[mythtv-users] OT: Adding more network connections

[Mike Perkins]

Damian wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I have a netgear router (DG834) which has 4 network ports. I'd like to 
> add more ports for extra machines (actually audio devices like the 
> Squeezebox). Should I just buy a network switch to add more ports? I'm 
> assuming that I plug a switch into one of the ports and then the 
> computer that was in the router will now plug into the switch along with 
> anything extra that I add. If that's the thing to do, what do I need to 
> look for in a network switch? Will my router simply see everything as a 
> different device as thought the switch didn't exist?
> 
Two points. (1) *always* buy a bigger switch than you need. It saves in 
the long run. You have *no* idea how quickly you can accumulate gear 
that needs networking. Switches these days are very cheap.

(2) I'm assuming your router is your connection to the outside world, 
and may contain an inbuilt firewall. Unplug all your gear from your 
router and plug it into the switch. Connect the switch to the router 
with one wire, connect the router to the wild west (sorry, internet) 
with another.

The switch learns which of your items is on which wire, and only sends 
signals from the source to the port with the specified destination on 
it, so makes much better use of the wire's bandwidth.

The other side effect of the above is that the switch doesn't have to be 
anywhere near your router. This means that you can sometimes rationalise 
your wiring arrangements. If you have more than one server, for 
instance, it may make sense to put your switch mear the servers.

Mike Perkins