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Hub versus switch

Local networks · free online experiment, runs in your browser with no install or sign-up.

Open this experiment in the network simulator

Objective

Same traffic through a hub: every host sees every frame. Replace the hub with a switch to stop that.

Procedure

  1. Press Run and look at the capture: frames addressed to H2 are also delivered to H3 and H4.
  2. Delete the hub, add a Switch, relink the hosts and run again.

Theory

A hub repeats each frame to all ports (one shared collision domain). A switch learns MAC addresses and forwards unicast frames only to the destination port.

Network blocks used

4 × Host / PC, Hub

Open this experiment in the network simulator

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