Networking my House, BIG TIME!?

Question

I've got a wireless router for my cable right now and everything works fine, but it's a little inconvenient, bc my dad's pc is opposite end of the house and doesn't get wirless so we have to rund a 100' ethernet cable through the house. i'm concidering slightly upsizing our network system since when ppl come over to play halo or lan party or something, i pretty much have to rewire the entire thing. would a new 308Mbs router connected to like an 18 port auto detect switch be more useful for lan parties and xbox/playstation online? a switch just is basically like a large router that automatically detects which ports are being used and can cut connection to the other ports so that the ocupied ports recieve more of the bandwidth?

Answer 1

You need to get the terminology right.

A switch is a multiport device where you can connect multiple Ethernet connections.

A hub is a multiport device where you can connect multiple Ethernet connections.

The only difference is, a hub can support total of 100mb/sec (for example) where as a switch can have multiple 100mb/sec connections. For example, if you have 4 pc connected to your hub/switch and A and B are talking and C and D are talking.... On hub, you share the bandwidth, so you get 50mb each. On switch, you get 100mb each. The combination of the speed on a switch can be as fast as what is specified for the "backbone" speed (which is not often specified for consumer grade switches)

A router is a device where it directs ip traffic depending on your ip address using netmask and routing.

What you need is a 18 or 24 port SWITCH connected to a router that connects the whole thing to the outside (Internet)

What is normally sold as a "router" or "firewall" is a combination of proxy, router, firewall, and switch/hub.