Login at Kodi Home

Zedd · 2011-08-18, 23:52

I ran CAT6 throughout the house and have a 6 port panel terminated in the room that has the cable modem in it, 3 rooms, 2 drops per room.. I actually have to feed 7 devices, the 6 wall panel and my own computer.

Is my option to buy a 8 port router or use my existing 6 port wireless/router and switch? I bought a switch thinking I would just plug the internet into the switch, plug the router into the switch and have 13 ports but i believe I made a noob mistake since the switch says it is not designed to feed internet to several computers?

I need the HTPC's to get back to my media server and while my wife uses wireless mostly she wants to plug into the internet using a cable from any room to get higher speeds when transferring photo's and what not.

Can someone explain what I need to buy to achieve that goal, the 8 port trendnet gigabit switch was pretty cheap so I don't mind if I don't have to use it and need to buy something else just want to buy the correct device this time.

eriqjaffe · 2011-08-19, 00:00

You can't go directly from the internet to the switch, as the switch won't know how to route the traffic properly. What you want to do is plug the internet into the router's WAN port (it may also say "Internet" right on it, depending on the router), and then plug the switch into any of the other ports on the route. From there, you can patch devices into the available ports on either one.

Quartermass · 2011-08-19, 00:01

You should still be ok, as I understand things. When it says the switch isn't designed to feed internet.. what it means is that the switch isn't designed to decide who gets what, your router should still be ok to do all this and the 6 port unmanaged switch will just really extend the number of ports your router has.

LB06 · 2011-08-19, 00:10

You'll be fine. Just plug your switch into the router (actually, the router also contains a switch but that's just details) and you're good to go.

If possible try to avoid connecting connecting devices that move a lot of traffic to the internet or to/from devices that are directly connected to the router, as all devices connected to your switch will have to share one port on your router.

Zedd · 2011-08-19, 01:37

Okay thanks guys would it help to connect like two router ports to 2 switch ports? will that get more bandwidth?

Zedd · (This post was last modified: 2011-08-19, 01:42 by Zedd.)

Also would it be best to have the media server plugged into the router or the switch? It will be serving the most traffic potentially with more then one HTPC in the house.

edit: Nevermind this was already answered, I put the media server on the router and the 3 ports that lead to htpcs, the rest of them can go onto the switch for the lighter bursty type of internet browsing.

Mallet21 · 2011-08-19, 03:48

Is the router gigabit? Don't you want the sever on the gig/e switch so that you can serve media at gig/e speeds? Hopefully an expert can chime in and clear this up for me.

DavidT99 · 2011-08-19, 16:08

LB06 Wrote:............If possible try to avoid connecting connecting devices that move a lot of traffic to the internet or to/from devices that are directly connected to the router, as all devices connected to your switch will have to share one port on your router.

I have read this many times and still don't understand what you are saying. Can you elaborate?

Thanks

eriqjaffe · 2011-08-19, 16:09

Zedd Wrote:Okay thanks guys would it help to connect like two router ports to 2 switch ports? will that get more bandwidth?

Generally, no. Some enterprise-level managed switches allow you to bond ports for more bandwidth (you're getting into hundreds of dollars there), but that's extremely rare on consumer-level unmanaged switches.

BigO · 2011-08-19, 16:31

Zedd:

I think your confused on network topography, your set up should be as follows

ISP(Modem/DSl/ONT)--->Router---> Switch--->patch-panel

If your switch is Gigabit and you have Gigabit interfaces on your computers, they should be plugged into that switch, if all your stuff is 100mb interfaces then it doesn't matter much.

For the most part, its always better to run your devices on the switch to take some work off of the router.

jschoen · 2011-08-19, 20:56

DavidT99 Wrote:I have read this many times and still don't understand what you are saying. Can you elaborate?

Thanks

Say you have:
Computer A => you store all your movies an music here
Computer B => your HTPC you run XBMC on
Computer C => random computer mainly used to surf the internet

You would want to make sure Computer A and B are both connected physically to the same device (the router or the switch) as that is where the most traffic is going to be. Computer C could be on either, as it really wouldn't matter.

The reason it matters, is you only have so much bandwidth between the router and the switch. So if Computer A and B where on opposite devices everything would have to travel through that cable (with limited bandwith). It becomes an issue as you add more computers that need to connect to computer A, and they are all having to go through that connection.

I probably confused you more, but I hope not. If I did let me know, and I'll try again. By the way I am not a network engineer, just a geek, so I could be completely wrong. This is just my understanding.

Labomba · 2011-08-19, 20:57

Guys, I have the same confusion here. Blush

I have wired my flat with Cat6 and was planning to swap my actual Wireless Modem Router (Belkin N+) for a Wired Modem (Dlink) coneccted to a Wireless Gigabit Router (Dlink DIR655) to have a gigabit lan between my main PC and my XBMC Zbox in the bedroom.
Instead, can I just stick a Gigabit Switch to one of the Belkin's ports and connect my PC and Zbox to the switch to have a gigabit connection? Does it work that way Huh

?

jschoen · (This post was last modified: 2011-08-19, 21:09 by jschoen.)

Labomba Wrote:Guys, I have the same confusion here.
I have wired my flat with Cat6 and was planning to swap my actual Wireless Modem Router (Belkin N+) for a Wired Modem (Dlink) coneccted to a Wireless Gigabit Router (Dlink DIR655) to have a gigabit lan between my main PC and my XBMC Zbox in the bedroom.
Instead, can I just stick a Gigabit Switch to one of the Belkin's ports and connect my PC and Zbox to the switch to have a gigabit connection? Does it work that way?

Yes. Just get a switch and connect it to an empty port on your existing router. Then connect your pc and Zbox to the switch. If they have gigabit they will be able to communicate at that rate.

*Edit Terminology*

Just as a note, people tend to call things by the wrong name. Somtimes just explaining that helps people.

Modem is used to connect to your ISP to get you a connection to internet.
Router is used to connect to take the connection from your Modem and share among multiple devices in your home. Could be wired and/or wireless.
Switch is connected to your modem or other switches to allow you to wire in more devices to your network

It does not help in the confusion that these can and are often combined. For instance most Routers sold are technically a router with a built in switch. I have even seen Modems that where wireless routers with a built in switch also.

Hope this helps.

Labomba · 2011-08-19, 21:08

Oh God!! Why I didn't ask that before.
Let's go back to eBay to sell a brand new wired modem and a wireless router... Laugh

... and to buy a gigabit switch!

About switches, is there any better model or special features to look for?

jschoen · 2011-08-19, 21:11

Labomba Wrote: Oh God!! Why I didn't ask that before.
Let's go back to eBay to sell a brand new wired modem and a wireless router... ... and to buy a gigabit switch!

About switches, is there any better model or special features to look for?

For home stuff, you do not need anything fancy. I personally have 8 port Netgear switches that are about 2 years old and have not had any problems with them. But as always everyone has there own brand preferences.