Extending My Network

[PrivateIdaho]

I have 5 machines plugged into a Netgear switch. I have 6 machines and running another line for the 6th is not really a possibility. Do I get a hub with an uplink button and use that to extend the existing cable? Do I just bite the bullet and run another cable?

I have wireless and am not happy with it so I don't want to rely on that.

Thanks

 

[Lord Evermore]

Well, I assume that you have an 8 port switch right now.

Buying a hub should work just fine. You'd plug the existing cable that you want to "split" into the uplink port of the hub, and then the two machines (the one you unplugged and the 6th) into the hub. Performance shouldn't be greatly reduced unless you do a lot of transferring to the other computers on the switch, since now the two machines on the hub are sharing the 100Mbps full-duplex line to the switch. In that case, the bandwidth would be limited, but if you're just using it to share an Internet connection, you won't notice any difference.

 

[PrivateIdaho]

Yes it is 8 port.

I do transferring a great deal from one of the machines on the hub to be.....but it would never be on both machines at the same time so I should be fine.

Thanks!

 

[ericboo]

Get a another switch instead of a hub. The cost a couple of bucks more and then you are not duplicating broadcasts to both computers on the hub unecessarily.

 

[PrivateIdaho]

I already bought a hub... I don't think it will make a difference because one fo the 2 machines is powered up that often.

Thanks though!..

 

[Lord Evermore]

The hub broadcasts of two machines aren't going to cause a serious problem. The network card automatically discards any traffic not intended for it. Only true "broadcast" traffic is sent to the CPU.