WRT54GL

[11Blade]

I have had this router for a year or so and it has been rock solid but am running into some expansion headaches.

I have occupied all the ethernet ports with desktops + vonage IP adapter.

I moved my xbox(my media center) to a wireless connection with a bridge, moved the workgroup multifunction fax/laser off ethernet to wireless with a bridge, moved 2nd laser to wireless bridge and relocated it to another floor.

There are 3 laptops running in the house and a couple of wifi gadgets (pda, tablet)

I am building a raid box (NAS) with old parts for central storage (media, photos, work files) and I suspect this would be best served plugged into the router by hardwire rather than wireless.

My question is - how do I make more ports? can I buy a ethernet 4 port switch and plug that into one of the ports? or is there an 8 port WRT54GL?

no - I am not selling the GL unless I have a capable replacement.

 

[Kaervak]

I've never done it with a switch, but all you should have to do is connect one of the ethernet ports from the GL to one of the ethernet ports of the switch and that should take care of it. I've done it before with routers, just shut off the DHCP server in the second router and connect ethernet to ethernet and it worked perfectly. I don't think switches have WAN ports on them, but if it does, don't connect the router eithernet port to the WAN port, it won't work.

 

[Madwand1]

I'd get an 8-port gigabit switch such as the DGS-2208, connect that to the router, and connect all devices for with LAN transfer matters (incl. obviously those with gigabit NICs) to it.

Of course, you could get a landfill-ready 10/100 switch instead, or better yet, rescue one from landfill.

 

[11Blade]

Madwand,

if I connect a Gigabit switch to the router, will traffic from PC to PC within the lan still go through the router and back or will the switch direct that (say 192.168.1.101 to 192.168.105 file xfer)

is it smart enough?

11Blade

 

[Madwand1]

Yes, local transfers will do directly from one switch port to the other without making a round-trip through the router.