quick question extending network

I currently have a DGL 4500 in router in my basement and 2 pcs hooked up to it and a NAS, and a xbox in the living room. I plan on building a htpc for the new 50" plasma i just got but I still want to be able to have my xbox hooked up to the net. Can I just get a router, assign a different range of IP address so it doesn't interfere with my current router and thus split that one ethernet connection into 4 (or however many ethernet jacks there are on the router) without a significant loss in performance? I don't want it to be laggy as I'm streaming from my nas.

Are you saying you don't have enough wired ethernet jacks for all your stuff?

If that's the case, the simple solution is to just plug an ethernet switching hub
into one of the jacks on your router, essentially expanding your network.

bz2klag said:

If that's the case, the simple solution is to just plug an ethernet switching hub
into one of the jacks on your router, essentially expanding your network.

Click to expand...

+1

oh awesome. Thanks! But if I wanted to separate my draft N from my b/g AND add extra jacks on my router then it'd be advisable to get a wireless router right?

Right now I have my dgl 4500 broadcasting N/G so my 'legacy' wireless stuff, such as my ipod touch, can use the net. I'd like to split the two b/c there is a significant drop off in performance of N speeds when mixing like that. I'd also like to add more ethernet jacks for my living room, so i figure a wireless router with 4 ethernet jacks could hit two birds with one stone?

And how would this affect ftping to specific machines, such as my xbox 1 or HTPC?

if you get a b/g router you can make it as a switch by disableing routing i believe essentially making it a Switch with AP and turn off the DHCP service on that also. that will cause you problems.

its doable, and if you want to keep the wireless seperate so you dont have performance drops

You can use another router, but as an earlier poster wrote, you'll need to
disable the DHCP server on the extra router. If you don't, the systems which
connect through the extra router will be directed to the wrong gateway
for internet access, not to mention the possibility that the routers may hand
out the same private IP address to two different systems.

Also, you'll have to make sure that each router has it's own private device
LAN-side IP address, or else accessing their configuration web servers will be
difficult. I mention this just in case your new router defaults
to the same IP as your old one. If that happens, you'll have to connect
a PC to that router only and set a unique IP address and turn off the DHCP
server, before you can connect it to the rest of your LAN.

hhaha yea i figured I'd have to do all that. But is ftping to the specific machines going to be a problem, or will I just be able to ftp to the ip's assigned by the second router without a hitch?

it'll work just fine if you set it up like ppl have said.

nick

thanks!