Netgear ETHERNET SWITCH SW108 User Manual download pdf (Page 9)

Introduction 1-1

Chapter 1

Introduction

Congratulations on your purchase of the NETGEAR

™

Model SW108 8-port Ethernet Switch.

The Model SW108 switch segments Ethernet networks to relieve bandwidth congestion instantly,

without having to replace network wiring, interface cards, or software.

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 cross-segment trafﬁc only to the appropriate segment.

The trafﬁc will not show up in the other segments since it is ﬁltered out. In this way, network

capacity is fully reserved for trafﬁc destined for that segment only, and other segments are not

saturated with unnecessary trafﬁc.

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

client-server functions among users who are spread out over the network.

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Netgear ETHERNET SWITCH SW108 User Manual Page 9