| Thursday, May 15, 2008 Login | Register | |||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Switch or Router for Wired House | |||||
| Question | |||||
| I had my house wired with Cat 5e jacks in various rooms. Until recently I plugged in only one computer at a time ie moved my computer around and there has been no probs with getting online, etc. However, I just recently plugged in 2 separate computers to separate ethernet jacks and I noticed that whichever was the most recent to plug in, that would be the one accessible to the internet ie, the other computer would then lose it's connection to the internet. I looked at the connections and noticed that the electrician has put in a "Planet Switch". Should I simply change that to a router? Is that the problem?
EL | |||||
| Answer | |||||
| A switch connects computers for a local network. A router (or residential gateway) connects the local network to the Internet. You need a router and a switch, but routers almost always now come with a built-in switch.
Connect the broadband modem to the WAN port on the router. Connect your Planet switch (or any wall jack) to a LAN port on the router, or connect the network cables from various rooms to the LAN ports on the router. If the router has enough LAN ports for each room, you could remove the Planet switch. Option A: Modem <--WAN--> Router <--LAN--> Wall <--> Switch <--> Rooms Option B: Modem <--WAN--> Router <--LAN--> Switch <--> Rooms Option C: Modem <--WAN--> Router <--LAN--> Rooms Your Planet switch should have Automatic MDI/MDI-X, so you can connect any port on the switch (or any wall jack) to the router. If you use a wall jack for the router and want to wire a PC in the same room to the same wall jack, connect that PC directly to one of the router's LAN ports. On a switch without Automatic MDI/MDI-X, connect the router to the switch or wall jack with a crossover cable.  Date: 2008-04-18 | |||||
|