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Chapter 1
Introduction
Congratulations on your purchase of the NETGEAR™ Model SW108
This guide describes how to install and use the switch. It includes physical configuration guidelines for connecting multiple 10 megabit per second (Mbps) hubs and for connecting 10 Mbps Ethernet stations, PCs, and servers.
Benefits of Using Switching Technology
Most of installed networks today are based on shared network technology. With this technology, a number of users or groups of users share 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or other amounts of available network bandwidth (network capacity). For example, with a total of 10 users, the average bandwidth available to each user on a 10 Mbps network is calculated as 10/10 Mbps, or 1 Mbps of bandwidth per user.
Ethernet switches significantly increase network throughput by segmenting network traffic. They check traffic coming in to each port to learn which network device is located on which segment. Based on this information, switches forward
Ethernet switches provide private, dedicated, 10 Mbps capacity to each connected PC/server or hub/workgroup segment, which is significantly higher than in a shared environment. The higher bandwidth enables applications such as multimedia, imaging, video, or high- performance
Introduction |