text: ARCNET had the disadvantage of requiring either an active or passive hub between nodes if there were more than two nodes in the network, while thin Ethernet allowed nodes to be spaced anywhere along the linear coax cable. However, ARCNET passive hubs were very inexpensive, being composed of a simple, small, unpowered box with four ports, wired together with nothing more than four discrete resistors, so the disadvantage was not significant. This disadvantage can also be seen as an advantage, often the cost of a 4 port ARCNET passive hub was less than cost of the 4 BNC Tee connectors and 2 terminators that thin Ethernet requires to connect 4 computers, and unlike BNC Tee connectors that could sometimes be hard to obtain in the early days of Ethernet, an ARCNET passive hub could be easily manufactured in the field with 9 readily available parts (4 connectors, 4 resistors and a box to put them in).
  Passive hubs limited the distance between a node and an active hub to . A passive hub could not be connected directly to another passive hub. Unused ports on both types of hubs had to be terminated with a special connector. This special connector, called a terminator, is nothing more than a BNC connector with a 93 ohm resistor in it. Thin Ethernet also requires nearly identical terminators at the 2 terminal ends, the only difference being Ethernet uses a 50 ohm resistor.
  To reduce costs, while still allowing coverage over a wide area, a common practice was to use one or more interconnected active hubs, each of which provided coverage for nodes no more than  away. Cable was run from each port of the active hubs to a different location no more than  away. A passive hub would then be attached to the end of the cable, and cables would be run locally from the passive hub, allowing connection of up to three nodes. In this way, a single 8-port active hub could be used to connect 24 networked devices over an area not exceeding  in diameter.