Question concerning router, Ethernet switches and the best way of connecting them - by Thirith
Thirith on 25/7/2017 at 07:36
I'm getting to the point where the four Ethernet ports my router provides just aren't enough. I've now ordered an Ethernet switch that's guaranteed to work with my STB out of the box, but I'm not sure what the best way is to connect everything.
Basically, I will have five Ethernet cables I'll need to connect in the living room, leading to the following:
1) The set-top box
2) Another Ethernet switch hooked up to a media PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Blu-ray player, TV and AV receiver.
3) A WD MyBookLive
4 and 5) Ethernet connections to the bedroom and office
Now, my question is about the recommended way of hooking up these five things. Do I connect the Ethernet switch mentioned at the beginning to the router and everything else to the switch (which means I'll have two cascaded switches)? Or do I try to use all of the router's ports and only then start connecting things to the switch?
Gryzemuis on 25/7/2017 at 10:18
In theory connecting things is parallel is a little better than connecting in series. A little less latency, less chance of two streams of data using the same ethernetcable at the same time. But in reality, it'll hardly matter. As long as everything runs at 1 Gbps, and you won't do 2 backups (large local file-transfers) at the same time, it doesn't matter.
What I'd do:
If you have a number of devices close together, put a switch there. Run one cable from the router to that switch. You'll be able to do that 4 times. If that isn't enough, then connect a switch directly to the router, and pretend that is another X extra ports on your router. This isn't rocket science.
Thirith on 25/7/2017 at 11:43
Thanks. I know I'd get it all to work, but I simply don't know enough about networking to know what's recommended for stability or efficiency.
Gryzemuis on 25/7/2017 at 16:25
Most important thing: don't introduce loops into your network. :)
Al_B on 25/7/2017 at 18:12
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something but why don't you just use the new switch for your set-top box, media PC, PS3 etc. (i.e. items 1&2) and remove the existing switch you're using for item 2 at the moment? That way you can use one port on your router for your "AV" / consoles (via single switch), the second port for your MyBookLive, port 3 for the office and 4 for the bedroom.
As Gryz says, it'll all work whichever way you do it although I prefer to keep my main PC connection hooked directly into the router (it gives me the flexibility to set it up on a separate VLAN via the router's configuration if required).
Thirith on 26/7/2017 at 06:19
Actually, now that you've mentioned it, you're absolutely right. Of course I'd still go back to two switches if it turned out that I didn't have enough ports, but especially with the devices that I don't use all that often or where I just need to go online very rarely (i.e. the PS3, Wii U, Blu-ray player) I'm thinking I'll take them off the switch anyway and go wireless. We have way too many cables as it is.
Thanks for helping me take a step back and look at it more logically!
heywood on 26/7/2017 at 21:46
Presumably your set top box is located close to the PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Blu-ray player, TV and AV receiver? If so, why didn't you just connect the set top box to the existing switch that all these other devices are attached to? Then the 4 switch ports on the router would have been enough.
Inexpensive small switches are great for aggregating a lot of devices in close proximity to each other. You can connect them all with short cables and then run just a single cable to wherever your router is, if not located nearby. I have a media cabinet that contains a STB, AV pre/pro, Blu-Ray, Wii, Xbox, Roku, and streaming music player. These are all wired with short (1-2m) cables to a cheap 8-port Ethernet switch in the cabinet, which is wired to my main switch in the basement, so there's only a single cable going out of the cabinet.
Thirith on 27/7/2017 at 13:10
The STB doesn't work with all switches; I don't know enough about networking to understand the details, though the people who understand these things better wrote stuff about multicast and flooding and QoS. This new switch is set up to work perfectly with the STB.
