[mythtv-users] OT: Adding more network connections

[Tom E Craddock, Jr]

Damian wrote:
> 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
>>
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>>
>>     
>
> 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
>
>
>   
Damian,

Yean , you want your router/firewall app to be the first and only 
contact with the outside world (internet). If you have say a linksys or 
some other such device, it does this already.  THe main port that says 
internet on the back is, if you will, separated from other 4 or so ports 
that act as a hub usually. If you have such a device, fine use all 4 
ports, but hook the last port (4) or (5) if you have a x-over cable, to 
the switch you looking to buy.  That will allow you to use all the ports 
on the Linksys and connect it to the switch so that it may to "talk" to 
the internet.   If you have a PC that youve built yourself acting as a 
router (say a linux machine running any linux distro and turned into a 
router, or using one of the specific linux distros for a router) then 
your doing the same thing, just with usually only 2 network connections, 
one external to the internet, one internal to your network, which you 
would in turn connect a switch to.  Hopefully this all makes sense to 
you, as I suck @ ASCII art and dont have a readily avail PDF on network 
connectivity, but Im sure you can google one up if you like. 

As far as what to look for in a switch, do any/all your devices/machines 
have gigabit interfaces? Plan on getting them?  Most people will move up 
to gigabit eventually, so why not look for a switch that has 10/100/1000 
on all ports. I installed two of them at my office and they work great, 
shouldve just got one 48 port, but i have 2 24 ports ones that work 
fine, and all ports go up to 1000.  Aside from that, most switches for 
the home market are the same, i.e. you usually cant/dont config them 
thru a webpage, but your corporate vs will if thats important to you 
(think traffic shaping, port throttling, etc.)  Just head up to your 
local Bic PC Mart (whatever kind you have in your area) and get at LEAST 
a 24 port switch. Shouldnt be more than 100-150 USD.


Tom