>Hi
>My software works fine on a LAN with a Switch, but a Hub makes all linked clients very slow.
>What can be done to decrease the banwidth needs of a software?
>
>Thanks,
In Visual FoxPro, I would say, the main step would be to optimize queries. This will make them faster, and use less bandwidth.
But I think you - or your clients - should seriously consider using a switch instead of a hub.
The reason a hub is much slower is because any transmission that goes to the hub is repeated to ALL computers connected. Thus, the bandwidth is shared among ALL the connected computers. This is acceptable for a small network (maximum 5-10 computers, and applications that don't require much bandwidth), but it is not appropriate for a larger network, or when the individual computers require a lot of bandwidth. For example, with 100 computers interconnected only through a group of hubs, if the bandwidth is 100 Mbps, each computer will only be able to transmit 1 Mbps, if all try to transmit at the same time. This is reduced even further by collisions (if two computers try to send information at the same time, information gets lost, and the network cards have to try again).
Most of the time, a switch will redirect a transmission only to the intended destionation. Thus, they don't share the bandwidth, nad computer "A" can transmit to computer "B" at the full 100 Mbps, and computer "C" can talk to computer "D", also at 100 Mbps.
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