A switch is an intranetwork device designed to increase performance through LAN segmentation. Switching uses microsegmentation to isolate traffic. Upon arrival at the hub, a packet's destination address is read and the packet is sent directly to the relevant port - not to all ports, as it would be with a repeater.
For networks experiencing a shortage of bandwidth, the introduction of a 10Mbps switch will only move the bottleneck from the hub to the
To significantly increase performance it is necessary to open up the pipe to the server. In the past this was achieved by segmenting the network and installing multiple NICs in the server, or putting the server on a
As a technology it is easier and cheaper to implement than FDDI and will run on both multimode fiber and category 5 cabling. Links can also be made directly to servers, hubs/switches and power users without the need for costly hardware or recabling. However, Fast Ethernet is not suitable for a
How Fast Ethernet is implemented depends on the structure of your environment, the location of users and servers and the use of virtual LANs, which allow users to be associated with a specific workgroup regardless of physical location. This is particularly important if you have client/server databases being accessed throughout your organization, or staff in various locations sharing large amounts of data.
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