Multipal components with ethernet capabilities

You need a router and possibly a switch. The router will allow you to "share" your internet connection. Most will have a 4 or 8 port switch built in. To simplify the wiring a small switch can be added near the components if the router is not place near by. This would allow you to run 1 main cable from the router to the switch instead of 1 cable per device to the router.


On the brand side I am a Cisco guy but I would not recommend them for home use. Really the differences between the brands are minor. Your questions are pretty generic so minor performance differences aren't really an issue. Look into either a Linksys or D-Link router as they are the most popular. This is great if you have problems during setup because someone will likely have had the same problem. Most will have wifi and that is fine because you can turn it off if you don't want to use it.

Well the modem supplied by my ISP has a 4 port router built in,so one port is for the cat5 wire I am using now at my HT system.So it sounds like all i need to get is a 4 0r 5 port switch which I could hook the cable from my router and just use 3 short cat5 cables from the switch ports to each component.The only issue I am worried about is that the switch is plug and play with no required software.Thats why I included these so called game extenders as they are plug and play with no required software installations which is ideal with home theater components obviously.

Any switch would be plug and play as most of the more recent ones auto detect the connection so you don't have to worry about anything.



Quote:
Originally Posted by ta-kid /forum/post/15444841


Well the modem supplied by my ISP has a 4 port router built in,so one port is for the cat5 wire I am using now at my HT system.So it sounds like all i need to get is a 4 0r 5 port switch which I could hook the cable from my router and just use 3 short cat5 cables from the switch ports to each component.The only issue I am worried about is that the switch is plug and play with no required software.Thats why I included these so called game extenders as they are plug and play with no required software installations which is ideal with home theater components obviously.

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You are right, all you need is a 4 or 5 port switch and it will be plug and play. I have one from Linksys and it works great.

Thanks guys ,really appreciate the help.I eneded up getting a Linksys EZXS55W wired 5 port switch and so far it works great with my yamy 3900 internet radio listening.Just plug and play!

I have an ancient D-Link 10/100 5 port switch behind my TV stand that the xbox, HD DVD player, Tivo, etc are connected to. For most things, a 10/100 switch (as long as it's not a hub!) will be fine, given enough ports to plug everything in at once and a spare port to use as the uplink to the rest of your network (either directly to the router, or hanging off some other switch).


That switch actually has one dead port and I keep having to switching cables around, I intend to upgrade one of my gigE switches to one with more ports and I'll move it down there, which while nothing there can use gigE there'll be less chance of them clobbering each other for bandwidth as the uplink will be gigE. Unlikely to ever be a problem unless I setup a dedicated HTPC there.