I'm learning about networking. Imagine my joy.

[nonethefewer]

If the only difference between a hub and a repeater is that the former has multiple ports and the latter just has one set, then why are they two different things?

From Wikipedia:

An Ethernet hub, active hub, network hub, repeater hub, multiport repeater, or simply hub is a network hardware device for connecting multiple Ethernet devices together and making them act as a single network segment.

Was someone drunk or high the day they came up with this terminology? Am I being fucked with?

Comments

[vatine]

It all started with "repeaters" (essentially just an amplifier, taking an AUI transceiver cable on each end, and a power source). Then, there were multi-port repeaters (the only brand name I can recall are Delni), also solely for transceiver cables. Then, in the fiullness of time, mankind migrated off of 10Base-5 ("yellowsnake" or "thick ethernet") onto 10Base-2 ("blacksnake" or "thin ethernet"). Repeaters became more common, since you now were limited to un-amplified segments of ~180 metres instead of ~500 metres.

Then many moons passed and twisted pair was gifted to humankind, from the powers that be. And at this point, they decided that "hub" sounded like a jolly good name, for something forming the central point in a hub-and-spoke network.

[ivy]

Yeah. I haven't seen anyone use a repeater that wasn't a hub in at least 15 years. They're not very common any more at all. Even plain old hubs, almost no one uses -- in my world, they're all switches now.

[vatine]

You mean "multi-port bridges"? :)

[elgecko]

Exactly so! Of course, in the strictest sense there's now a more common sort of thing that is called a "range extender" but among the nerd (and especially radio nerd) world can be called a repeater. It's a radio that picks up your wi-fi signal and rebroadcasts it so you can extend its range through a building or larger house. =)