Expanding Network

[spectreone3]

Hello. I currently have a cable modem and a Linksys WNDR3700 wireless router. Between gaming systems, vonage, DirecTV... I have used all available ports on the router.

What steps can I take to expand wired access? The wireless is needed as my wife's laptop, my iPad and our printer all access it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Simo606]

A switch is used in cases like this. It splits 1 port from your router into 4+ depending on what switch you get.

For it to work properly either:

a) Make sure the DHCP server is enable on the router and DHCP is enable on the hosts (not static IP)

or

b) Assign a static IP address in the same network as router on each host, and specify the default gateway

 

[spectreone3]

A switch is used in cases like this. It splits 1 port from your router into 4+ depending on what switch you get.

For it to work properly either:

a) Make sure the DHCP server is enable on the router and DHCP is enable on the hosts (not static IP)

or

b) Assign a static IP address in the same network as router on each host, and specify the default gateway

Thanks. So in my configuration it would be the Modem-->Router-->Switch (connected to one of the available LAN ports on the Router)?

 

[Simo606]

Yea the switch plugs into only 1 port on the router, so you still have all the remaining router ports free + the extra ports on the switch.

Also make sure it's a switch with 'gigabit Ethernet ports' since your router has them also it will provide better performance over 100BASE.