On Sat, 2002-04-27 at 06:30, Dave Ihnat wrote: > On Thu, Apr 25, 2002 at 12:33:50AM -0700, gabriel wrote: > > i've got two machines using to different ips connected to one hub, > > which is in turn connected to the cable modem. the ips are _not_ > > on the same subnet, > > A couple of people have suggested you get a router; this is a good > idea, but generally speaking, with only two machines you shouldn't > see significant bandwidth contention if both are configured properly. > A router/firewall will give you a lot of things, but it shouldn't affect > your data transfer rate significantly.
It will between the two computers, certainly. If the two are on different numbered networks, then they don't know the shorted path between each other. Rather, they send all of their traffic out the cable modem, to the default gateway, which sends it back. All of the "local" traffic ends up limited to the outgoing speed of the cable modem (which is normally pretty low). It also congests the cable network that his neighbors use, and exposes all of his local traffic (possibly passwords!!) to his neighbors. With a router, his machines would end up on the same network, and would not need to send packets on long, roundabout paths.
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part
