual PC's by address.

If it is only a couple of PC's I would probably go with the hub simply because it's cheaper. I think the key is how much would the PC's connected to the hub be used. The broadcast is only going to occur for the hub connectd PC's, the router will direct traffic to the other PC's. I agree with Bailey though that a switch is the best solution or get a 8 port router.
Chas

[MulderMan]

wut speeds his internet???

[gunrunnerjohn]

Hell, in the case you're talking about, either a hub or switch would work fine. You will not see any speed loss, since your network speed is many times faster than your broadband speed. You could see a very small lag through a switch, but it's measured in microseconds, and I doubt you could detect it without a lot of work! Since 4-5 port switches are available for less than $20, it's pretty easy to solve this problem.