Expanding my home network..

[failurbydesign]

I have a Netgear wireless n router with the standard 4 or 5 ports on the back. Im going to hard wire each room in my house with 1-3 cat5e ports. How can i gain more ports for the hardwired cat5 and still keep my wifi, from what i read i will need a switch? Not sure how it can work, but any advice will help!!

 

[LeeJend]

Just plug a switche into the existing router hard ports. You can daisy chain multiple switches together or get one big one. Which approach is cheapest will depend on how many total ports you need. 5 port switches are dirt cheap, 8 port switches start getting a little pricey, after that your into commercial equipmnet that can get down right nasty on pricing.

 

[Johnny]

Yeah, like leejend said. You can hook a switch up to the router and have as may as 250 computers hooked up to the network ..

 

[dreamliner77]

Also, while you're doing the hard wiring, you might as well run cat 6 cable and get gigabit switches... you know, future proofing.

 

[Johnny]

That is a good point, Dreamliner ..

 

[failurbydesign]

Thanks for the replies!

So all i have to do is connect the switch to any open port on my wifi router? Thats it?

The reason i'm using cat 5e is that at my work we have to use cat 6 (as of 2010), so we have 12 extra brand new rolls of cat 5e (which i get one or two)... which is great since its free! 🙂

 

[Johnny]

Yep, just hook the switch up to an open port on your router ..

 

[LordOfLA]

5e will run gige 🙂 5 will too but not over long distances...

 

[dreamliner77]

Free is the best kind.

 

[failurbydesign]

Free is the best kind.

Hell yea!!

 

[failurbydesign]

Whats a good switch to use?

 

[LordOfLA]

Anything by cisco, juniper, netgear

 

[Johnny]

Anything by cisco, juniper, netgear

I echo this 100%.

 

[fitz]

Cisco/Juniper might be overkill for a home network. Netgear has some decent SOHO switching. I suppose it depends on what your needs are.

Very hard to give a good recommendation without stating needs and budgets.. from earlier in the thread, I'm assuming you don't need any managed type switches or layer 3 capability.. so, you're really looking for just a basic SOHO switch - which is why I say Cisco/Juniper are probably overkill.

 

[LordOfLA]

He asked for good switches 🙂

 

[fitz]

He asked for good switches 🙂

well, Technically he asked

Whats a good switch to use?

Which implies (at least to me) "what's a good switch to use [for my situation]?" rather than just a blanket, open-ended discussion type question like "what are good switches in general?"

🙂 😛 🙄

**note: just giving ya a hard time Lord 😛

 

[LordOfLA]

I'd have no issue dropping one of these on my desk: EX2200 Ethernet Switches - Ethernet Solutions - Juniper Networks

I might have to question one of these however... EX8200 Ethernet Switches - Modular Ethernet Solutions - Juniper Networks