Reddit reviews NETGEAR 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS305) - Home Network Hub, Office Ethernet Splitter, Plug-and-Play, Fanless Metal Housing, Desktop or Wall Mount

OP, I second that. Those little Netgears are small, silent, sturdy, and reliable. And available for $15 at the moment.

There are two reasons you could say it slows down the connection:

1. You could get a switch that only supports 100Mbps instead of 1Gbps. But if it's from a name brand and it says “gigabit” (like the Netgear above), you should be fine.
   
2. That port in the wall is a 1Gbps bottleneck. If you plug in four devices via a switch, they'll be sharing that 1Gbps between them. But you'd have to be doing a lot to hit that limit.
   
   \ In most UW locations. Some with old wiring are stuck at 100Mbps or less for now. Some fancy labs and stuff have 10Gbps.

Ok, first off thanks for the model number! So many folks leave that off. So your router/switch can kick out 1000mbps over Ethernet, so a switch to match would be ideal. You don't need a managed one so you’re looking at some real cheap, but great options. Here are two good options.

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https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged-1000Mbps/dp/B00KFD0SMC

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-5-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged/dp/B07S98YLHM/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_147_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=ENKY6TYY6ZCQ2A6Z0S4M

Get a 5 port ethernet gigabit switch, plug it into the router, then plug the wifi booster and your pc into the switch.

The "Technicolor tc8717t" is also a simple NAT/router.

If your service is faster than 100Mbit, you'll want a "Gigabit Ethernet switch" for your room.

It works pretty much just like a hub but separates the information on each port. I will link one I'm a minute.

Edit: here is a link to an unmanaged switch. Just plug and go like the hub. So there is one port for in cable to the router like the hub then plug your desktop cable into one of the other four ports. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S98YLHM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1V6QDbBYYZA90

As said the port on the PlayBar will work but it might prove a bit slow if you have fast Ethernet as Sonos only does 100 not 1000.

Try it and if it isn't fast enough for glitch free TV over Ethernet viewing add an inexpensive Ethernet switch, similar to this:

https://smile.amazon.com/NETGEAR-5-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged/dp/B07S98YLHM/ref=sr_1_4

Avoid any on this list:

https://support.sonos.com/s/article/41?language=en_US

Five ports gives you an input for the cable from your router and four outputs for TV, Sub and PlayBar plus a spare. Eight ports isn't much more expensive if you think you have any use for them.

A router isn't what you need, you need a switch:
NETGEAR 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS305) - Desktop, Sturdy Metal Fanless Housing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S98YLHM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_32sUDbMQMTMED

A router adds lots of functions you don't need or want. Run fast.com on a computer plugged directly into the line first though because your connection just might be really slow

Yep, just pick up an unmanaged switch and plug the Ethernet cable from the modem/router into the switch and then the PC and PS4 Ethernet cables into the switch. It'll all talk to each other automatically and you have to do nothing.

Something like this?



NETGEAR 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS305) - Desktop, Sturdy Metal Fanless Housing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S98YLHM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_1EQKDb6A5EA2C

You're welcome! If that's what fixed it, awesome. As others have suggested, getting a small switch (https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-5-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged/dp/B07S98YLHM as an example) will prevent this from being an issue in the future, since the PC and the Xbox will stay connected, and won't need the be swapped out all the time.

Since it was both devices, I suspect the switch on the other end of your wired connection triggered some kind of lockout from re-associating too many times, or in too short of a period, but that's only barely graduated from a wild guess at this point.

First, get a network hub like this and you wont need to unplug any cable.

If your using windows 10 just plug the cable in correctly then turn off the PC and turn it back on again. That usually takes care of the issue

Hey, thanks! I was looking at that one,

the GS305 https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-8-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged/dp/B07S98YLHM/?th=1

and this GS808e https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Streaming-Advanced-Ethernet/dp/B01MU3GE5L/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=netgear+gs808e&qid=1568765089&s=gateway&sr=8-1

I'm willing to spend the extra for the 808e, but is it worth it?

++ u/OtherTechnician

You will need another switch or hub or router. If you were to use a splitter or somehow splice the cables together, you would end up with a giant amount of packet collision.

Basically your router would see two devices on one port trying to send info and your router would send both of the devices the info which is going to crazy bog down your network if it even functions properly.

You can buy one of these from amazon or you could setup some sort of ad-hoc network device, but you will see better performance and have less setup/headache with the dumb-switch.

i'm not certain about the xb1's but i used to play halo 2 at a store and we had probably 5 og xbox's on lan. they used an unmanaged switch like this. i'd guess that the same works for xb1. https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-5-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged/dp/B07S98YLHM/ref=pd_sbs_147_t_0/130-3857015-5709528?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07S98YLHM&pd_rd_r=50aee12c-11ed-462e-9c0e-a4915da8ce70&pd_rd_w=jKlqD&pd_rd_wg=YYeRr&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=ZKSBSS49SGTWJCCKP481&psc=1&refRID=ZKSBSS49SGTWJCCKP481