The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Noob Question, Sorry

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by eggyu, Jun 8, 2007.

  1. eggyu

    eggyu Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Can anyone explain to me what a ether-net switch does? I have one connected to my wireless router (i bought the whole system from the guys who lived in the house before me and they just left it setup) and would like to know what it does.
     
    eggyu, Jun 8, 2007
    #1
  2. coriolis

    coriolis Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,319
    Messages:
    14,119
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    455
    The Ethernet port on your notebook, if plugged in using a RJ45 ethernet cable, connects your notebook to your router/modem through wires.

    However, you don't have to do that, since if there is a router set up, you can just connect to it wirelessly.
     
    coriolis, Jun 8, 2007
    #2
  3. sanpabloguy

    sanpabloguy Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    174
    Messages:
    714
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Welcome to NBR. No need to apologize for questions.

    The Wikipedia Entry on Ethernet Switches should help answer your question.

    Very basically, an ethernet switch automatically divides the network into multiple segments, acts as a high-speed, selective bridge among the segments, and supports simultaneous connections of multiple pairs of computers .
     
    sanpabloguy, Jun 8, 2007
    #3