A hub is a networking component that allows a connection to branch out to multiple devices, effectively 'splitting' a single connection into multiple connections. All of the devices connected to the switch are directly connecting to the network, unlike a router which creates or manages an internal network. Hubs broadcast data transferred to all clients connected to the hub, which can lead to network congestion on a busy network. Some networking applications, however, require that all clients receive any data that is broadcast and so hubs are naturally a good choice in these situations.