Router ports all full - how to expand?

FrankGrimes

The 4 ethernet ports on my wireless router are all in use and I need to expand for a few more devices that I want to add to my network.

I only use the wireless network for devices that don't have an ethernet connection as I find the wired connections more reliable.

A mate said I can just get a hub and connect it to one of my router ports and then connect multiple devices to the hub. Does this sound like it will work with no IP conflicts and I'm not sure what a hub looks like exactly, so what should I look for?

Thanks

GerardKeating

FrankGrimes wrote:

The 4 ethernet ports on my wireless router are all in use and I need to expand for a few more devices that I want to add to my network.

I only use the wireless network for devices that don't have an ethernet connection as I find the wired connections more reliable.

A mate said I can just get a hub and connect it to one of my router ports and then connect multiple devices to the hub. Does this sound like it will work with no IP conflicts and I'm not sure what a hub looks like exactly, so what should I look for?

Thanks

You can get a 4 or 8 port switch on Komplett like this or this or maybe this.

It takes one port on your existing router and give you 4/5 or 8 more.

FrankGrimes

Thanks Gerard, will pick one of them up and looks like it'll be sorted.

Snowbat

Also consider gigabit switches like this. They may be a little more expensive than 10/100 switches but they'll give you lightning fast transfers between any devices with gigabit cards and are fully backwards compatible with 10/100 equipment. Even if you don't have computers or devices with gigabit on your network now, you're sure to have in the future.

A hub would also work but switches are better technology for the same price and have pretty much taken over now:
http://www.answers.com/topic/hub-vs-switch?cat=technology

dub45

Snowbat wrote:

Also consider gigabit switches like this. They may be a little more expensive than 10/100 switches but they'll give you lightning fast transfers between any devices with gigabit cards and are fully backwards compatible with 10/100 equipment. Even if you don't have computers or devices with gigabit on your network now, you're sure to have in the future.

A hub would also work but switches are better technology for the same price and have pretty much taken over now:
http://www.answers.com/topic/hub-vs-switch?cat=technology

Surely a gigabit switch is pointless if the basic router is only 10/100?

CptSternn

You can simply buy a new switch or hub and plug it into on open port on your existing hub, however, some hubs require the use of a crossover cable for this, so you might want to pick one of them up as well.

-S

zilog_jones

From my experience, unless the switch has a specific "uplink" port you need to use a crossover cable to connect it to another switch. Maybe some newer stuff is different though.

Snowbat

dub45 wrote:

Surely a gigabit switch is pointless if the basic router is only 10/100?

If you have machines with gigabit ports (as I have here), it will give you gigabit transfer speeds between these machines as well as 100 Mbit to the router and the rest of the network. Gigabit ports are becoming more common than 10/100 ports on new motherboards - why restrict your network to 100 Mbit just as gigabit is taking over?

ob

zilog_jones wrote:

From my experience, unless the switch has a specific "uplink" port you need to use a crossover cable to connect it to another switch. Maybe some newer stuff is different though.

I think all gigabit switches have autosensing uplink ports these days, and most of the decent 100Mb ones have too.

MartMax

ob wrote:

I think all gigabit switches have autosensing uplink ports these days, and most of the decent 100Mb ones have too.

so there is no need for cross-over cable then?

Marty

DublinDilbert

mart_max wrote:

so there is no need for cross-over cable then?

Marty

Just look at the spec for the switch, it will normally say "up-link port" on it... i got a small link sys one way back works grand and one of the ports acts as an up-link port to the modem...

there will be no IP conflicts as all hosts will use the DHCP server on the modem still, if your using dynamic IPs. If your using static IPs you'll just assign addresses like you would normally do...