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Sharing internet connection through a switch.

L

lkiller1231

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 10, 2009
Messages
272
Hi guys, I usually hang out over at the case and overclocking section.

I am not much of a network savvy, though. Recently I am building a server farm, it turns out that I am actually running out of router ports. I've heard of sharing internet connection through switches will actually work. Anyone care to instruct me how to do it?
 
Plugging a switch into a router is like adding ports on to the router. Just plug it in.
 
Do I also need to run a computer as a host or anything like that?

Is it going to be any different if I plug the switch directly into the modem?
 
Won't be any different at all, a switch is just adding more ports to an already full router, your computers will still receive and send all their data through the router.

So Modem->Router->Switch and you should be all set.
 
Don't plug the switch directly into the modem. The switch doesn't do Network Address Translation (NAT) so if you do that all the PC will try to get public IP's from the modem instead of private IP's from the router. You don't want that. Think of it this way. Your router already has a switch built into it. So you just want to add more ports to the switch. If you connect the switch to one of the LAN jacks on the router you are connecting a switch to a switch and expanding your available ports.
 
I see. Actually, my "modem" has 4 ports built-in with Wi-Fi already. Can I consider it as a router?
 
alphanumeric was just pointing out that there's a difference between a modem and a router and if you did actually only have a modem then you'd have to do it differently. Since "my "modem" has 4 ports built-in with Wi-Fi already", it sounds like you have a router, so it's not a problem.

A switch is a very simple device - it's nothing complex requiring a seperate machine as a host or anything like that - I think you're thinking of a cluster scenario.
Just have one network cable connect the router and the switch. Then you can use the network ports on the router and the switch as if they were all on the back of the router.
 
So, I just connect one port in the switch to the router. The rest of the ports to the computers?
 
lkiller1231 said:
So, I just connect one port in the switch to the router. The rest of the ports to the computers?
Click to expand...

Yes. Think of the 4x built in LAN ports on your router as just a 4 port switch. When you run out of ports, one option to expand would be to add another switch to it, cascaded ..or uplinked.

Since you have a server farm, you may want a gigabit switch if you do lots of transfers 'n such. So get one decent sized switch to allow growth...perhaps a 12 or 16 or even 24 port switch. Plug all your servers 'n PCs into that, and just uplink your router to it.
 
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