[mythtv-users] OT: Adding more network connections

[Damian]

Mike Perkins wrote:
> 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
> 
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> 

Thanks for that Mike,

I didn't think that the best thing would be to remove everything from 
the Router apart from the switch. That's interesting.

Is one switch much like another, or are there a few key things I need to 
look out for?

Cheers
Damian