Switch - Take a hub and give it a brain and you've got yourself a switch. A switch performs essentially the same function as a hub, but it does it in a more efficient fashion. Like the hub, a switch can also have as few as four ports or as many as forty-eight, with one port reserved for each computer (or another networking device). The switch "learns" and remembers which computers are on which of its ports. When the switch receives data from one computer which is meant for a second computer, it sends the data out ONLY on the port attached to that second computer. All the other ports remain quiet.
This means that many simultaneous "conversations" can take place without interfering with one another. So, in this manner, a switch allows for more efficient communication.
