I need to have 7 pc sharing an internet connection.
I was thinking of getting a 8-port router that connects to a modem, but my friend said I could just get a 4-port router and then having a switch connecting it, that way is cheaper. I am not sure if this works.
i.e.
4 pc connect to a router, and 3 pc connect to a switch which connects to the router.
Will that work for 7 pc online at the SAME time? Will those 3 pc connecting to the switch have slower connection than the others just connecting to the router?
1. Yes.
2. No, unless the connection between the switch and router is slower than the Internet connection. A tiny bit more latency, perhaps.
The only real downside is that if you have one 100Mbps connection between the router and switch, then you can only get 100Mbps between the computers connected to the router and the computers connected to the switch; so if several people are trying to copy large files around you'll be limited by that. In other situations you'll be fine.
Note that you can avoid that by putting all seven PCs on an eight port switch and just connecting the switch to the router. Then the switch can provide 100Mbps to and from each PC and only Internet traffic has to go through the router.
MarkG's suggestion of running all computers off the switch would be best if your doing lan gaming and file transfers. It would also make opening ports in the router simpler since you would only need to set one ip address (the switch) for each port you need to open, instead of for each computer. Internet traffic wont bog down a 100mb connection. If your going to run any game servers that are open to the internet then run those off the router.
