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Household network setup advice required

Bargain.hunter_4
Posts: 195 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
Bit complicated, but stay with me......
Have a BT homehub setup at home and all the ports are used downstairs.
I am using a powerline adaptor to send signal upstairs, but have 2 pcs and a network printer that I need to connect.
I believe the normal solution here would be to connect the powerline adaptor and the ethernet cables to an ethernet hub???
Unfortunately I do not have a hub, but before i buy one, I would mention that i Have a belkin modem router model number F5D8633 - 4.
I have tried to use this router as a switch, but for some reason it does not seem to be doing the job, even though I know it works. Also sometimes, it kills my internet connection both upsatirs and down. I assume this is because it is advertising itself as the default gateway. I have spoken with belkin and they tell me that using a router for the purpose i require is not possible.
Before I go out a buy a hub, can anyone give any tips on the belkin. I am very surprised that a router with 4 ports cannot be used as a hub as it easily pperforms this function when it was my primary adsl router.
Any advice would be appreciated, but please note, that wireless connectivity is not an option at current.
Also, if you do not know of any solution with the belkin, any ideas on a good, but affordable hub would be appreciated. This is not being used for anything traffic heavy so so a lower spec hub woudl suffice.
Thanks in advance.
Have a BT homehub setup at home and all the ports are used downstairs.
I am using a powerline adaptor to send signal upstairs, but have 2 pcs and a network printer that I need to connect.
I believe the normal solution here would be to connect the powerline adaptor and the ethernet cables to an ethernet hub???
Unfortunately I do not have a hub, but before i buy one, I would mention that i Have a belkin modem router model number F5D8633 - 4.
I have tried to use this router as a switch, but for some reason it does not seem to be doing the job, even though I know it works. Also sometimes, it kills my internet connection both upsatirs and down. I assume this is because it is advertising itself as the default gateway. I have spoken with belkin and they tell me that using a router for the purpose i require is not possible.
Before I go out a buy a hub, can anyone give any tips on the belkin. I am very surprised that a router with 4 ports cannot be used as a hub as it easily pperforms this function when it was my primary adsl router.
Any advice would be appreciated, but please note, that wireless connectivity is not an option at current.
Also, if you do not know of any solution with the belkin, any ideas on a good, but affordable hub would be appreciated. This is not being used for anything traffic heavy so so a lower spec hub woudl suffice.
Thanks in advance.
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Comments
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just a stab here: are your powerline adapters transfer rate above 100Mb, which probably is the highest rate your modem can handle0
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Not sure, but that should only mean that the router is a bottleneck. Apparently Belkin told me it was my model.... but I am not sure as the helpdesk person i spoke to didnt really fill me with confidence as she kept getting confused andputting me on hold. Not sure if she couldnt just work it out and so gave up.0
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No, there are 3 'standard' speeds - 10Meg, 100meg and 1G. Each laptop is made to work with most of them, but depends on age.
Most router especially the older ones can only do 100M, some do 10Meg. Only until very recently (about two months) have to 1G switches dropped in price.
If your plugs are quicker than 100m, the switch will not be able to both recognise the data and deal with the speed of the data. Switches re not adaptive like adsl routers
yes, wireless is 300meg in channel mode but F5D8633- Ports
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- LAN: 4x 10/100Base-T auto-sensing and auto-uplink RJ45 ports
- WAN: 1x 10/100Base-T RJ11 ADSL port
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Ok, i have the comtrend powergrid 9020 powerlien adaptors which are capable of up to 200 mbps.
Surely my router can cope with that. Also please note it is an adsl router, but i just dont need to use the adsl function.0 -
I looked up the spec of those adapters and they should work on 10/100. Yes, your idea does sound plausable.
this is sort of your setup http://www.unix.ms/netgear/
I would disable the dhcp and dns on the belkin and make sure the equipment gets valid ips0 -
Thats exactly the setup i am trying to acieve. Is it easy to do the above? as it seems to have stumped theirr support.
If i am indeed flgging a dead horse would one of these work?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RJ45-5-Port-10-100-Fast-Ethernet-Network-LAN-Switch-hub-/180444649153?pt=UK_Computing_NetworkSwitches_RL&hash=item2a0356d6c10 -
How were you connecting it? Your Belkin is an ADSL wireless router and you can't connect it to the phone line while your BT hub is connected. There is just the vaguest chance that if you plug your ethernet lead from the BT hub (via your powerline adaptors) into one of the sockets in your Belkin it may act as a dumb hub or switch so long as you turn off DHCP to avoid confilcts and you could then use the other 3 for devices but I wouldn't put any bets on it. Far better to buy a proper hub or switch to do the job.0
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If you disable DHCP on it as kwikbreaks suggests before you connect it to your network properly then it should work as a switch just fine. I've done the same thing myself several times.0
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Mondez - were you able to get WiFi to work from it too or didn't you try? My guess would be that it wouldn't work but it is just that - a guess.0
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I would buy a gig switch for upstairs have run a cable to the home hub as then the 2 pc's and printer can communicate with each other across a 1 gig network (dependant on network card speeds) I just don't like using powerline adapters myself.0
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