BT Home Hub - Connecting Many Computers?

[Big.Wayne]

Hi,

I am setting up a clients office at home, he currently has just one computer but this is being upgraded to two computers and one laptop.

He is using the BT Home Hub which I have heard of loads but never used before. When I took his old system apart he had both a USB connection and an Ethernet connection both attached to his pc. When I put his system back together I connected only the ethernet wire and everything seems to be working.

Anyway I'm just wondering how many P.C's I can hook up to this hub?

I understand most of the ports at the back but I'm not sure what the two USB sockets are for?

So I'm not sure if I can just link up the two pcs to the net and each other just by connecting them to [Ethernet 2] and [Ethernet 1] and then maybe try and link up the laptop via wireless or I just read someone say you can connect a network switch into the ethernet port on the back of the Home Hub and then just use the switch for linking several PC's?

Could you plug *two* 8-Port switches into both the ethernet sockets?

Lastly is it true that I don't need to install any software if I am just connecting via ethernet? . . . if so that's cool!

 

[Big.Wayne]

Haha the *mother* of all answers, thanks a lot Jon!

I did have a search/read of the forums before posting this but a lot of the posts were "Arrggh I hate the Hub!!" etc

Well it seems to be quite straightforward then, the two 8-port switches were hypothetical of course but we have some laying around.

I do actually need to attach a USB external Hard drive to the network for backup purposes so that sounds like an interesting option with the USB port?

Thanks again and I'm sure I can think of some more questions soon