atc98092:
Regarding your second reply, the functionalities of Switches are becoming clearer - although I'm still a bit puzzled about how the Router can "oversee" devices that are connected via a cascaded Switch. I also wonder whether Switches can be cascaded off of other Switches and still work properly. (This would help with physical cable routing, because I could run just one cable upstairs, and feed a Switch there - instead of running three separate cables from a Router/Switch combo downstairs. Also, it would help the cabling aspect if I could feed a second Switch also from the Router to feed the two Rokus planned for downstairs - which are physically separated from the Laptop feed. Putting Switches near the grouped devices would reduce the number of long-run separate cables - although it might negatively affect performance).
If a Router's firewall is as effective and controllable as an owned Modem's firewall, then it may be more practical to see if my Modem can be bridged as you mentioned (versus getting an owned Modem).
Thanks!
Yes, Ethernet switches can be cascaded without an issue. The router does not need to know the exact port of every connected device, it only needs to know which of its own ports are used to reach it. Once the packet is sent out of that port, it reaches the second switch, which again knows which port each device is connected to. If the device in question is connected to the second switch, it sends the packet to that port. If it's a wireless device that is connected to an access point connected to that switch, the packet is sent to the port the AP is connected to, and the AP will then broadcast it via WiFi. If the packet comes into the second switch, and the device is connected downstream to a third switch, the packet is sent on to that switch. They really are quite intelligent, even though they are referred to as "dumb" or "unmanaged" switches. A Smart/Managed switch is actually assigned its own IP address and can perform many more routing functions. But again, those are typically used in enterprise networks, and not normally used at home.
Your scenario of running a single cable to a location then add a switch at that end is exactly what I'm doing in the room I'm in right now as my home office. There's an eight port switch blinking away at me, with my home and work computer connected via Ethernet, as well as a Smart TV in the room. I have an access point sitting behind my main monitor, so it's connected to the switch as well. There's five active connections on that switch, plus any wireless devices that are connected to the access point. That's four devices plus the cable that runs to the main 16 port switch in my garage (right below me).
JKasten wrote:at98092:
Honestly, I have no idea whether this is a "100base-T" network. The ISP currently provides "100 Mbps", and we've discussed the devices involved (I believe the Switch I have is billed as a Gigabit device), and I currently have (or have on order) Cat5e and Cat6 ethernet cables. Beyond that, I have no clue.
I just looked up your modem, and it is absolutely something designed for business use. It is capable of multi-Gigabit speeds, and the single LAN port is 2.5 Gbps, so 2.5 times Gigabit. The fact it has a single port tells me it's designed to connect to a router that provides the networking functions we've discussed above.
Cat5e cables work just fine at Gigabit speeds on a home network. There's no need to pay more for Cat7 or 6 cables. Just make sure any switches you buy (and the router too of course) has Gigabit ports, and your entire internal network will be Gigabit.
JKasten wrote:Also, not sure about the access point stuff, but my question was an attempt to understand whether/how the ethernet ports of a Router interact with its Wi-Fi "ports". In particular, can a Router simultaneously support all devices connected via its ethernet ports and those connected via Wi-Fi - such that, if I was willing, I could for example direct-wire my Laptop(s) and a couple of Rokus to the Router's ethernet ports, while using the Router's Wi-Fi to connect two or three other devices to the same Router wirelessly. (I'm not familiar with how Wi-Fi is "broken out" from a Router; I only notice that Routers have varying numbers of antennas, which I assume have a one-to-one correlation with Wi-Fi "ports" or "channels", each dedicated to a Wi-Fi device in the same way as an ethernet port is dedicated to an ethernet device. Or, is the Wi-Fi more like an ethernet Switch, which can connect/coordinate multiple devices at once (via individual "channels")? In other words, what is the purpose of the multiple antennas on a Router?)
There's really no interaction between the wireless connections and the wired connections unless/until one tries to access the other. Two wireless devices "talking" to each other would never appear on the wired side of the router. There's usually a bitrate limit to what the wireless and wired connections can handle, but with Gigabit speeds it's highly unlikely you would ever notice any performance issues because of the network activity.
Multiple antennas on an access point/router can be used for multiple reasons. One reason could be the 2.4 and 5 GHz radios use different antennas. But generally they are used for things like shaping the signal so it might broadcast in a certain direction, or sending multiple packets in separate streams that use different antennas. In broad terms, multiple antennas usually means improved performance.
atc98092:
OK, thanks... now the routing through cascaded switches makes sense to me.
I'm wondering what effect the cascading has on performance, though. I don't know what the Rokus actually need performance-wise but my incoming is sort of "shoestring", so I don't want to degrade things much.
By the way, in an ethernet/Wi-Fi router, are the ethernet ports entirely separate functionally from the Wi-Fi, or is it a situation where you "lose" a Wi-Fi "port" for each ethernet port that is connected?
JKasten wrote:atc98092:
OK, thanks... now the routing through cascaded switches makes sense to me.
I'm wondering what effect the cascading has on performance, though. I don't know what the Rokus actually need performance-wise but my incoming is sort of "shoestring", so I don't want to degrade things much.
By the way, in an ethernet/Wi-Fi router, are the ethernet ports entirely separate functionally from the Wi-Fi, or is it a situation where you "lose" a Wi-Fi "port" for each ethernet port that is connected?
If your wired network is 100 BaseT (100 Mbps) there's a potential for bottlenecks to occur on cascaded switches. However, in practice that's enough bandwidth that performance normally isn't an issue. If you use Gigabit switches, the potential is mostly eliminated.
WiFi, if using a remote access point, is only using a single Ethernet port. The loss of that access point would have no impact on any other port in that switch. For WiFi that is provided by the router, it is using a separate internal path, so the loss of the WiFi on the router would again not impact the remainder of the router and switch functionality, assuming that whatever caused the loss of WiFi did not also impact the router as a whole.
at98092:
Honestly, I have no idea whether this is a "100base-T" network. The ISP currently provides "100 Mbps", and we've discussed the devices involved (I believe the Switch I have is billed as a Gigabit device), and I currently have (or have on order) Cat5e and Cat6 ethernet cables. Beyond that, I have no clue.
Also, not sure about the access point stuff, but my question was an attempt to understand whether/how the ethernet ports of a Router interact with its Wi-Fi "ports". In particular, can a Router simultaneously support all devices connected via its ethernet ports and those connected via Wi-Fi - such that, if I was willing, I could for example direct-wire my Laptop(s) and a couple of Rokus to the Router's ethernet ports, while using the Router's Wi-Fi to connect two or three other devices to the same Router wirelessly. (I'm not familiar with how Wi-Fi is "broken out" from a Router; I only notice that Routers have varying numbers of antennas, which I assume have a one-to-one correlation with Wi-Fi "ports" or "channels", each dedicated to a Wi-Fi device in the same way as an ethernet port is dedicated to an ethernet device. Or, is the Wi-Fi more like an ethernet Switch, which can connect/coordinate multiple devices at once (via individual "channels")? In other words, what is the purpose of the multiple antennas on a Router?)
Thanks for the instruction!
atc98092:
I can understand having multiple antennas for field-shaping or "steering" the signals. When I saw the various Routers with varying numbers of antennas, I was thinking in terms of the antennas being Wi-Fi "ports" - like each antenna was comparable to an ethernet port (that is, RJ45 jack). This misled me into thinking there was some one-to-one correlation between antennas and the number of Wi-Fi devices that could be supported. Oh, well... Shows how much I know about Wi-Fi ops. :-{
Thanks for the help and all the info! As noted in my previous reply to AvsGunnar, things seem to be working, after no significant problems during ethernet set-up and Roku activations - although unexpectedly the Rokus worked even without the Switch having its power turned on.
