8 Port Gigabit Ethernet help please..

kwikbreaks

That switch will be fine. Pretty much any 5 port switch will handle the requirement you specified. There will be just one spare port though so if you see any chance of needing more then take an 8 port switch.

fred246

Are all these devices in the same room? won't you have cables everywhere? I used to do that sort of thing years ago. Now I use powerline adapters. Very neat solution and work really well. Your PCs etc all plug into a mains socket so it's easy to put in a powerline adapter. Just look at all the reviews on Amazon. There isn't only me who think they are fab.

sparkiemalarkie

fred246 wrote: »

Are all these devices in the same room? won't you have cables everywhere? I used to do that sort of thing years ago. Now I use powerline adapters. Very neat solution and work really well. Your PCs etc all plug into a mains socket so it's easy to put in a powerline adapter. Just look at all the reviews on Amazon. There isn't only me who think they are fab.

No they're not in the same room.
I've got 3 powerline adapters and they're not getting the signal upstairs very well for some reason.


sparkie

kwikbreaks

Probably upstairs is on a different ring main. Most would be wired that way. Although powerline adapters will work on different rings they work better on the same one. I'm guessing the reason is that the two rings join back at the consumer unit so the distance is greater than for two on the same ring.

It may be that they are older ones that don't operate at the sort of speeds you can get now - treat the headline rates quoted with an enormous pinch of salt. It amused me to see that supposed 200Mbps ones come with 100Mbps ethernet connectors for instance and don't forget that whatever they do achieve will be shared between them.

sparkiemalarkie

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Probably upstairs is on a different ring main. Most would be wired that way. Although powerline adapters will work on different rings they work better on the same one. I'm guessing the reason is that the two rings join back at the consumer unit so the distance is greater than for two on the same ring.

It may be that they are older ones that don't operate at the sort of speeds you can get now - treat the headline rates quoted with an enormous pinch of salt. It amused me to see that supposed 200Mbps ones come with 100Mbps ethernet connectors for instance and don't forget that whatever they do achieve will be shared between them.

I think you're right.
I have bought a pair of TP link 500mbps adapters and thes work really well downstairs. I have used an old Talktalk adapter for upstairs. - 200mbps but I can't get a green light on the data.
I am loathed to spend another £40 on powerline adapters that might not do the trick, so , since we have an Ethernet lead in place I thought that the unmanaged switch might be the cheapest/best way forwards.


sparkie

kwikbreaks

Are 500 & 200 compatible?

A switch is your cheapest and most reliable option for sure. The only advantage powerline adapters offer is that the wires are already in place. If a 500 pair don't work downstairs to upstairs then there's little point buying more as they will only be slower as the bandwidth will be shared between them.

fred246

Yes 200 and 500 are compatible but will run at the slower speed. I am pretty clear that the hierarchy is ethernet>powerline>wireless. I have got quite a large house and wireless routers couldn't cover the whole house. To wire the house with ethernet cables would cost a fortune. I bought a Devolo Wifi powerline starter kit which provided good wifi coverage in the whole house. I then added tplink nano to all devices which had an ethernet socket. I recently tested it and I could easily get five HD pictures running simultaneously from my 38mbps broadband connection. I changed the 3PCs in my study from ethernet to powerline. In the real world I can see no difference between powerline and ethernet. Maybe a 5GB file transfer would be a second longer but I don't normally transfer 5GB files. I think you need to keep the powerline to broadband speed ratio as high as possible. IE mine is 200/38.

kwikbreaks

fred246 wrote: »

Maybe a 5GB file transfer would be a second longer

The differential is considerably more than that. Gigabit ethernet is probably at least 5 times faster than any powerline link in a normal house but if you don't do transfers over your home network and just use it to route an internet connection then the difference may well be unnoticeable as you say unless you have anything interfering with the powerline transfer.

The main reasons I chose ethernet over wireless or powerline were speed and cost. I do transfer data across my home network and had no problems cabling my house with concealed ethernet.