Switch or Router? And what model?

[ridiculousmaddancingcat]

I need some advices - My dad cancelled his sky abonnement which means we have to return the sky box.

As a replacement we bought a VU+ box and I'm getting him an fire tv stick for christmas. The problem is the VU receiver needs a lan cable, the amazon thingy wifi and the modem with wlan support is so far away from the tv there is almost no signal left.

We already have an ethernet cable that goes from the modem to somewhere near the tv but that cable is connecting another computer to the internet. It looks like we could take that cable and plug it into some sort of splitter with wifi support and it's all solved. But as you probably figured out already, I'm a rookie to all this networking stuff. What sort of hardware do I need exactly? And is there something reliable for maybe under 60$ ?

We had a netgear router some years back and it was just a lousy piece. Almost every day it stopped working and needed a hard reset. Don't know if netgear became any better by now

 

Thankkkkks**

[Simon771]

Either routher or switch will do.

For 60$ you can get gigabit switch/router almost anywhere.

 

You could have routher there, so you will also have wifi coverege in that room.

Switch is cheaper and doesn't need to be configured.

[ridiculousmaddancingcat]

I couldn't find any switch with wlan support. Are those things just called access points with additional (>1) etherenet ports?

What do you think about this model? TP-LINK Archer C2 AC750 is this any good?

And I'm not sure if I can connect older deviced to it but in the descriptions it reads

"IEEE 802.11ac/n/a 5GHz
IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz"

and "Simultaneous 2.4GHz 300Mbps and 5GHz 433Mbps connections" so it shouldn't be a problem, right?

[Lurick]

45 minutes ago, ridiculousmaddancingcat said:

I couldn't find any switch with wlan support. Are those things just called access points with additional (>1) etherenet ports?

What do you think about this model? TP-LINK Archer C2 AC750 is this any good?

And I'm not sure if I can connect older deviced to it but in the descriptions it reads

"IEEE 802.11ac/n/a 5GHz
IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz"

and "Simultaneous 2.4GHz 300Mbps and 5GHz 433Mbps connections" so it shouldn't be a problem, right?

I personally like the AC1200 more but the AC750 looks pretty solid.

So long as you have a way to connect that wireless router back to the main one then you're good.

You will need to disable DHCP and some other features to turn it into a switch and access point only but after that you'll be all set.

[paddy-stone]

Just buy a switch, that would have 8 ports for example, then you'd plug the ethernet cable you already have going from the router into one of the ports of the switch. Then you'd plug another ethernet cable from the switch to the VU box, and also an ethernet cable from the switch to the other equipment that the 1st lead used to be plugged into from the router to the device.

Then, if you ALSO need wifi to extend your coverage, you could get an AP, depending on whether you could put up with just using 2.4Ghz wireless n, or whether you need 5Ghz also, they vary in price. That would again have an ethernet cable plugged into it from the switch. You could use for example these:-

 

Switch  https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AWM7PKO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

or   https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01132G822/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

AP 2.4Ghz only 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Support-Extender-UK-TL-WR810N/dp/B01DCMNQFS/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1511220795&sr=8-14&keywords=tp-link+access+point

 

AP 2.4/5 Ghz AC

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubiquiti-Networks-UAP-AC-LITE-Access-Point/dp/B016K4GQVG/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1511220581&sr=8-12&keywords=access+point

 

They are just quick suggestions I found, except the switches, I ahve both of those models and they are excellent, never had a problem with either of them. Unfortunately they don't make the access point I have used for many years now, but the 2.4Ghz one above is similar except in shape basically and that the new one plugs directly into a socket. For the 5Ghz access point, I just recommended a ubiquity model as they are popular, if you have a preference as to whether you prefer something you can set on a table/unit or ceiling mounted, then let us know and we can make more suggestions.

[ridiculousmaddancingcat]

Thank you for the feedback/suggestions.

paddy-stone I definitively need wifi because those fire sticks don't have a jack for a cable any more (maybe there were earlier models supporting a cable) and pricewise I'd be pretty close to the archer model but with one piece of hardware less that could cause us trouble, right? I think I'm going to buy one of those tomorrow, unless someone comes in waving red flags for it