Network switches are faster, more efficient and destined to dominate network infrastructures.
But for right now, network managers who need to find the shortest, least expensive route to upgrading their systems have plenty of good reasons to include stackable hubs in their plans. Network hubs, often called repeaters, are among the traditional building blocks of networks. They work by sharing available bandwidth among all connected devices on the network. Stackable hubs are freestanding or 19-inch rackmount units connected in a vertical stack by special cables and port connections. A stack of hubs appears to the network to be a single logical domain, and it multiplies the number of available ports in a single hub by the number of hubs in the stack.