Build your own Hub?

[josh]

Hi,
Has anyone built their own hub, or know what one looks like inside or what components are used inside?
Thinking about building a custom hub for my network.
Cheers,
Josh

[Greenstead]

I would say a couple of things.
Hubs can be bought so cheap it is not worth building your own.

e.g. new 8 port hub for £22.
http://www.thepcshopuk.com/Shop/Product_Details.asp?DP=4901&RP=0&ref=dealtime

or try ebay 5 port hub £2.99
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2068634557

Also a hub is a dumb piece of networking equipment and undesirable. A switch is far preferable and they are not too costly either.
Still, if cash is your problem go for a cheap hub.

[josh]

Just enjoy building things. Buying all the bits and plugging them together is far too easy!!

[Greenstead]

I see. Thats nice to hear. It sounds a good way to understand how things work.

My understanding of a simple hub is that it merely phyically connects the wires together. The downside is only one device can talk at a time and only half duplex. Which is why it is so undesirable compared to a switch which connects the devices directly and allows all connections to talk at the same time in full duplex.

There is a website with simple explanations of how things work here:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/category.htm?cat=Netw
Or this for network switching:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/lan-switch.htm

But I didn't see any description of the internals of a hub.