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Gigabit Switch

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It's just a switch, you plug in the power and the Ethernet cables then it does its thing...

You'd (ideally) want to run each computer in to the router directly though, otherwise you're limiting all six of your computers to a single Gigabit line to the router.
 
ATMINSIDE said:
It's just a switch, you plug in the power and the Ethernet cables then it does its thing...

You'd (ideally) want to run each computer in to the router directly though, otherwise you're limiting all six of your computers to a single Gigabit line to the router.
Click to expand...

Modem is a modem router combo from comcast. It only has 4 ports.
 
You're not buying two switches...
You're using the existing 4-port router and you're getting one switch.
 
ATMINSIDE said:
It's just a switch, you plug in the power and the Ethernet cables then it does its thing...

You'd (ideally) want to run each computer in to the router directly though, otherwise you're limiting all six of your computers to a single Gigabit line to the router.
Click to expand...
You're thinking of a hub, not a switch. A switch will deliver the rated bandwidth (gigabit in this case) to each device plugged into it. OP will be fine running all devices to a single switch, but can always run additional devices to the free ports on his modem/router if he wants.

Trendnet switches are pretty highly regarded for budget home switches. The metal housing is a plus. I have a pair of these WD switches that I picked up for about $8 each on clearance a while back. I haven't had any issues with them, though I recently purchased a 24 port managed switch that I'll be replacing them with, and will keep one in the office and the other as a backup.
 
pcgamer4life said:
You're thinking of a hub, not a switch. A switch will deliver the rated bandwidth (gigabit in this case) to each device plugged into it. OP will be fine running all devices to a single switch, but can always run additional devices to the free ports on his modem/router if he wants.

Trendnet switches are pretty highly regarded for budget home switches. The metal housing is a plus. I have a pair of these WD switches that I picked up for about $8 each on clearance a while back. I haven't had any issues with them, though I recently purchased a 24 port managed switch that I'll be replacing them with, and will keep one in the office and the other as a backup.
Click to expand...

They're still going to be limited by the single connection from the switch to router...
 
ATMINSIDE said:
They're still going to be limited by the single connection from the switch to router...
Click to expand...

LAN traffic for devices connected to the switch generally won't even hit the router, the switch will maintain the MAC table and send the packets in the appropriate direction. WAN traffic will go through the router, but it's highly unlikely that OP has a gigabit WAN connection that would saturate the line. Even if it did, he'd have the same issue if the devices were plugged into the router directly.

He won't see any benefit or degradation whether he plugs all devices into a switch or splits them between switch and the router, but saying that he'll be limited to the bandwidth of a single gigabit line is incorrect.
 
pcgamer4life said:
LAN traffic for devices connected to the switch generally won't even hit the router, the switch will maintain the MAC table and send the packets in the appropriate direction. WAN traffic will go through the router, but it's highly unlikely that OP has a gigabit WAN connection that would saturate the line. Even if it did, he'd have the same issue if the devices were plugged into the router directly.

He won't see any benefit or degradation whether he plugs all devices into a switch or splits them between switch and the router, but saying that he'll be limited to the bandwidth of a single gigabit line is incorrect.
Click to expand...

Beat me to it. Also, given it is a cable company router, it may not even be gigabit speed. My FiOS router was only 100BaseT until I replaced it. Routing my computers through it rather than my gigabit switch for in-house network transfers would actually slow things down.
 
Please explain, how will it not be limited to a single Gigabit line if that is the only thing connecting from router to switch.

Edit: Torin makes a good point there about it possibly being 100Mb
 
ATMINSIDE said:
Please explain, how will it not be limited to a single Gigabit line if that is the only thing connecting from router to switch.

Edit: Torin makes a good point there about it possibly being 100Mb
Click to expand...
Like I said above, LAN traffic doesn't ever go down the pipe to the router, it's handled at the switch level. In fact, theoretically it might be worse for performance if many devices on the switch have to talk to many devices on the router, because then the single line between the switch and router would be the bottleneck.
 
because the switch handles all the traffic internally it never goes over the single gigabit connection to the router, ever, unless its WAN traffic. technically you could probably push 3gb/s through the switch with 6 gigabit pc's connected to it if transferring between the 6 of them simultaneously, with a decent switch anyways.

edit: he beat me to it.
 
Yes, I get that LAN never goes outside the switch if all devices are on the switch.
You still get limited to a single Gigabit line from switch to router, which is what I was asking you to explain you saying "he'll be limited to the bandwidth of a single gigabit line is incorrect"...
 
ATMINSIDE said:
Yes, I get that LAN never goes outside the switch if all devices are on the switch.
You still get limited to a single Gigabit line from switch to router, which is what I was asking you to explain you saying "he'll be limited to the bandwidth of a single gigabit line is incorrect"...
Click to expand...
You aren't limited to a single line because no LAN traffic goes over that line. The only way that line would be a bottleneck is if he had a gigabit internet connection and 7 machines plugged into the switch trying to download from the web simultaneously, and all 7 downloads were serviced by remote connections that could supply ~20MB/s download speeds. These are all absurd scenarios in the US right now.
 
pcgamer4life said:
You aren't limited to a single line because no LAN traffic goes over that line. The only way that line would be a bottleneck is if he had a gigabit internet connection and 8 machines trying to download from the web simultaneously. Both are somewhat absurd scenarios in the US right now.
Click to expand...

Is it really that absurd? Google Fiber is rolling out in a nice list of cities now. Gigabit internet is right around the corner.
 
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