Could a switch be used instead of router for a simple network?

[ravenheart92]

I know the general difference between a router and a switch, but after considerable reading I'm unable to determine if I could just use a switch for my pretty simple specific application.

Here are the two devices I need to setup on my network (connections would be wired, both devices in close proximity):
(1) computer running windows2k with 100mbps ethernet card (has software firewall installed)
(1) blue ray player for streaming netflix videos

Because I don't have any computers on the network communicating with each other, based on what I've read it seems possible to just connect a switch to my cable modem instead of using a router.

Thanks for taking a look, and any help you can offer

 

[Emerald]

your modem will only provide ONE ip.

therefore you to have either the PC or the DVD player connect to the internet but NOT both at the same time.

to connect both at the same time you will need a router

 

[dEAne]

Yes, you can use a switch hub to share the cable modem with other PC's. You should always check with your Cable Providers Terms of Service agreement to make sure that this is legal to do under their agreement. Do this at your own risk. You typically need 2 network cards, or a Cable Modem that you can plug directly into a hub.

 

[hang-the-9]

Yes, you can use a switch hub to share the cable modem with other PC's. You should always check with your Cable Providers Terms of Service agreement to make sure that this is legal to do under their agreement. Do this at your own risk. You typically need 2 network cards, or a Cable Modem that you can plug directly into a hub.

^ this is not true, see Emerald's answer. You need a router or another source to sent data through the modem for multiple PCs using NAT ( to convert internal IPs on your network to a public IP that will connect to the internet using the modem). The only way to get this working with no router would be to setup the PC for network sharing, and setup the DVD player to access the net through the PC. It's much simpler to use a router.

 

[Psychoteddy]

^ this is not true, see Emerald's answer. You need a router or another source to sent data through the modem for multiple PCs using NAT ( to convert internal IPs on your network to a public IP that will connect to the internet using the modem). The only way to get this working with no router would be to setup the PC for network sharing, and setup the DVD player to access the net through the PC. It's much simpler to use a router.

+1^

Any network engineer will tell you that this is simply not possible without NAT. Unless you're using ONE computer, you will NEED a router capable of NAT/PAT.