Gigabit switch

ToXiCx313 · March 15, 2014

Hello,

I need a cheap gigabit switch, I'm not quite sure how switches work so I'll mention the fact that I need it to be able to handle Gigabit WAN not only LAN.

I saw some recommandations for this one, however, I've read some reviews and although I'm not expecting it to be excelent at that price, I don't want something that I have to restart every few hours.

Unlocker9000 · March 15, 2014

Should be ok for the price, but I would go with a higher end one like this Netgear one, but it's on the pricey side. I've heard good about the Trendnet once.

Every switch should be able to handle WAN, but it will be on the same subnet, so people from the outside will be able to access your home network.

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm not a networking expert

And buy the way, the only thing a switch does, is extending the network, like a usb hub.

ToXiCx313 · March 15, 2014

Thanks for the answer, it seems that the Netgear one isn't in stock in any online shop in Romania.

The usage isn't too high, the average quantity of data transfered/month is somewhere around 800GB, and right now I have some cheap 300Mbps D-Link router acting as switch, so I guess it wouldn't pose any problems for the TP-Link either, or will it?

I don't understand what you mean by " people from the outside will be able to access your home network".

This is my setup or rather will be:

Both routers are password protected and work only on the given MACs, so I don't quite grasp how someone would be able to access my home network.

btw, in case anyone wonders why 2 routers, here's the explanation:

There are 2 buildings, the switch resides in the first one's garage, from there it goes to the router in the first house and the one in the second house.

Unlocker9000 · March 15, 2014

No, the D-Link router should work just fine with the TP-Link switch.

The difference between switches and routers is that a switch is basically just like an active hub, distributing the signals. Where a router there is a WAN port, witch is separated from the lan ports (has different ip ranges and a different subnet) and traffic can only go through open ports in the router, so access from outside is more limited. That was what I meant.