[mythtv-users] OT: Adding more network connections

[Damian]

Tom E Craddock, Jr wrote:
> 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
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> 

Great,

As is always the case with this list, thanks for everyone's help!

Cheers
Damian