Warning

 

Close
Confirm Action

Are you sure you wish to do this?

Cancel Confirm
AR15.COM
10/20/2016 4:44:06 PM EDT
Hey guys:
I have a Motorolla cable modem and a nice Netgear Dual Band Wireless N router. The problem is I only have 4 Ethernet ports on the router and that's just not enough. And being a 2-story house, the router isn't really in a great spot currently for WIFI

In addition to having multiple devices that want internet hooked to my TV, I also want to hardwire my NAS, desktop, etc.  

I have a Cat 5e "hub" downstairs, IE that's where all my cables are run to. 2 cables to each bedroom and 2 cables to the living room. I could also run a cable from there directly to the living room if needed.

Long story short- can I go "out" from my router (2nd floor), through the cable to the basement, and then put a switch there and wire that to all the other cables in the house? My concern is that it's too many connections.

Router (upstairs) - cable - wallplate - cable (in-wall) - SWITCH (downstairs) - cable (in-wall)- wallplate - cable - device

A slightly better alternative  (maybe?) would be to put my cable modem and an 8-port switch in the basement, and then "serve"  the router on another floor? I mainly don't want my wireless router in the basement. But I am not sure that would even work, because the router is more than just a glorified switch.

Is this too confusing- do I need an MS paint drawing?
10/20/2016 5:01:41 PM EDT
[#1]
I did the same thing at my house. Have a "smart panel" where all the cables come in from all my rooms. The 3 most important I have plugged into 3 ports on my router. 4th router port goes to a switch that the rest plug in to.  I've had no issues so far.
10/20/2016 5:07:31 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote History
Quoted:
I did the same thing at my house. Have a "smart panel" where all the cables come in from all my rooms. The 3 most important I have plugged into 3 ports on my router. 4th router port goes to a switch that the rest plug in to.  I've had no issues so far.
View Quote


I could do that however I'm not sure I want the router in the basement. I feel like the signal won't be strong enough on the 2nd floor and in the kid's rooms. Maybe it would...

But thanks for reading and the suggestion.
10/20/2016 5:12:06 PM EDT
[#3]
I think what you suggested works:

Long story short- can I go "out" from my router (2nd floor), through the cable to the basement, and then put a switch there and wire that to all the other cables in the house? My concern is that it's too many connections.

Router (upstairs) - cable - wallplate - cable (in-wall) - SWITCH (downstairs) - cable (in-wall)- wallplate - cable - device
View Quote


Use the open port on router upstairs to go back downstairs (thru cable in wall) to switch in the basement. I don't think you'll notice any performance issues.
10/20/2016 5:38:32 PM EDT
[#4]
Go from your modem to your router and your router to your switch.  Put any of those devices anywhere you want.  Plug anything you want into the router or the switch.  Everything will be fine.  
10/20/2016 5:46:51 PM EDT
[#5]
Long as you're on the LAN (vs WAN) ports of the modem and/or WAP, it all distributes by cable just fine. My cablemodem has only one ethernet port, which I run to a WAP with four LAN ports, that distribute to five or six other switches, and connect all my wired devices. Some of those wired devices use powerline connectors through a single powerline connector attached to one of those switches. Each of the remote powerline connectors attaches still another WAP as a network extender, and has additional wired devices attached to the WAP's LAN ports.
10/20/2016 5:50:53 PM EDT
[#6]
Cool, I think I can make this work. Thanks for listening to my overly complicated post. If I make some changes I'll post about it later. I think a single 5-port switch should be able to get it done.

I was worried about signal loss with all the different cables.