Router or switch or both? Help please!

[liquidsense]

My setup:

- Three story home.
- Cable line comes into garage into a Leviton junction box.
- Leviton junction box contains this thing: http://i.imgur.com/GKrS7B9.jpg
- Cable modem sits in junction box, which contains ethernet cables going to every floor.
- Currently, modem is plugged via ethernet cable to the Leviton module, Port 1.
- The ethernet cable that goes to the 2nd floor is wired to the Port 1 clips.
- On the 2nd floor, I've plugged in a wireless router into the wall jack. The router is centrally located in my house and provides a good wireless blanket throughout.

My need:

- My primary desktop computer was moved to the 3rd floor recently.
- I want to connect that computer to the internet with a direct line, not wirelessly.
- An ethernet cable already is wired from the 3rd floor to the Leviton junction box in the garage.
- Can I use a basic "switch" in the Leviton box to have one line going up to the 3rd floor (to the desktop computer) and one line going to the 2nd floor (to the wireless router)? Example of switch: http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-SF1...thernet+router
- I would connect the switch directly to the cable modem, plug Port 1 and Port 2 of the Leviton module to the switch, and then send one ethernet line to the 2nd floor and another to the 3rd.

Initially, I thought this would be just fine, but my research is coming up with conflicting information as to whether a switch can actually accomplish this. Honestly, half the people are saying "yes of course you can connect multiple devices at once on a switch," and yet others are saying "no, you need a router to get multiple lines" or "no, you can't plug a switch directly from the modem."

I'm really confused and was hoping someone could give me some guidance.


EDIT: So the more I research this, the more I'm realizing that I cannot connect the switch directly into the modem, and then connect the wireless router into the switch. So, what is my possible solution here? I can't put the wireless router in the garage, because then I don't get a good wireless connection throughout. The only thing I can think of right now is to have TWO routers, one in the garage, and one on the 2nd floor. Is that correct?

 

[VirtualLarry]

EDIT: So the more I research this, the more I'm realizing that I cannot connect the switch directly into the modem, and then connect the wireless router into the switch. So, what is my possible solution here? I can't put the wireless router in the garage, because then I don't get a good wireless connection throughout. The only thing I can think of right now is to have TWO routers, one in the garage, and one on the 2nd floor. Is that correct?

That is correct.

 

[Ketchup]

You would then go into the setup of the router farthest from the modem and set it to be a switch/repeater.

 

[liquidsense]

That is correct.

You would then go into the setup of the router farthest from the modem and set it to be a switch/repeater.

Thanks, all. So, dumb follow up question: Is there such a thing as an ethernet router that does *not* have wireless capabilities that I can put in the garage to act as the "splitter"?

I'm currently using ASUS RT-N66U on the second floor (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1), but I can't help but think that would be overkill to use just as a splitter. The wireless functionality would be completely unnecessary, right?

Does anyone have a recommendation for a 10/100/1000 router that I could use solely to serve as the "splitter" function?

 

[VirtualLarry]

You're not going to find any high-bandwidth SOHO wired routers, that I know of. They used to make them back in the day (I have one in a box that you could have for shipping), but now they generally don't.

You could look for "VPN wired routers", they still make those, but again, they are not high-bandwidth, and generally cost an arm and a leg.

Edit: Basically, your best course of action, is to get a decent, fast, new-ish wireless router, and then disable the wireless on it completely.

If your internet connection is below 90Mbit, I can recommend a WNR2000v2 router, they're $20 or less refurb from Newegg, and they can do 90Mbit/sec WAN-to-LAN, with 10/100 ethernet ports. Don't think that they do IPv6 though.

 

[liquidsense]

You're not going to find any high-bandwidth SOHO wired routers, that I know of. They used to make them back in the day (I have one in a box that you could have for shipping), but now they generally don't.

You could look for "VPN wired routers", they still make those, but again, they are not high-bandwidth, and generally cost an arm and a leg.

Edit: Basically, your best course of action, is to get a decent, fast, new-ish wireless router, and then disable the wireless on it completely.

If your internet connection is below 90Mbit, I can recommend a WNR2000v2 router, they're $20 or less refurb from Newegg, and they can do 90Mbit/sec WAN-to-LAN, with 10/100 ethernet ports. Don't think that they do IPv6 though.

Thank you for all the help and the generous offer. I will find a good wireless router to act as the splitter. I was initially concerned with using a 10/100 router as the "splitter," thinking that it will limit my home networking to 100Mbit/sec, but, I don't think that's the case. My incoming internet is only 50Mbit, so no issue with internet speeds. And, as for home networking, the real wireless router will still allow up to 1000. I just want to make sure I don't compromise the internet by using a crappy router/splitter in the first instance. Thanks again.

 

[VirtualLarry]

As long as the rest of your network is Gigabit, then LAN-to-LAN transfers will be unaffected if your internet gateway router is only 10/100.

 

[Ketchup]

I completely agree. Get a good wireless router and turn off the capabilities you don't need.

 

[alpineranger]

What you want to do is very simple.

1) Connect cable modem to wireless router wan port (this doesn't need to be directly through a patch cable, you can go through junction boxes, etc, you could even go through a switch so long as only those devices can talk to each other on that l2 segment (ie, don't put any other devices on the switch).

2) The wireless router will have a number of LAN ports on the back, these are actually connected to a switch inside the wireless router itself. Connect whatever computers you want, or other switches to these ports.

 

[azazel1024]

Actually you can put the switch right off the cable modem. Though, you'll need a router(s) on the switch then, and everything on your network is going to need to connect off the router.

Anyway, there are few and far between reasons you'd want a switch first (one being different networks, both connection through the cable modem AND your ISP supplying you with multiple IP addresses). Modem -> router -> switch.