Adding a switch (or switches)

[daminator]

Hello all

I have a Netgear DG834 which connects my home network to the internet. My current set up has 4 machines which all plug into the DG834, but I now want to add more machines.

I have been advised to by a switch and plug everything into the new switch with extra ports and have the switch being the only thing plugged into the DG834. Is that the best option, or is it ok to have some devices plugged into the DG834 and some plugged into the new switch? I ask if the latter is ok because I have some machines upstairs and some downstairs. Maybe adding 2 switches is the best option rather than lots of cable?

Please advise either way. It had also been suggested to me that I should buy a gigabite switch, but I'm not sure if I'll see any benefit from that. Wouldn't all of my machines need to have faster network cards and my internet connection be faster to notice any difference? Or maybe the gigabite network technology isn't so new and some of my machines are already built for it. I don't know and I'm not sure how to find out.

When I come to add a switch, do I have to be careful which ports I plug into between the DG834 and the new switch or is it obvious where things should go? What about if I add 2 switches?

Can anyone suggest a switch, or several options I should look at?

Thanks for your help
Damian

[TheNNS]

You can do any combination you like. You can have a switch upstairs and one downstairs, and have machine hooked up directly to the router. That shouldn't be a problem. A gigabit switch would be to expensive, and unless your router and the nics in your machines are gigabit, it won't speed up the network. Gigabit ethernet nics are expensive, so it wouln't a good investment now. Most likely your pc's don't have gigabit nics, but you can find out by going to device manager. Might I also suggest a wireless access point. If you're machines have wireless card, you can just connect them wirelessly to the network.
But it's all up to you, so let us know what you decide to do.

[daminator]

Thanks for that.
I'm avoiding wireless as I'm not convinced that people wont start noticing heath effects in a few years.
I'm unsure whether I should buy two switches, or just put one switch upstairs and keep the machines downstairs plugged into the router. Would that be much slower?
I'm tempted by a gigabit switch as at least 2 of my machines have giga network cards, but I don't think I really need that speed. The hard drives can't transfer files that quick.

[TheNNS]

you can by a gigabit switch(althought they are pricy), but if your router doesn't have gigabit, it's useless. And as I've said before, you can have any combination and it won't affect your speed.

[daminator]

Thanks again,

Bought a single 10/100 switch for upstairs and I'll keep the rest plugged in downstairs.

Seemed to be the most economical option without paying for extra speed that I don't need.

Damian