Network Switch...Maybe? (I Have Questions)

[Dissitesuxba11s]

I'm asking these questions mainly because of my lack of understanding of network switches. I'm looking to get something that I can have on my desk (or under) that can essentially take the Ethernet cable going into my room and split it to numerous devices. Googling "Ethernet splitter" I get actual splitters that are 1 male to 2 female connections, and network switches.

 

So my questions are...

1. Will a network switch solve my little conundrum?

2. Can multiple devices be used on a network switch at the same time?

3. (If "Yes" is the answer to question 2) Since it is taking data downstream to two or more devices, will there be internet speed loss between devices?

 

WiFi is an option but my room is the farthest to the router in my house and there are a lot of walls that interfere. Newegg and Amazon have a lot of options for network switches from Netgear, D-Link and the like, but if you have a suggestion feel free to let me know.

 

Any help is appreciated.

[AshleyAshes]

Yes, a switch does exactly that.  I have an 8 port switch behind my TV where one line comes from the router, leaving 7 ports on the switch free for the HTPC, consoles, TV, ect.  Ditto in my bedroom, a 5 port switch where one Ethernet cable from the router feeds into the room and my main storage server and HTPC are hooked up.

 

You can add as many devices as the switch has ports.  The only 'downside' is that everything will share the single uplink connection to the router.  So as an example in my living room, my Smart TV, Xbox 360, PS3, and HTPC are all plugged into the switch but they all share the same 1gbps connection to the router.  That said in a home situation it's PRETTY unlikely that a 1gbps connection will be saturated unless you have some kind of extreme setup going on.

 

Before you ask, basically every unmanaged network switch will do you fine, just make sure it has the number of ports you need and that it's 1gbps and not 100mbps.  Unmanaged switches are so 'dumb' you really can't make a bad one.  They have zero configuration options either.  You literally just jack in a cable from the router into any port on the switch and plug anything else into the other switches.  Everything else is handled by the router.

[Unhelpful]

7 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

I'm asking these questions mainly because of my lack of understanding of network switches. I'm looking to get something that I can have on my desk (or under) that can essentially take the Ethernet cable going into my room and split it to numerous devices. Googling "Ethernet splitter" I get actual splitters that are 1 male to 2 female connections, and network switches.

 

So my questions are...

1. Will a network switch solve my little conundrum?

2. Can multiple devices be used on a network switch at the same time?

3. (If "Yes" is the answer to question 2) Since it is taking data downstream to two or more devices, will there be internet speed loss between devices?

 

WiFi is an option but my room is the farthest to the router in my house and there are a lot of walls that interfere. Newegg and Amazon have a lot of options for network switches from Netgear, D-Link and the like, but if you have a suggestion feel free to let me know.

 

Any help is appreciated.

1. Yes.

2. Yes.

3. Yes but unless you are fully saturating a gigabit link it's probably fine. I wouldn't worry about the uplink too much.

 

They're basically all fine. Just make sure it's gigabit and as many ports as you need. https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Ethernet-Replacement-Unmanaged-TL-SG105/dp/B00A128S24/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1510756807&sr=8-3&keywords=unmanaged+gigabit+switch

[Dissitesuxba11s]

1 minute ago, AshleyAshes said:

saturated

 

2 minutes ago, JoeyDM said:

saturating

Define "Saturating." It's peaked my interest.

[Lurick]

8 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

 

Define "Saturating." It's peaked my interest.

consuming all available resources of the link.

So if you're sending and receiving 1Gbps on the uplink then you'll have traffic drops and other network problems while the switch queues up traffic in the buffer. Once the buffer is full it will just drop all traffic*

 

*I won't go into queues and buffers in too much depth but basically when it's full it will drop anything coming in until it has more room

[AshleyAshes]

12 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

 

Define "Saturating." It's peaked my interest.

If you are somehow moving SO much data that you are moving more than 1gbps.  Probably the only situation where I can imagine it would be large local file transfers.  (Unless you have some STUPID fast home internet in excess of 1gbps)

 

Here's an example of my network layout

 

Router -> Destop PC

            |

            -> 8 Port Switch -> PS3

            |                          -> Xbox 360

            |                          -> SmartTV

            |                          -> HTPC

            |

            -> 5 Port Switch -> Media Server

                                      -> Bedroom HTPC

 

So let's say I want to move huge files I downloaded on my desktop Do my server.  That would mean the data will go from the desktop, through the router, down the 1gbps cable into the switch, and then into the Server. That's one of the few tasks that could likely even use the full 1gbps of the network link.  Meanwhile I want to say, download a giant Windows update for Bedroom HTPC, so that internet data also has to travel from the router, down the 1gbps link, into the 5 port switch as well.  Both of these would compete for bandwidth along that 1gbps link and as a result neither will run as fast as they could alone.  However this is an uncommon situation I don't normally do huge file transfers like this and if I do they're not happening all day long, just for 5-15mins till a transfer is done.  So if a download on the HTPC is a bit slower for a while, who cares?

 

Most any other situation, your network will still be much faster than your needs.  As another example my internet connection is only 250mbps or 1/4 that of my network speed.  So no matter WHAT any of my machines do on the internet, the network itself will always be faster, it'll be the internet connection itself that will be the bottleneck.  It won't matter if I have every device plugged into the router or on wifi or if I have 20 devices plugged into 5 different Switches; The internet connection is the bottleneck.

 

Finally this is only speaking of full speed file transfers in my saturation example.  For STREAMING media files from my server, that's all done in real time of playback and uses MUCH less bandwidth.  I've read 10+ current media files off my server in a 'stress test' and my network and there's no issues. Not to mention that in real life my server will never actually serve 10 clients concurrently.   ...Unless I got a biiiiiiiiiiiiiig house... And either put every room on AirBNB or had a lotta kids.

[minibois]

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. If you get a gigabit switch (not a 10/100 one), you have 1 gigabit up and down per second (Per port), which really wont 'bottleneck'/'saturate' any home network at the moment.

 

And as for brand.. It really doesn't matter, since the internals are often similar. I have a bunch of D-Link switches and they work just great, Netgear usually has more warranty.. But there is little that can go wrong with these devices.

Edited November 15, 2017 by Minibois
Added the 'per port' thing

[Dissitesuxba11s]

Thanks @AshleyAshes, @JoeyDM, @Lurick, @Minibois for the input. Helped a lot to further my understanding. Well, time to go...

[AshleyAshes]

Just now, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Thanks @AshleyAshes, @JoeyDM, @Lurick, @Minibois for the input. Helped a lot to further my understanding. Well, time to go...

And don't worry about 'cheaping out' when buying a switch other than link speed (MOST will be 1gbps anyway) or the number of ports.  Unmanaged network switches are literally so dumb there's no bad one.  It's like finding 'good pen' to write on a note pad with, so long as ink comes out, you're good.

 

Oh and don't accidentally get a MANAGED switch.  They are more for enterprise situations have many more options are more often rack mounted, and a LOT more expensive.  If it costs more than $50 you're buying the wrong switch.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

32 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

And don't worry about 'cheaping out' when buying a switch other than link speed (MOST will be 1gbps anyway) or the number of ports.  Unmanaged network switches are literally so dumb there's no bad one.  It's like finding 'good pen' to write on a note pad with, so long as ink comes out, you're good.

 

Oh and don't accidentally get a MANAGED switch.  They are more for enterprise situations have many more options are more often rack mounted, and a LOT more expensive.  If it costs more than $50 you're buying the wrong switch.

Got it. Thanks for all the help 

[Unhelpful]

2 hours ago, Minibois said:

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. If you get a gigabit switch (not a 10/100 one), you have 1 gigabit up and down per second (Per port), which really wont 'bottleneck'/'saturate' any home network at the moment.

 

And as for brand.. It really doesn't matter, since the internals are often similar. I have a bunch of D-Link switches and they work just great, Netgear usually has more warranty.. But there is little that can go wrong with these devices.

Yes but you CAN still saturate the uplink if you're a serious traffic hog. The one gigabit port going back to the router. But it typically makes no difference.