Hello everyone, and this one is quite off-topic for a Freeway Forum.
I’m in the process of converting a summerhouse into a garden office and my wireless connection is intermittent to say the least out there. I’ve tried one ofthese ethernet plugs which work via the electric main sockets and that worked fine, but I have a problem of not enough ethernet ports.
I have a 4 port Belkin N1 wireless/wired modem router which will be attached to my wife’s pc, a mono laser, and the ethernet electric plug (which would leave 1 ethernet port free).
In the summerhouse I would like my Mac, colour laser and an ethernet hard drive, but of course there is only one cable out from the plug into the back of my Mac.
So my question is could I have another ethernet hub (none-internet connection) in the summerhouse to link the 3 things together?
Or any other suggestions would be welcome. I’m not very good at networking!!
On Sat, 31 May 2008 12:08:02 -0400, Trevreav wrote:
In the summerhouse I would like my Mac, colour laser and an ethernet
hard drive, but of course there is only one cable out from the plug
into the back of my Mac.
So my question is could I have another ethernet hub (none-internet
connection) in the summerhouse to link the 3 things together?
The short answer is yes. The cable that comes into your summerhouse
goes into the back of a router/hub, not your Mac, and individual cables
go from it to the computer, printer, etc. The long answer I’ll leave to
someone else as I’m not that expert on networking either.
If you ever anticipate having more than one computer there, you might want to get a router rather than a hub or switch. Most that I’ve seen include 4 or more jacks for connecting additional devices, and they also shield your computers and other devices from the net using Network Address Translation (NAT).
They usually cost a bit more than a switch, but they offer a lot of value for the money.
Walter, Roger, thankyou both for your quick replies, you’ve set an
old boys mind at ease.
Walter, as I already have the router in the house (the main point of
contact with the outside world) would I still have to have another
one in the Summerhouse rather than a bog-standard hub?
At least you have some way to go before matching the size of Google’s
network, estimated at over 200,000 servers:
“In each cluster’s first year, it’s typical that 1,000 individual
machine failures will occur; thousands of hard drive failures will
occur; one power distribution unit will fail, bringing down 500 to
1,000 machines for about 6 hours; 20 racks will fail, each time causing
40 to 80 machines to vanish from the network; 5 racks will “go wonky,”
with half their network packets missing in action; and the cluster will
have to be rewired once, affecting 5 percent of the machines at any
given moment over a 2-day span, Dean said. And there’s about a 50
percent chance that the cluster will overheat, taking down most of the
servers in less than 5 minutes and taking 1 to 2 days to recover.”
Walter, Roger, thankyou both for your quick replies, you’ve set an
old boys mind at ease.
Walter, as I already have the router in the house (the main point of
contact with the outside world) would I still have to have another
one in the Summerhouse rather than a bog-standard hub?
Once again, many thanks.
Trev
If you have one router already, then no you don’t need another. I must have missed that part of your original message.
You can daisy-chain hubs or switches with impunity, more or less. Avoid making a loop at all costs, but you can run a wire out of one hub and into another. Time was when you needed to use a special crossover cable for this, but most of the switches I have bought in the last five years have had auto-sensing ports, and would simply figure out what you were trying to do and make it work.
If you have one router already, then no you don’t need another. I must have missed that part of your original message.
You can daisy-chain hubs or switches with impunity, more or less. Avoid making a loop at all costs, but you can run a wire out of one hub and into another. Time was when you needed to use a special crossover cable for this, but most of the switches I have bought in the last five years have had auto-sensing ports, and would simply figure out what you were trying to do and make it work.