Hypothetical Question on Routers and Switches

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Let's say I have a Wi-Fi router that has five Ethernet ports: one for the internet connection and the other four for connecting the computer and peripherals, such as printers, etc. If I were to run out of ports, could I use an Ethernet switch to connect the additional peripherals to and connect the switch to one of the router Ethernet ports? Would all the peripherals connected to the switch be able to run simultaneously?

 

[carwiz]

Absolutely! I have that exact configuration now.

I haven't updated this drawing yet but it's pretty much the same except I removed the AZIO and moved the ASUS to its place. I have one router and one switch.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Absolutely! I have that exact configuration now.

I haven't updated this drawing yet but it's pretty much the same except I removed the AZIO and moved the ASUS to its place. I have one router and one switch.

Thank you! I'll mark this solved unless someone chimes in with something different.

 

[carwiz]

I setup one Guest account on the router so it allows a hot-spot for smart phones, laptops and notepads. All three of these can run simultaneously also. If at all possible, I would run printers off USB ports. Printers connected via Ethernet generate a lot of unnecessary comm traffic on the LAN. They're constantly being polled even when doing nothing. The printer in the lower right of the diagram is shared (broken line).

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I setup one Guest account on the router so it allows a hot-spot for smart phones, laptops and notepads. All three of these can run simultaneously also. If at all possible, I would run printers off USB ports. Printers connected via Ethernet generate a lot of unnecessary comm traffic on the LAN. They're constantly being polled even when doing nothing. The printer in the lower right of the diagram is shared (broken line).

Ok, that's good to know.

 

[Berton]

I have a Router with the Modem connected to the Uplink port and an 8-port Switch using one of the other 4 ports. Both are Gigabit [10/100/1000] and the Router has Wireless. I have 2 HP printers connected by Ethernet and any computer whether Wired or Wireless that I install the printers on can use them. Right now I have WinVista, Win7, Win8.1, Win10TB, Macbook OS X and Linux Mint on my network. I have a mix of 802.11g and 802.11n Wi-Fi connections. The advantage of the Network for printers versus a direct connection is that no particular computer has to be on so as to use the printers.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks, Berton! Have you noticed any problems with the increased LAN traffic carwiz mentioned from the printers?

I removed the solved mark, even though my initial question was answered, to encourage more participation in this thread. I'm learning a lot here.

 

[Berton]

No, I haven't. But sometimes my wife sees it as the printer is dealing with the job when printing recipes from the Internet that have some graphics in them.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

No, I haven't. But sometimes my wife sees it as the printer is dealing with the job when printing recipes from the Internet that have some graphics in them.

Forgive my ignorance but how does she see it?

 

[Berton]

Mostly the wait time before printing starts. She uses a Wi-Fi connection to the Router. She thinks things should work faster, just gets impatient, probably remembers when we had dial-up with Win98SE and ICS for our 2 computers.

 

[carwiz]

You won't "see" it unless you run a network monitor.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4865

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Mostly the wait time before printing starts. She uses a Wi-Fi connection to the Router. She thinks things should work faster, just gets impatient, probably remembers when we had dial-up with Win98SE and ICS for our 2 computers.

My printer is connected via Wi-Fi but most of its delay is due to the printer itself needing some warm up time. I get around that by pulling out the media tray and pushing it back in to wake it out of standby mode. Since I mostly print 3x5 cards, I have to pull it out anyway to load the manual feed so I just make sure I do that first. Once warmed up, there isn't that much of a delay. My network right now (and for some time to come) consists of the computer and the printer connected to the router wirelessly and a TV tuner connected to the router via Ethernet.

When I first got cable internet, I had the contracted installers put the modem and the router on a shelf in the linen closet in my bathroom because there wasn't room for them where the computer is and they would have looked like...they would have looked bad. The contractors didn't know their backsides from a hole in the ground and dis a sloppy installation job inside but I didn't push it since it was out of sight. I made them bury the cable deep enough outside. I also made them run the cable inside the skirting and siding of my mobile home instead of on the outside like they wanted to do. I had to help because they didn't even have a fish tape (I do).

When my router finally started giving up the ghost earlier this year, I replaced the modem and router, and the Wi-Fi adapter on the computer. I also cleaned up the cables. They were too long and the data tap and splitter were just hanging in the breeze. I was able to make more room on the shelf so I can install one or two TV tuners.

A few weeks ago, I upgraded my TV antenna system. The old (ok, ancient) directional TV antenna got replaced with an amplified omnidirectional antenna (it looks like a flying saucer hovering over the roof). I ran new RG6 cable (black to distinguish it from internet cable) to replace the 20 year old RG59. I had to split the line so one part ran to the TV on one side of the house and the other to the linen closet on the other side of the house. I was able to hide it inside the walls or under the sheet metal trim at the top of the wall so only the downlead from the antenna and the splitter show. The splitter had to be the kid that would pass DC so power could get to the antenna amplifier (because of that, I had to put a DC blocker on the line going to the TV).

I temporarily installed a TV tuner that connects to the router via Ethernet yesterday and I'm learning how to use it with Windows Media Center. So far, so good. Once I'm confident the tuner will work out, I'm going to get a second one, add another splitter (it may need to be amplified; I'll cross that bridge when I get there) and permanently install them on the left hand wall.



Some day, I may be able to locate my router near my printer, scanners, and TV tuners, which is why I'm asking all these questions.