What to do if the router's network port is insufficient? How to choose and connect a home switch? The first time I connected it, I turned the TV into a slideshow
During
later spent over fifty yuan to buy an 8-port gigabit switch, and basically solved all the problems. But I fell into three pitfalls along the way, the first turning the TV into a slideshow. This article will clearly explain what switches do, how to choose them, and how to connect them, so you don't need to stop blaming them.
clarify first: what is a switch for? Don't buy a cable distributor
switch does one thing: turn one network port into a bunch of network ports. When the router's LAN port is connected to the switch, the switch has only 7 ports left, allowing internet access without interfering with each other. Transferring files between the NAS and desktop can still run at full speed, without taking up the router's power.
searching "insufficient network port" on Taobao will show a few yuan "one-split two-way splitter" that splits a single connector into two ports. That thing isn't a switch; it splits the 8 core wires into two channels and uses 4 each, each with a maximum of 100Mbps, and both ends must work together. I almost used this to make do with the reserved cable for my home surveillance cable at the time, but luckily I first asked the technician who installed the lower monitor. There's also an older type called a hub, which is decades old. All ports share bandwidth, and now it's basically impossible to buy, so don't worry.
remember one thing: distinguish by network port. If you're buying a switch, look for the three characters "Switch" in the product title. The 8-port home version costs tens of yuan.
when do you need a switch
Not every household needs it, so let's get to know it first:
| your situation | should you switch |
| weak current box have more network cables than the router's LAN port? The most typical scenario is | |
| want to plug in wired TVs, NAS, and VCRs in the living room, | a |
| Mesh router next to the TV cabinet wants to go wired back, but the network port isn't | enough, so the switch is relaying inside the weak current box |
| install panel APs or POE cameras | connect directly to a POE switch. One cable connects power and network |
| but if the WiFi signal in one room is poor | there's no need to buy one; first check the wireless solution |
a single sentence in the fourth line. My home camera is POE-powered. An 8-port POE switch is placed in a weak current box, and each cable goes out to transmit data and power. There's no need to find a separate socket for the camera. I thoroughly calculated this idea in the monitoring network planning article. The same applies to panel APs: where would the power port come from in the 86 box? It all relies on POE back-supply.
How to choose
: Just ask yourself three questions
product page has tons of specs, so for home use, you don't need to look at so much—just ask three questions and you can place an order.
First question: Managerial or non-managerial? 90% of home scenarios, buy a non-managed (also called plug-and-play) model, just plug in the power and cable. There is only one situation where you need to be managed: you need to run a VLAN in the switch, such as IPTV and broadband sharing one cable. Later, I bought a VLAN-supported managed channel for single-line IPTV multiplexing, the Mercury SG108Pro, over 80 yuan. For an average family, you really don't need this for your first channel.
Second question: Gigabit or 2.5G? broadband under 500 Mbps, and no 10-gigabit NAS, gigabit ports are more than enough. 8 ports cost around 50 yuan, and you can buy Mercury SG108 or TP-LINK SG1008+ with your eyes closed. Later, my NAS upgraded to 2.5G, and the switch was upgraded to the ST1008. The 8-port 2.5G was over 150 yuan, and the internal network transmission went from 110MB/s to 260MB/s. Whether to spend this money is the I did in the 10-Gigabit intranet article. Simply put: not having 2.5G equipment is just wasted money.
Third question: Do you want POE? you have POE cameras and panel APs at home, buy ports with POE power supply. Pay attention to the total power—don't have 4 ports fully plugged in, but the switch can only handle 2. If you don't have these devices, the POE port is just wasteful—just buy the regular model.
How to
Connect: One Iron Rule Plus a Pointless Sentence
rule: switch should always be connected below the router's LAN port . The link is simple: the optical modem comes out into the router's WAN port, the router's LAN leads a cable into the switch, and the remaining ports on the switch can be inserted into any device.
the obvious thing is: the port of an unmanaged switch doesn't matter upstream or downstream; it doesn't matter which port goes in or out, no need to study it. My father-in-law spent ages studying eight ports to see which one was imported, but it actually lit up as soon as it was plugged in.
multiple switches can also be cascaded. My current setup is: one weak current box with 8 POE ports (camera pipes and network cables for each room), one TV cabinet with 5 gigabit ports (TV, box, and sub-router wired backhaul), and a network cable connected in the middle for smooth network connectivity. The method of connecting wired backhaul and more cascading details Mesh the wired backhaul is written in more detail.
three pitfalls I fell into, ranked by how embarrassing I was
Pitfall 1: Old 100Mbps switches mixed into the link, causing gigabit broadband to be locked. this is the slide accident I mentioned at the beginning. With the new switch in hand, I took out an old 8-port switch from my study drawer for convenience—the one in the TV cabinet was used for it. But the TV speed test was around 93 Mbps. I thought it was the carrier's problem, but after reviewing the link the night before the repair, I remembered—the old switch was a 100 Mbps port, and the gigabit line was connected to the 100 Mbps port, like four lanes running into a single rural road. After switching to a new gigabit switch, the TV immediately reverted to 940 Mbps. No matter how many devices there are, if there's one hundred-megabit port on the link, everything else is done.
pitfall two: Connect the switch to the optical modem and "split the broadband." helping his neighbor set up the network, he had already bought a switch and connected it directly to the optical modem (LAN) port, wanting to split one router for each of the two routers. As a result, both routers tried to dial numbers, but only one could access the internet, while the other couldn't get the IP address, leaving them helplessly watching. Operators only make one dial-up per broadband, and switches separate the "network under the router," not the "broadband itself." If you really want both routers to have cables, the rules are: optical modem for bridging, main router for dialing, and then switching with a switch. I drew this method in my about using router as a switch.
Pitfall 3: Underestimating heat dissipation in the weak current box. weak current boxes are made of metal, making them stuffy inside like ovens in summer, and the switches are powered on all day. My first laptop with a plastic case was stuffed in, and it felt hot to the touch all summer. Later, I switched to a metal case (the heatsink was directly attached to the outer shell), which became much more stable. Also, the POE model heats up even more when fully loaded, so try to leave some space in the weak current box to avoid stacking it close to the optical modem.
when I don't need to buy them? Here's the order at the end
three situations where you don't pay for now:
- have an unused old router: flash it to AP mode to use as a switch, freebie, the modification method is here, but be careful not to use old 100-megabit ports;
- it's just poor signal in the room: first test wireless Mesh, AC+AP and how to choose Mesh The article compares, only after the network cable is in place, the cable is in place, then the cable returns to the wire;
- only one or two devices need to be plugged in: if the router port is sufficient, don't add devices—every extra device adds a new fault point.
you really want to buy, follow this order: count the number of network cables in the weak current box and the devices to be plugged in, and leave a margin for the number of ports as "current devices plus 2"; For broadband under 500 Mbps, buy the gigabit unmanaged model; only if you have 2.5G devices will you go to 2.5G; if you have a POE camera, buy the POE model to check total power. Once home, I powered on, plugged in the router's LAN port, then plugged in each device one by one, and finally tested the speed once to confirm there were no 100M ports in the link. A fifty-yuan item, if you spend ten minutes thinking it through, can last for many years.
