Question

a small law office has a network with three switches (8 ports), one hub (4 ports), and one router (2 ports). switch 1 (switch port 8) is connected to an interface port (fastethernet0/0) on the router. switch 2 (switch port 8) and switch 3 (switch port 8) are connected to switch 1 (switch ports 1 and 2). the hub has three computers plugged into it on ports 1, 2, and 3. the fourth port on the hub is connected to the router's other interface port (fastethernet0/1). based on the configuration described here, how many broadcast domains are there within this network?

Answer 1

The network with three switches, one hub, and one router has three broadcast domains: one for each of the router's two ports and one common domain among all switch and hub ports.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question asks about the number of broadcast domains in a network with three switches, one hub, and one router. A broadcast domain is essentially a segment of a network where a broadcast frame sent by a device will be heard by all other devices in that segment. In a typical setup, routers and Layer 3 switches divide broadcast domains, while switches and hubs do not. Every port on a router is in a separate broadcast domain.

Since there is one router with two ports in the described network, there are two broadcast domains from the router. However, switches do not create separate broadcast domains, and neither do hubs, they merely extend them.

Therefore, all ports on switch 1, switch 2, switch 3, and the hub belong to the same broadcast domain.

In this scenario, the network has three broadcast domains: one for each router port, and one for the switch and hub interconnected.