Wired or Wireless 8 port madness questions..

[Bulldog13]

Hello all,
:: looks around the forum, never having been here before ::

Couple o questions,

Sadly, my home network has outgrown the BEFSR41. Somehow, unbeknowst to me, my house has become the dedicated lan house and this summer we will have anywhere from 5 to 8 comps running at most times.

So I have to upgrade the network.
I need router recommendations. 8 port. Stateful packet inspection and decent admin tools. Plus pretty easy to use.

I absolutely love me BEFSR41. It is easy as hell and I have never had any problems with it.
So I was thinking the 8 port version (BEFSR81). Problem is there are some questionable reviews about it.
So then I was thinking the SMC7008ABR Barricade Cable/DSL router with 8-port 10/100Mbps switch and Integrated Print Server.
I like the idea of a printer server. But I have heard that generally SMC will give you problems.

Then I had a moment of epiphany. 8 comps means lots of wires. The more wires, the more angry the mother. Bad enough she has to put up with the smelly friends.

So some more questions are is there a secure, cheap, fast, wireless router ? 802.11g (newest protocol I believe). Also, how far has wireless come lately. I would not hesitate to spend 2x as much for an 8 port wireless router if it gave the same apparent performance as the 8 port wired.

Thoughts ?

 

[JackMDS]

No need to buy a New Router.

Buy a switch and connect it to the Router.

Regular Port on the Router to Uplink on a Switch with straight patch CAT5.

Regular Port to Regular Port with Crossover CAT5.

Take into consideration that due to the Interconnection you loose one port of each.

SO, (4 port Router + 8 port Switch) = 12 ports ? 2 ports=10 Ports Ready.

Your consideration about Wireless is kind of ?funny? you either need it or not. If you do need it the difference in price is so small that if every user skips one Six-Pack you will make the difference, and be healthier

:beer:

 

[SpunkyJones]

You don't need another router, you need a 8 or 16 port switch, and then uplink it to the router. Just make sure you get a switch and not a hub. If your gaming, you'll might want to stick to wired, might have some latency using wireless with a twitch game. Something like this:

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=34&scid=31&prid=36

 

[Bulldog13]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
No need to buy a New Router.

Buy a switch and connect it to the Router.

Regular Port on the Router to Uplink on a Switch with straight patch CAT5.

Regular Port to Regular Port with Crossover CAT5.

Take into consideration that due to the Interconnection you loose one port of each.

SO, (4 port Router + 8 port Switch) = 12 ports ? 2 ports=10 Ports Ready.

Your consideration about Wireless is kind of ?funny? you either need it or not. If you do need it the difference in price is so small that if every user skips one Six-Pack you will make the difference, and be healthier

:beer:

The regular port to regular port with crossover confuses me. So when going from a comp to the switch I have to buy crossover cable ? Why ? My router doesn t need it.

Will there be a performance difference between this setup and an 8 port router ?

 

[ktwebb]

Just buy a switch with autosensing ports. You won't have to worry about X-over or straight through cables. Even the budget switches have autosensing ports these days.

Shouldn't be any measurable latency or throughput issues with adding and additional switch.

 

[Bulldog13]

Would there be any measureable latency or throughput issues with a wireless router. Assume 5 ppl are gaming and 3 cruising the net. I would love to do a wireless network, but not if pings start getting raped and packet loss occurs.

BTW, thx ktwebb

 

[sswingle]

I have gamed over a wireless lan before. One comp had a G and one had a B, and there wasn't any lag. I remember the good old days of using 10 mbit LANS before we got ourselves our first 10/100 hub, and B is 11, so it can't be that bad. Get all your wireless users on G and it should be great. I would keep the server and a few other PCs wired though.