Direct node to node communication

Hi.

I currently have several machines connected to a Netgear MR814 (802.11b
+ 4 wired ports) router. Currently, my notebook machine and ReplayTV are
both connected to it wirelessly (PCMCIA card and Netgear ME101 802.11b
bridge, respectively).

My question is: If I take a wired hub and plug my ReplayTV and notebook
into it, will they talk to each other directly, even while they obtain
DHCP addresses from the router? (The ME101 bridge isn't robust enough to
sustain data transfers of meaningful size.)

On the one hand, I understand my home network to be a star topology,
whereby everything revolves around the router. On the other hand, I've
also read that machines on the same subnet talk directly to each
other...I'm pretty confused.

Thanks for any help!
Dave

"Sinep" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) k.net...
> Hi.
>
> I currently have several machines connected to a Netgear MR814 (802.11b
> + 4 wired ports) router. Currently, my notebook machine and ReplayTV are
> both connected to it wirelessly (PCMCIA card and Netgear ME101 802.11b
> bridge, respectively).
>
> My question is: If I take a wired hub and plug my ReplayTV and notebook
> into it, will they talk to each other directly, even while they obtain
> DHCP addresses from the router? (The ME101 bridge isn't robust enough to
> sustain data transfers of meaningful size.)

Should do - and it must be pretty easy to test.
>
> On the one hand, I understand my home network to be a star topology,
> whereby everything revolves around the router. On the other hand, I've
> also read that machines on the same subnet talk directly to each
> other...I'm pretty confused.

The confusion may be because there are 2 layers in the protocol stack
involved.

The wired and wireless ports should all be in the same subnet - the bridge
functions in the Netgear router and AP tie it all together.

IP devices on the same subnet talk directly - they use ARP to find the MAC
address for the target IP and send data directly. Anything off subnet gets
given to the router to decide where to send it.
>
> Thanks for any help!
> Dave
--
Regards

Stephen Hope - remove xx from email to reply