Tips for a network setup?

Cromulent

Cromulent

Cromulent

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2007
Posts
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Location
England
Right, does anyone have suggestions for this collection of computers and how best to set them up in a network?

I have the following hardware:

3x Apple Macs
2x PCs running OpenBSD
1x Xbox 360
1x Ethernet printer.

The printer and the Macs are already networked, but the problem is when we set up the network we didn't envisge it growing any more so each room has one ethernet port hardwired into the wall which goes directly to the router where the printer is also located.

So I was wondering if getting another switch for my room (no routing required) and then plugging in 1 of the OpenBSD boxes and the Xbox along with my Mac into that would be a good way of getting three extra ports onto the already hardwired network. The other OpenBSD box is not too important but I would like to find a way to get it onto the network. I should note that the switch / router we already have is only a four port box so we need a new setup anyway really.

Rewiring isn't an option as the house has recently been decorated, unfortunatly as I would have prefered to put Cat-6 cables in and get a 1 gigabit switch.
 
you can connect all your devices to a switch and then run a cable from the sitwch to your wall socket which connects to your router.
No problem sharing one port at all...
 
Peace said:
you can connect all your devices to a switch and then run a cable from the sitwch to your wall socket which connects to your router.
No problem sharing one port at all...
Click to expand...

Cheers for the quick response. I guess I would have to set the switch to be a DHCP client of the already existing router?
 
Peace said:
switch doesn't need an IP. unless for management.
Click to expand...

True but the router would only supply one IP for the three computers and the switch in that case. If it is not a client then it will supply its own IP address' to the computers that are connected to it which could lead to problems. Basically just trying to see if I would need the three machines in my room to be on a seperate subnet or not.
 
Cromulent said:
True but the router would only supply one IP for the three computers and the switch in that case. If it is not a client then it will supply its own IP address' to the computers that are connected to it which could lead to problems. Basically just trying to see if I would need the three machines in my room to be on a seperate subnet or not.
Click to expand...

a switch is layer 2, so it passes ethernet frames, essentially the point is though, all the computers will get an individual IP address from the router, being plugged in through a switch doesn't change that.
 
True but the router would only supply one IP for the three computers and the switch in that case. If it is not a client then it will supply its own IP address' to the computers that are connected to it which could lead to problems. Basically just trying to see if I would need the three machines in my room to be on a seperate subnet or not.
Click to expand...

wrong.

the router will assign an IP to any device which broadcasts and the switch will not ask for an IP as the management IP will need to be set by your self if your switch even supports this.
 
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