Home router LAN ports all used, but I need another LAN port?

[Fred Bloggs]

I guess there must be an easy way to add another couple of LAN ports onto my home router? All four ports are used but I need another one to connect a VOIP phone to. What's the easiest way to add more LAN ports to my router please? Thanks.

[eek]

I guess there must be an easy way to add another couple of LAN ports onto my home router? All four ports are used but I need another one to connect a VOIP phone to. What's the easiest way to add more LAN ports to my router please? Thanks.

A simple switch will do. Plug it is to the original router and put the phone and 1 other item into the switch.

Tenda 5-Port 10/100 Switch | Ebuyer.com have 1 for a £5 but no doubt other places will have them for similarish prices.

[xoggoth]

EEE. I didn't know you could that. Handy. Actually with all networking products, like on that link, the descriptions are so incomprehensible it's hard to know what they do. "easy installation, stable performance and high forwarding rate" were the only bits I understood.

Can one stick them on the far end of an ethernet cable and split to two PCs?

[eek]

EEE. I didn't know you could that. Handy. Actually with all networking products, like on that link, the descriptions are so incomprehensible it's hard to know what they do. "easy installation, stable performance and high forwarding rate" were the only bits I understood.

Can one stick them on the far end of an ethernet cable and split to two PCs?

Yep. Provided you don't start attaching switches to switches to switches you can use network switches to tidy up your network.

In your case you can change 2 long cables from pcs to router to 1 long cable, a switch connected to the router and two short cables connecting the pcs to the new switch.

[Fred Bloggs]

Thanks a lot, that's great.

[VectraMan]

Yep. Provided you don't start attaching switches to switches to switches you can use network switches to tidy up your network.

Any reason why you can't attach switches to switches to switches?

[eek]

Any reason why you can't attach switches to switches to switches?

Its because you are creating potential contention on that part of the network.

Imagine putting 7 servers on 1 switch and connecting 30 pcs via other switches on a single port. If they were all on a single switch they could ask for the data at full speed because they are not they share that 100mb line between 30.... machines.

[PAH]

I have two gigabit switches, daisy chained, with one attached to the broadband router. All works fine.

One switch is 8 port used to connect all my PC stuff, with one connection to the router.

The other is a 4 port switch, connected to the main switch, and is located near my TV to provide networking for my streamer and PS3.

If you have a recentish PC or laptop it's likely to have gigabit ethernet so worth paying a bit more for a gigabit switch, then you can transfer stuff around the network a lot faster.

It's piss easy to set up. Just plug in the switches and connect the network cables how you want them. They sort out all the communicating protocol bollocks without any user intervention or knowledge. If only networking was always this simple.

[VectraMan]

Its because you are creating potential contention on that part of the network.

Imagine putting 7 servers on 1 switch and connecting 30 pcs via other switches on a single port. If they were all on a single switch they could ask for the data at full speed because they are not they share that 100mb line between 30.... machines.

I wondered if you were going to say something about these cheap home switches not being able to handle the more complicated route to PCs that are more than one step removed. Though thinking about it I can't see why that would be an issue.

I remember having 30 PCs chained together on a 10-Base T coax cable. And we were happy*.

*Until it went wrong and then we were very unhappy spending hours going round trying to find the fault.

[Sysman]

If you have a recentish PC or laptop it's likely to have gigabit ethernet so worth paying a bit more for a gigabit switch, then you can transfer stuff around the network a lot faster.

Even if you only have one bit of kit with gigabit ethernet it's worth going for a gigabit switch, to protect your investment in the future. At the moment I am seeing quite a lot of the older 100Mb/s switches and routers on offer or still on shelves waiting to trap unwary customers. You need to look at the specs carefully.

It's piss easy to set up. Just plug in the switches and connect the network cables how you want them. They sort out all the communicating protocol bollocks without any user intervention or knowledge. If only networking was always this simple.

If I understand switches correctly, they will allow 2 system to chat to each other without sending that traffic to the rest of the network.

I witnessed a couple of network guys struggling with some Cisco managed switches the other week. The number of configurable options was quite fearsome...

They ended up putting the old ones back and taking the new ones away