[mythtv-users] OT: Adding more network connections
Damian
damian at gingermagic.co.uk
Sat Jul 21 19:49:02 UTC 2007
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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>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
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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
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