Cable Modem to Router or Switch first?

R

rbarr110

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2003
Messages
278
I am doing some rewiring of the house and changing locations of different internet/networking devices. I had been just using a router, but with the expansion of my household wired network, the router ports are not enough.

What is the best way of routing my network....

Cable Modem -> Gigabit Switch-> Wireless Router
or
Cable Modem -> Wireless Router(has 4 extra gigabit ports) -> Gigabit Switch

Or does it really matter?
 
Option 1 would not work if your provider only gives you one IP address. The router is needed to give out those private internal address and the Switch allows for more ports for the internal network after the router.

By putting the switch in front of the router, each device attached to the switch before the router would get/need a public IP address. Which you most likely cannot do.

Hope that helps
 
The first option is useful if you have a vlan switch that can span ports and you wish to sniff traffic. Since you are asking the question however I'm going to guess this is not the case. The second option would be more common for consumers setups and provide for your needs.
 
How many public IPs do you have with the package from your ISP? If only 1..like most home accounts, modem....router...switch. Gotta have the router to share that single IP..and provide a basic hardware firewall to protect your network via NAT.

If multiple IPs...I'd still do the same setup with a biz grade router that allows multiple IPs on the WAN interface.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top