Networking help

OpenToSuggestions · 19 Jan 2012 at 18:00

Evening all.
I am a Warden in an undergraduate hall and I would like to get my networking sorted properly as I live here all year round. I only have 1 ethernet port in the flat.

I currently have a PS3 and a PC plugged into an old netgear 54g router with the wireless disabled as I don't need that.

When I turn the PC on (PS3 is off) I have to unplug then plug the router in every single time in order for the internet to work. Getting the PS3 to work on the network is a PITA and getting both PS3 and PC on the network at the same time is not possible at the moment.
With one of them I can log into the settings via the 192.168.... route and when I am using the other I can't (so suggests it is going off a completely different IP i.e. from the network itself).

Would getting a nice and cheap <£10 switch do the trick?
I have proof read my explanation and realise it is poo but I am a bit lost

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tolien · 19 Jan 2012 at 19:25

What router is it, and how have you got it connected to the ethernet port provided?

It sounds like you're using one of the switch ports (so you basically already have the switch you're talking about); you'd be better using the router as a router (i.e. connecting the ethernet port to the WAN interface on the router if it isn't an ADSL router) - it should then just work with either/both device on.

OpenToSuggestions · 19 Jan 2012 at 19:29

I am not using the WAN port. I just have the one to the wall in port 1 and the PC and PS3 in ports 2 and 3 respectively.

It is a Netgear WGR614v3.

bremen1874 · 19 Jan 2012 at 21:49

mglover070588 said:
I am not using the WAN port. I just have the one to the wall in port 1 and the PC and PS3 in ports 2 and 3 respectively.

It is a Netgear WGR614v3.

That would be your problem then. Connected as you have it'll just be working as a switch.

Connect the WAN port to the wall and connect the devices to the LAN ports. Make sure the router is using a different subnet (compared to the WAN side) and it should just work.

OpenToSuggestions · 22 Jan 2012 at 18:55

bremen1874 said:
That would be your problem then. Connected as you have it'll just be working as a switch.

Connect the WAN port to the wall and connect the devices to the LAN ports. Make sure the router is using a different subnet (compared to the WAN side) and it should just work.

I have not tried the PS3 yet but the PC now works fine. Thanks for that

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Caged · 22 Jan 2012 at 22:03

Assuming you're at Loughborough, a regular network switch with both devices connected will work fine, as long as you register their MAC addresses (https://hallnet.info/register). That's how it always used to work for me when I was there, and the guys at computing services had/have no issues with this. This was back in 2005 though but I can't imagine it's changed much.