Can I add another ethernet port to my mobo using a switch?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
W

waylo

Distinguished
Dec 3, 2006
48
0
18,540
For users in the know, I'm sure this is a simple question/answer.

My motherboard only has a single gigabit ethernet port.

Can I expand this to more than 1 by connecting it directly to a switch? Everything I could find describes using switches to expand wired router connections.

I'd like to have the ability to connect to a wired LAN and use my Silicon Dust cable tuner, which connects via ethernet cable.

Or do I need to install a separate PCI-e NIC?
 
Solution
B
You can in the general case only hook your PC to a single network at a time if it has only one ethernet port. There are ways if you had commercial switches to create virtual interfaces but I will leave it at that to not confuse things.

The key thing to realize is inside almost all modern home routers there is actually a switch. There is a separate chip that controls the traffic between the lan ports. Traffic passing between them does not even go to the router chip. Pretty much if you have 1g ports on the lan router ports you can pass 1g up and 1g down on every port at the same time. So although you are plugging your stuff into the router it is similar to your plan to use a separate switch and then plug the switch into the...
Sort by date Sort by votes
U

Urumiko

Distinguished
Dec 28, 2013
505
0
19,160
Erm, the short answer is yes a switch can be used to connect any number of ethernet devices together.
However if there is no router plugged in to handle things like automatically configuring ip addresses (DHCP), then you may need to set some things up manually.

I'm assuming you are trying to connect the cable tuner to the internet? If you describe your current set-up and what you are trying to do I'm sure we could advise?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
W

waylo

Distinguished
Dec 3, 2006
48
0
18,540


Hi, thanks for the input.

I have a HTPC/media server and would like to establish my internet connectivity through a wired connection. The reason for this is that the HD video streaming won't work very reliably via wireless. Or the speeds will fluctuate. (My N speeds may not cut it, I don't have AC equipment at this point).

The Silicon Dust HDHR Prime connects via cablecard to a cable input, and outputs via an ethernet cable. So I have 2 options, either (1) connecting this directly to a router which then disseminates the signal through the local network, or (2) into a NIC/mobo.

Let's say I am forgoing option 1 for now (though I think that's probably the better option). Maybe the home network I have can't keep up with the speeds required for the HD video capture.

Given my HTPC/media server only has 1 ethernet port, without some sort of hub/switch/router, I can only connect the cable tuner, or the wired home network/internet into the mobo. Correct?

I was thinking that perhaps hooking both the cable tuner and the home internet into a switch, which then went into the mobo, would be an option.

However, I do have extra routers sitting around... so perhaps I can utilize one of them for this purpose, since DHCP would be required somewhere in this setup!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

bill001g

Titan
Aug 9, 2012
28,279
2,741
125,640
You can in the general case only hook your PC to a single network at a time if it has only one ethernet port. There are ways if you had commercial switches to create virtual interfaces but I will leave it at that to not confuse things.

The key thing to realize is inside almost all modern home routers there is actually a switch. There is a separate chip that controls the traffic between the lan ports. Traffic passing between them does not even go to the router chip. Pretty much if you have 1g ports on the lan router ports you can pass 1g up and 1g down on every port at the same time. So although you are plugging your stuff into the router it is similar to your plan to use a separate switch and then plug the switch into the router. Now if you only have 100m ports on the router and you have a 1g switch then connecting the video device and your PC would give you gig speeds where as you would be limited to the 100m on the router. Still even 100m is a lot for most applications.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom