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Expanding Network by Using Network Switch

Let say you have a network at home which shown as below. The router you bought only have 4 Ethernet LAN ports. 2 ports are connected to computers and 1 port is connected to notebook. You then found out you still have 1 computer and 1 notebook to connect to network, but you only left 1 Ethernet LAN port. How to solve this problem?

The solution is easy. You can use a network switch to solve your problem. This is a device that joins multiple computers in your network. There are 4-port, 8-port, 16-port or 32-ports switch available in the market. The Ethernet that can be supported by the switch are 10Mbps, 100Mbps or 1000Mbps. Usually 100Mbps switch would be sufficient to support your network.

Buy a switch and connect Ethernet LAN port from router to one of the normal ports on network switch by using crossover cable. If there is uplink port on the switch, you can connect it to router’s Ethernet LAN port using straight cable. (usually not available for the entry level switch)

You can connect computer and notebook to the switch’s normal port using straight cable.

The LED on the switch will show you which ports are connected.

Don’t Use Hub if Possible

Maybe you know using a hub can also be used to expand your network, but I do not recommend to use it. This is because hub is less intelligent then switch. If you have 4 computers connected to hub, if computer A wishes to talk to computer B, the traffic will be passed to all computers (usually called broadcast), but only computer B will accept it. This broadcasting feature will generate lot of traffic and slow down your network.

However it will be the other story if you use network switch, switch will be able to determine that only computer B is needed to talk with, then the traffic is only sent to computer B. Switch improves your network performance.

Check out different types of network switch here.

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