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I know I'm really reaching here, but does anyone know any source for a 1Gbit Ethernet hub? Not a router, not a switch, but a hub.

I've been told by the Powers That Be that they shalt not allow any more switches on their network, any tie-ins must be via a hub. Yes, I know hubs have all sorts of issues, but I have no control over this.

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  • 11
    Time to start looking for a new job. Not allowing more switches on the network is a recipe for disaster.
    – Tom O'Connor
    Jun 17, 2010 at 11:30
  • I'm not sure that hubs are even allowed per the gigabit standard. I was reading about it awhile back, and for some reason I think I saw that in there, having to do with the auto crossover feature implementation? Or, it could have been a dream brought on by a late night pepperoni pizza too... :-)
    – Brian Knoblauch
    Jun 17, 2010 at 12:20
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    That's a strange mandate. I would think they would take the opposite approach and ban hubs. Maybe they're worried about someone setting up a port monitor, or VLAN's or messing up their STP topology.
    – joeqwerty
    Jun 18, 2010 at 21:03
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    You work for idiots. Start updating your resume.
    – MDMarra
    Oct 27, 2011 at 20:04
  • I'd be tempted to go the malicious compliance route. Source a whole ton of 100Mb hubs and replace all the switches with them.
    – MikeyB
    Oct 27, 2011 at 23:54

4 Answers 4

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Buy a managed switch, disable learning and you have a hub. But, seriously, try to find the reason for this policy. It sounds like somebody read the Ethernet limitations on segment size and didn't understand what it meant.

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    I bet it's some poor network topology + a security sniffer/sensor so they can keep an eye on all network traffic....
    – Jason
    Jun 17, 2010 at 11:49
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    ARP Poisoning, or decent switches with port mirroring would work fine.
    – Dentrasi
    Jun 17, 2010 at 11:58
  • ARP Flooding might work (ARP poisoning is something different), but would wreck havoc on all other switches on the network. Often you can't turn on mirroring on more than one port.
    – pehrs
    Jun 17, 2010 at 12:33
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Afaik, there are no 1Gbit hubs.

The whole situation sounds like a snafu. Have the Powers That Be buy you a hub.

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    Technically, CSMA/CD is in the gigabit Ethernet standard, but you'll never find an implementation. Who would want half-duplex gigabit Ethernet?
    – Evan Anderson
    Jun 17, 2010 at 11:53
  • Cisco GigaStack modules for the old 3500XL (and 2950/3550) series only operated in half duplex mode. There were specific architectural reasons for it, though.
    – James Sneeringer
    Oct 27, 2011 at 22:09
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Last time I looked to buy a new hub (Easier than Mirror Port in some cases for trouble shooting) I had trouble finding even a fast ethernet one. There may be gigabit switches but I would guess the selection is not that good so you might have trouble finding a production quality one. It also sounds like something that might not even work (I'm no electrical engineer by any means, but sounds like maybe heat or "backplane", if a hub even has this notion, problems).

I would first be very sure they know what they are asking. I would find out "why?" because maybe you just need to implement STP or something like that. The general wisdom is to "pick your battles" -- this sounds like one worth picking.

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Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) is used in full-duplex mode only. While building a hub is theoretically possible, to my knowledge there is no such thing.

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  • Oh, I didn't know that. I've always figured that since there are no dedicated wire pairs for sending and transmitting, there is no way to detect collisions. I edited my answer accordingly.
    – lxgr
    Oct 27, 2011 at 19:56
  • No worries, that's a much better answer :)
    – Mark Henderson
    Oct 27, 2011 at 20:35