Ethernet switch?

[zilla]

Well, probably not. Most cable modems (the router), for example, are fitted with 100 megabit, not gigabit ports, so the switch port with the link to the modem will auto-negotiate to 100Mbps, even though the port may be capable of 1000Mbps. A PC with 1GbE connected to a 1GbE switch will indeed run at one gigabit per second on that link, but the connection to the modem will be a bottleneck. Since the switch will use a store and forward strategy through the speed gearing, no data will be lost, even though you probably don't have flow control engaged. And hopefully any multi-frame messages are sent using TCP, so each connection is acknowledged and flow controlled by TCP up at Layer 4, so you don't permanently lose any of them.

Yes all of that is accurate but the cable modem is not the router though. At least not typically.

Typical setup is WAN/ISP > Modem > Router > PC. In his case he's adding a switch in between the router and PC. If he's got a built in router and modem (more unusual, but some ISP's... ATT... use them) then your statement is accurate. And yeah those should be TCP'd connections at layer 4.

So really it depends on who his ISP is and what equipment they provided if you wanna get detailed about it.

 

[Shrader]

Wow! "nerd fight" lol. I have a wireless router for dsl hooked from the phone line, to the PC, then the cat5 cable runs from the router to the other side of the basement that is currently hooked to the denon. Another question is can I use more than one component at a time on the network with the switch? don't know why I would need to but, say I was listening to pandora on the receiver, and the other devices are on, does the switch know what one you are using, or do you have to have everything off except the device you are using? is any device that is on drawing ethernet service?

 

[jonnythan]

I know you've already bought one, but my preference is overwhelmingly for the blue metal Netgear "Business" switches. They're not pricey ($40 for a 5-port gigabit switch) and they are the most stable and reliable in their class.

As for gig vs 100, there's no point in spending money on anything that's not gig these days. For best results, have everything hooked up to a gig port somewhere.

 

[jonnythan]

Wow! "nerd fight" lol. I have a wireless router for dsl hooked from the phone line, to the PC, then the cat5 cable runs from the router to the other side of the basement that is currently hooked to the denon. Another question is can I use more than one component at a time on the network with the switch? don't know why I would need to but, say I was listening to pandora on the receiver, and the other devices are on, does the switch know what one you are using, or do you have to have everything off except the device you are using? is any device that is on drawing ethernet service?

No, everything hooked to the network (whether through the switch, the router, or wireless) is on and can be used simultaneously.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Wow! "nerd fight" lol. I have a wireless router for dsl hooked from the phone line, to the PC, then the cat5 cable runs from the router to the other side of the basement that is currently hooked to the denon. Another question is can I use more than one component at a time on the network with the switch? don't know why I would need to but, say I was listening to pandora on the receiver, and the other devices are on, does the switch know what one you are using, or do you have to have everything off except the device you are using? is any device that is on drawing ethernet service?

All ports work simultaneously. Every Ethernet frame has a 48bit destination address in it, so the switch always knows how to route it, even when the frame has to go through another switch (or more) to get to the device.