Switch vrs. Router.

[Ghost]

I know nothing about networking apart from the basics, A bit about port forwarding and DNSs. Just wanted to gain a bit more insight in the subject without sticking my head in too far.

I have a set-up like this:

Wall----Modem---Router---PC

|

|------Wifi to everything else

So my question is, is a switch basically just a router without wifi and if so would splitting your router into a switch and a wifi adapter of some sort be of any benefit?

[KingLinkTiger]

TL;DR; If you have a ton of computers, yes splitting it up will be of benefit.

A simple way of understanding what a switch is, is to just think of it as a splitter. It takes the input, for example from your modem, and splits it up so you can connect multiple computers to that one modem. Now most routers have multiple ports in the back, this is because they contain a switch inside of them. Now on to your question, "Would splitting your router into a switch and a wifi adapter of some sort be of any benefit?" the answer is Yes. Although it probably would not be that noticeable, but right now you have all of your devices connecting through one device, your router. This makes your router a bottleneck to your network, and if you have many clients (Computers) this could slow down the speed of your network. Now if you want to split your router into it's three parts you can purchase a router without a switch or WiFi built in, you can buy a separate switch, and buy a separate WiFi device (Which is called an AP or AccessPoint). This then lessens the load on the network because now your router is just doing the routing, your switch is just splitting your network, and your AccessPoint is handling all of your WiFi devices.

Hope this was helpful.

[Ghost]

TL;DR; If you have a ton of computers, yes splitting it up will be of benefit.

A simple way of understanding what a switch is, is to just think of it as a splitter. It takes the input, for example from your modem, and splits it up so you can connect multiple computers to that one modem. Now most routers have multiple ports in the back, this is because they contain a switch inside of them. Now on to your question, "Would splitting your router into a switch and a wifi adapter of some sort be of any benefit?" the answer is Yes. Although it probably would not be that noticeable, but right now you have all of your devices connecting through one device, your router. This makes your router a bottleneck to your network, and if you have many clients (Computers) this could slow down the speed of your network. Now if you want to split your router into it's three parts you can purchase a router without a switch or WiFi built in, you can buy a separate switch, and buy a separate WiFi device (Which is called an AP or AccessPoint). This then lessens the load on the network because now your router is just doing the routing, your switch is just splitting your network, and your AccessPoint is handling all of your WiFi devices.

Hope this was helpful.

Thanks! Exactly what I wanted to know.

[Milo Pod]

I have a switch connected to the modem, then a wifi router connected to the switch. That way I can easily disconnect the wifi if someone is lagging me haha. Saves me some time by just un-plugging the router to disable the wifi without cutting off my whole network.

[Ssoele]

I have a switch connected to the modem, then a wifi router connected to the switch. That way I can easily disconnect the wifi if someone is lagging me haha. Saves me some time by just un-plugging the router to disable the wifi without cutting off my whole network.

But it means you're not on the same network as the others, it also means that your routers firewall does not protect your system.

[phantomasko]

I have a switch connected to the modem, then a wifi router connected to the switch. That way I can easily disconnect the wifi if someone is lagging me haha. Saves me some time by just un-plugging the router to disable the wifi without cutting off my whole network.

I want to do my network similarly. Is there a way I can do this with the firewall also? Need special swich for that?

[SubTract]

Sorry What?

Ssoele said you're not on the same network as the others.

Of course you're on the same network as the others. As long as it is set up properly there would be no problem.

Not sure on exactly what gear you have but there are a few ways you could do it.

Interwebs

----|

Modem

----| --------|-Client

Switch----|-Client

----| --------|-Client

----|

Wireless Router

----|-------- |------ |

Client Client Client

So if this is your setup (roughly)

You could use the Modem with a DHCP and DNS server. Turn off everything else on the wireless router to use it simply as an Access point.

If you're using a managed switch you could create VPN's and bridge them (albeit a little lazy)

Otherwise you could (this might be a bit of a headache)

Set your Modem to use a DHCP pool for a section of clients and the wireless router to use another section e.g.

Modem: 192.168.0.2 - 192.168.0.49

In this Scenario we'll presume the wireless router has an IP of 192.168.0.50

Wireless: 192.168.0.51 - 192.168.0.99

Make sure they're on the same subnet and use the modems IP address Pre-sumable 192.168.0.1 as the DNS server for the wireless router.

Subnet mask could be 255.255.255.128

A more Elegant solution would simply be re-arrange the network so that You have

Modem

----|

Wireless Router--- Clients

----|

Switch--- Clients

Hopefully your wireless router has a wireless on/off button to disconnect everybody

I'm very tired and I'm almost certain there is going to be mistakes in here.

Please Correct me if I've made one. Since preview doesn't work Its very hard to proof read.

Benefits would be quite significant if you had high amounts of traffic on your network. Minimal if you don't

[phantomasko]

You mentioned VPN - possible even on smart switch? Because fully managed switches are expensive as ****. Or something like VLAN. I don't know, not into these things. I wanna connect my TV, console and portable devices both wired and wireless and manage network from PC. I want to be able to stream/view files stored on central PC from these other devices (good bandwidth needed).