A couple questions

[Bradte20]

Trying to understand netorking better. I've heard a lot of discussion about Hubs vs. Switches. I understand that switches are capable of doing more than one action at at a time. What is say, a wirless router with a dsl model built in, considered to be? I know this is just a LAN but is there anything that gives it a hub or switch characteristic. Also, I've heard that with hubs everything goes through the computer connected to the hub. Here is another question. Say I am using my laptop to access wireless internet. There are other computers plugged into the router and other laptops using the wireless signal. Is any activity going through the other computers or am I communicating strictly with the wireless router. I know I've ask similar questions before but am confused. My question is this ( Is my internet activity going to show up on the other computers connected to the network? I know routers may show logs etc, but unless there is an effort made to to this, aren't all my web site requests only seen on my pc.

[z1p]

Some quick defs (By me so take them with a grain of salt)

Hub - Basically a multiport repeater. What comes in on one connection gets sent out on all the other connection.

Switch - Acts more like a traffic cop. When a packet comes in it 'switches' it out on one connection depending on its destination. (actually broadcast packets can go out on more than one connection, but that is what they are for... )

Most routers for the home market are really router/switches. In the case of adsl modem/router, its really a modem, router, and switch in one package.

As far as wireless goes, the network traffic that is sent wirelessly from the computer to the router/wiress access point can be captured by other computers. This is why WEP or WPA encryption should be used.

The direct answer to your question is no, computers connected to your router cannot see your network traffic through the router. Unless, it is traffic that is directed to them.

I hope this is some what clear and helps.
-z1p

[Bradte20]

yes very helpful, thanks zip

[z1p]

NP... We aim to please