5 port switch

[chrbb]

Hi
To avoid employing someone to add more network sockets and lay cables to a room with not enough network points, what effect would it have on a switched network if I just used a 5 port switch at one of the current network sockets and ran 4 computers from it? Sorry prob really novice question but trying to do things on a budget and without the dreaded asbestos survey!

[Ric_]

It depends what you're doing with the points, the speed of the uplink and many more factors.

I have a building with a multitude of departmenal offices in it. When it was built somebody thought it would be a good idea to put data points into the offices... one per office is just pointless though!!! I use netgear 8-port (the 4-port version costs about £1 less so just in case...) mini-switches in these so that I can use networked laser printers. Not a problem really... of course you loose the ability to to have multiple VLANs in that room unless you use 802.11q tagging.

Anyway... I digress... you won't notice a huge difference in performance for your everyday tasks.

[john]

Just make sure you use Switched rather than Hubs, Hubs are ancient technology and not worth it.

[chrbb]

cheers for the prompt reply, the 5 0r 8! port switch will be used to add extra computers to the domain, just using basic software.

[tickmike]

Hi.
We only have 30 computers in the school and I only use 5 way, 8 way ,16 way, Net-lynx Switches .
The 8 way is about £17 from our local electronics store.
On each of the three classrooms we only have 7 computers but I have 8 spare ways Just in case we get some more computers donate.
From Michael.