New router?

[navychop]

I have an SA WebStar cable modem feeding a Linksys BEFSR81 ("cable/DSL 8 port router"). Soon, hopefully, I will have Fios internet to replace that SA box. I currently have 14 drops, soon to be 18, and within 2 or 3 years will have 22 - 26 (when we redo the kitchen). I have a 24 port patch panel. I don't like swapping patch cords to activate certain ports. I regularly use all but 6 of the current drops. I will be putting in a hub in my master bedroom since I now need to feed the TV, BD player, satellite box, and perhaps a Divx player and laptop.

I am considering getting a 16, or better, 24 port router to replace the Linksys. I could daisy chain, but that is inelegant and would limit me to 14 drops (only one daisy chain on routers allowed- never mind hubs).

To further complicate matters, although I do not care for wireless today, I might one day change my mind and I might as well consider the possibility that I might add wireless. Even though the final spec for N is years off. I believe the Fios boxes installed around here have wireless.

What course of action, and hardware, would you recommend?

 

[cparker]

Whatever WAN device you end up with, whether it's a DSL modem or ... I don't know what the FIOS interface is... just connect it to a 24 port switch. Now you can have a port for every port on your patch panel (except ONE where the WAN device is plugged into the switch).

You can easily add another 1U patch panel if you add drops and stacking a pair of 24 port switches is trivial.

If you want to keep the router then simply plug it into the switch on the LAN side and the DSL/FIOS/Whatever modem/interface on the WAN side.

Adding wireless is as simple as plugging in a wireless access point anywhere on the network where you have a live jack. You don't need a wireless router to do this. AND this gives you the flexibility to use an inexpensive wireless access point immediately if you want to and a different one later.

I like wires as well, but wireless stuff exists. My son's Wii, my wife's laptop when she wants to go out and work in the screen-porch, and I think the XBox 360 Elite is wireless too.

 

[navychop]

Thank you. I decided to go the simple route:

Cable modem > router > D-Link 24 port switch > hub on drop to MBr.


Now I can keep all drops active at all times. Everything works just fine. Might play around some with wireless after Fios arrives. I'll admit it's convenient on the road to stop at a Panera Bread and log on. But there may just be too many snoops around for me to be comfortable with home use, even with WPA2.

Amazing how cheap those switches have become, esp if you forego gigabit.

 

[Ramy]

Why use a hub? It doesn't dedicate to each port on it.

 

[navychop]

I have 2 RJ-45 outlets in my master bedroom. I need to connect the Samsung 52A650 TV, the Samsung 1500 BD player, the ViP722, a laptop, and a DVD/DiVX player. And there may be some sort of IPTV box in my future. Yes, I know I can "time share" and swap cables, but I'm lazy. So I plugged a hub into one of the outlets.

Speed after the hub is not (today) important, for the uses to which it is put. Nor, of course, is the shotgun approach to sending out the return data. If I d/l anything from Dish, either via sat or internet, it would likely go to the ViP722 in the living room. And I still have the second MBr outlet available if I go with an IPTV box.

And I believe I can daisy chain any number of hubs or switches. Just limited on one router jump to another router. I wired the house when we bought it a couple of years ago. It was built in 1965. Put in "more than enough" outlets everywhere (except the kitchen, saved for later) where I could ever want a drop. Yeah, right- we all know how that works out. Next house, if there is a next house, I'll run conduit. Then had some other work, including blowing several inches of insulation in the attic, that would make running more lines to the MBr quite impractical. The kitchen, living room & dining room, I can access from the basement.

Or am I missing some other, faster solution? Already had the hub laying around, probably have another router if I look hard. Pop in a router, so it's router > switch > router?

 

[Ramy]

You can use the router as a dummy switch by turning off the DHCP in the settings.

 

[navychop]

Yes, but would I really gain much by doing so, considering how it's used today?

 

[Ramy]

Maybe, maybe not.

 

[navychop]

OK. If I come across a router in my closet, I'll swap it out. Best to be prepared for the future.

 

[Ramy]

OK. If I come across a router in my closet, I'll swap it out. Best to be prepared for the future.

Exactly.

 

[navychop]

Thanks.