STLabs Router

[hardc0re_tid]

i have a 4port STLabs router with a NTL cable modem. my computer is connected to one of the 4 ports via cat5 patch cable.

there is then a switch connected to another one of the 4 ports, the cable used for this is only telephone cable, its a crossover cable that i made myself (the length isnt that long, only upstairs) the switch has 2 other computers connected to it which are 9/10 always on.

thing is on my computer downstairs i keep getting disconected from the network every now and again, upstairs are fine and no-one has complained.

ive tried swapping the cables around and changing the ports on the router and the switch but nothing seems to fix the problem.

there is an uplink port on my router, i have read that this provides connection for a switch or hub without the use of a crossover cable. is this how i should have connected the swith to the router?

 

[bitslice]

the cable used for this is only telephone cable, its a crossover cable that i made myself

Cat 5 cable is made up of pairs of cables that are twisted, this twisting helps to cancel out crosstalk in the cable.
Telephone cable might work, but it's not ideal.

this may be behind the problems, but I'd have expected some dropouts on the upstairs PC's too....
Sometimes ports go flakey and you have to move a connection over.

As you said, the uplink port is the same as the others, except the connections are crossed to allow the use of straight cat5 instead of reverse.




I'd be tempted to fix the cable issue first,
prehaps binning the switch and replace it by running two straight cat5e cables from the 4 port router to the PC's upstairs.
Cat 5 cable is pretty cheap to buy, there's no point in bodging stuff like this.

.

 

[hardc0re_tid]

Cat 5 cable is made up of pairs of cables that are twisted, this twisting helps to cancel out crosstalk in the cable.
Telephone cable might work, but it's not ideal.

this may be behind the problems, but I'd have expected some dropouts on the upstairs PC's too....
Sometimes ports go flakey and you have to move a connection over.

As you said, the uplink port is the same as the others, except the connections are crossed to allow the use of straight cat5 instead of reverse.

I'd be tempted to fix the cable issue first,
prehaps binning the switch and replace it by running two straight cat5e cables from the 4 port router to the PC's upstairs.
Cat 5 cable is pretty cheap to buy, there's no point in bodging stuff like this.

.

the phone cable is twisted and is solid copper. could it be the fact that the switch is drawing too much current from the router therefore knocking the other port/s off as all the current is being directed to the switch?

i was toying with the idea of getting a new router with more ports and running extensions to each point and haveing a socket on the wall.

if i was to do what i described above would i still need a switch or can i get a router with around 20ports?

 

[bitslice]

cat 5 cable is twisted in a special way (they have four pair of wires twisted together) a normal telephone cable won't perform in the same way.


adding a switch doesn't increase the loading on the router, each port has it's own signal driver, it's just not an issue.


most routers only have four ports, AFAIK nobody does a 20 port one.
Just add a 24 port switch if you need that many connections.


I've got the same setup as you, my four port router drives an eight port switch, it should work fine...

.