Dasiy Chain Switches vs. Cascading Routers

[phipsi32]

Howdy folks. I have a wired home network with a structured wiring panel. I currently have a cable modem connected to a Linksys wireless router (WRT610N) connected to a Netgear 8port switch. The switch is supporting all the LAN cables. I have a total of seven (7) ethernet ports but no more than one per room. I would like to connect multiple devices (computer, printer, TV, Blu-Ray, DirecTV receiver) to the ethernet port.

Can I just add a switch at each ethernet port? Should I cascade a router? Is there any advantage to cascading routers vs. daisy chaining the switches? Cost of equipment not witchstanding.

Also, can a I connect a wired printer directly to the LAN? Or do I need a print server if multiple computers (4-7) are on the LAN?

Thank you.

 

[GhislainG]

If you're going to install a switch in each room and only one device will be connected to it, why not connect it directly to the Netgear switch? You will or already have a Cat5 cable going to each room?

Is there any advantage to cascading routers vs. daisy chaining the switches? Cost of equipment not witchstanding.

Since a router usually is a switch, what do you mean by that question?

 

[phipsi32]

I apologize if I wasn't specific. The router is hooked up to the switch in the structured wiring panel. The switch feeds one ethernet port in each room. Each of these ports (being fed by the switch) must accommodate anything from 3-5 network devices in each room. So I need to share one ethernet port between the computer, printer, TV, Blu-Ray, Satellite box, Apple TV, etc.

So can one residential router, like a Linksys WRT610N, manage that many devices?

Cable modem ---> Router ---> 8 port switch ---> 7 ethernet ports ---> 5 network devices on each port = 35 network devices that need to share internet access via 10/100 LAN.

So is it enough to manage the LAN with a switch in each room (Ethernet port to switch to 5 devices)? Or is it better to manage each room with a cascading router (Ethernet port to router with 5 network devices)?

 

[GhislainG]

Since the DHCP server can assign up to 253 addresses, it has to be able to handle that many devices.

 

[phipsi32]

Thank you. I didn't know that.

 

[sturm]

Cascading switches is your best bet. Using a SOHO router is a waste as you will not be using the router part unless you want to have a different network address scheme in each room. You would need to disable DHCP on each router essentially turning it into a switch to keep all components on the same network.