can a switch have 16 simultaneous connections running constantly

[jaysawatzki]

I am trying to Bitcoin mine on one internet connection and one Ethernet. Is it possible to run 16 simultaneous connections operating 24/7 on one switch. I know an Ethernet has 8 wires, so can only 8 connections be running simultaneously?

 

[razel]

A little confused. One Internet connection, one ethernet, but one switch? Did you mean one Internet going to a router which goes to a 16 port switch with all it's ports connected to 16 different computers? It sure can. Technically 15 different computers since one of those ports go back to the router.

 

[jaysawatzki]

No router. Just a modem. And ok thanks for the info. And they all can be getting internet simultaneously?

 

[razel]

You need something that distributes the Internet, thus the router and with that yes they'll all get Internet simultaneously. It's a similar idea to how most would use a WiFi router at home, instead of WiFi, you'll want a router and a switch with enough 16+ ports each connecting to the PCs.

 

[jaysawatzki]

You need something that distributes the Internet, thus the router and with that yes they'll all get Internet simultaneously. It's a similar idea to how most would use a WiFi router at home, instead of WiFi, you'll want a router and a switch with enough 16+ ports each connecting to the PCs.

Ahh I need something that will distribute the 192.168.x.x numbers? Ok

 

[manly]

Ahh I need something that will distribute the 192.168.x.x numbers? Ok

without getting into technical details, that's what a "home" router will do for you. However, a consumer router typically has just 4-5 ports. So you will need to hang a 16 port switch off of the router to get enough ports.

 

[Amol S.]

I am trying to Bitcoin mine on one internet connection and one Ethernet. Is it possible to run 16 simultaneous connections operating 24/7 on one switch. I know an Ethernet has 8 wires, so can only 8 connections be running simultaneously?

Wait... What? There is no limit to how many connection tins there can be on an Ethernet. By the way it's not an Ethernet, it's Intranet, a home network is an Intranet. Correct me someone else if I am wrong about that. If your switch only supports 8 connections and you need 16, then buy a switch that has 16 "Eithernet" ports. Also, yes there can be 16 connections happening at the sametime. If you want to be sure that the switch will support 16 simultaneous connections, use a 16 port (layer 3) switch, so it has support for packet based communication.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The 8 wires for ethernet has nothing to do with how many connections you can have. The Ethernet protocol uses those for a single end to end connection (ex: device to switch or switch to switch etc....). 10/100 uses 4 wires while gig uses 8. But that's not really relevant. Some ISPs do have a limit of how many connections you can have at once (often referred to as flows) but it's usually fairly high like in the thousands. These days I'm not sure if it's common for ISPs to have those limits. For mining I really would not worry about it, especially if you are pool mining.

If you're talking about the physical connections, like how many switches you can daisy chain to one, I think there is a theoretical limit but it's very high. You can more or less daisy chain a bunch of 24 port switches to another 24 port switch and then have that connected to yet another switch if you really want to. That's more or less what's done on large networks like schools but it's typically more advanced and may even have redundant paths. It would be using spanning tree protocol. For home you can connect a bunch of cheap switches together fine as long as you follow a tree structure, and don't do anything weird like connecting them in a mesh as it will cause issues.