Can someone advise if an Ethernet switch is what I need?

rmg1

I've been looking at doing that (well, using one to extend my wireless).

I have a small range of routers (most from previous ISPs, but one old Belkin I bought a few years ago) but never found any idiot-proof instructions for doing it.

Neil_Jones

rmg1 wrote: »

I've been looking at doing that (well, using one to extend my wireless).

I have a small range of routers (most from previous ISPs, but one old Belkin I bought a few years ago) but never found any idiot-proof instructions for doing it.

Easy enough to do, you just poke about in the control panel for the second router and turn off its DHCP server and assign it a fixed IP address and the same gateway as the first router. The second router then effectively becomes an oversized wireless access point and switch. What most people forget to do is turn off the DHCP server on the second router, which means devices connect to that first and will try to go online through it rather than the first router which is why it fails.

Instructions here:
http://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/network-wifi/router-repeater-3633135/

rmg1

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Easy enough to do, you just poke about in the control panel for the second router and turn off its DHCP server and assign it a fixed IP address and the same gateway as the first router. The second router then effectively becomes an oversized wireless access point and switch. What most people forget to do is turn off the DHCP server on the second router, which means devices connect to that first and will try to go online through it rather than the first router which is why it fails.

Instructions here:
http://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/network-wifi/router-repeater-3633135/

Sounds straight forward enough, cheers :beer:
I'll have a poke around this weekend and see what I can get working (I'll just have to find the old cards with connection details on them :eek:)

sillygoose

highly recommend these, cheap for all an Gigabit port switch as opposed to only 10/100 ones so it will be good for some time yet.

Worth using with decent Cat 6 cables between hub and switch and between switch and devices with Gigabit capable ports.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-GS208-100UKS-Gigabit-Ethernet-Desktop/dp/B00AFVB41S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508878936

In the MSE spirit you can try cheaper options of course, but less than £15, plug-in. Done.

link corrected.

Robisere

sillygoose wrote: »

highly recommend these, cheap for all an Gigabit port switch as opposed to only 10/100 ones so it will be good for some time yet.

Worth using with decent Cat 6 cables between hub and switch and between switch and devices with Gigabit capable ports.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-GS208-100UKS-Gigabit-Ethernet-Desktop/dp41/B00AFVBS/

In the MSE spirit you can try cheaper options of course, but less than £15, plug-in. Done.

I also recommend that one, use it myself on a desktop and a NAS at the end of a 20 metre Cat 6 Ethernet cable, speed is great. BUT the link you gave does not work!

sillygoose

Robisere wrote: »

I also recommend that one, use it myself on a desktop and a NAS at the end of a 20 metre Cat 6 Ethernet cable, speed is great. BUT the link you gave does not work!

Thanks I updated the link. I have a Virgin modem, TP-Link router and 2 NAS drives and this switch all with Gigabit ports and as you say speed is great even moving big files around.

jshm2

You should be looking to cut down that cable spaghetti - not increase it. Get a wireless extender or homeplug instead to save on two ports. Also, your TV and computer will run fine on Wifi rather than Ethernet.

But second what the others are saying in switching to Sky routers - they are pretty dross if you need a lot of connections. You can't even use another router to access, as Sky do not allow them on their network. But just remember that a switch will be much slower as you're essentially "splitting" the speed of a single port over multiple ports.

DoaM

jshm2 wrote: »

But second what the others are saying in switching to Sky routers - they are pretty dross if you need a lot of connections. You can't even use another router to access, as Sky do not allow them on their network.

I'm pretty sure a Google search will yield results with workarounds to this.