Reddit reviews TRENDnet 8-Port Unmanaged Gigabit GREENnet Desktop Metal Switch, Ethernet Splitter, Fanless,16Gbps Switching Capacity, Plug & Play, Lifetime Protection, TEG-S80G,Black

What kind of speeds are you talking about? In my dorm, we had super fast (at the time 100Mbit). If you plugged in a crappy $40 router from the store, the WAN port was only 10Mbit. If, however we bought a $40 switch, all the ports were 100mbit(or, if you splurged, 1000Mbit)

It's very likely that you simply are plugged in to a gigabit network and don't need a router at all. What happens if you plug your computer straight into the network port on the wall? Do you get the super fast speeds? If so, go buy a network switch and not a router. Something like this might fix it: http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Gigabit-GREENnet-TEG-S80g/dp/B001QUA6RA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395339417&sr=8-1

If you're really feeling adventurous, try finding something that supports jumbo packets and enabling that on your computer.

Basically, your dorm just has a very large local network. You only need a home router if you are only assigned one IP address. It's very likely they'll give you as many dedicated IP addresses as you need, so the overhead of mapping multiple devices to one IP address is unnecessary.

I'd personally remove the DECA and put one of these in place. https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Switching-Protection-TEG-S80G/dp/B001QUA6RA

Here ye be

My small setup has a WRT1900AC and an 8 Port Gigabit Unmanaged Switch.

Although not my perfect dream setup, this works amazingly well and I haven't had an issue yet. I've had this setup for around 6 months or so now. The switch isn't really necessary, but it's got everything plugged up that my TV uses - Apple TV, Fire TV (not sure why I have both lol), a 'fancy' blu-ray player that uses apps (that is rarely used), a media tower for all of my movies and tv shows that are, of course, legitimately obtained, and I also plug my laptop up to it when I want to play games online. It seems to work better than WiFi.

USB hubs do something entirely different than Ethernet hubs do. There are no easy ways to use a USB hub to network computers.

Perhaps what you're looking for is an Ethernet switch instead?

It might be important, depending on how literally you meant "have the same packets sent out each port", to note that while hubs do literally do that, switches (as normally set up) do not.

A hub waits for one of the devices plugged into it to start transmitting; then it repeats exactly what it receives on each other port. For this reason, hubs are always half-duplex (data can only move in one direction at a time, from one source to every other device). (This causes some performance issues related related to collisions, sort of like when you and somebody else keep trying to talk and then stopping when you hear the other person.)

Switches, on the other hand, do something called MAC learning; when traffic arrives, they look at the sender (sort of like glancing at the upper-left corner of an envelope) and remember which of their ports that sender is connected to. Then, when they see traffic being sent to that device, they only have to send it out the one port. This process of receiving a packet and sending it only towards its destination is called forwarding.

You'll notice that there's a chicken-and-egg problem here: what do they do with a message (packet) if they haven't seen the destination address before? Well, they fall back to doing what hubs do: they send the packet out each other port, which is called flooding (as opposed to forwarding).

If you really need this behavior, there are nicer switches (on the order of $200 or $300) that would let you either disable MAC learning (thus always flooding every packet, similar to what a hub would do).

If you can be more specific about exactly what you're trying to achieve, maybe we can be more helpful!

Every time you said splitter my head tilted a bit more to the side, by the end of the post it was a full 90 degrees sideways.

Ethernet ... doesn't split.

Other than being an abomination that should go back to the fiery depths of hell, a splitter is a lazy mans "unplug one device and re-plug into another" solution. Both devices cannot use a single ethernet cable with the splitter.

Now, a desktop pc and some laptops still keep an active NIC (lan card) even when off, but when still having power. This is generally to listen for wake on lan packets. This might be messing things up.

What you want to do in any case, despite the NAT issue, is to get a small form factor switch: this Trendnet has been in constant operation for 7 years and it's great. Get the 5 port version if you are dirt poor or will never need more ports at your location (you will always need more IMHO).

:)

I ran CAT5e to the three bedrooms and to the entertainment center wall. One drop in the two small bedrooms, two drops to the master bedroom, and two drops to the entertainment center.

I terminated the rooms to Cable Matters keystones.
I'm using an Asus RT-N56U wireless router and a Trendnet TEG-S80g 8port gigabit switch with an Intellinet 12 port patch panel.
It's patched together with cable matters 3ft patch cables.
I have fiber internet service(no modem needed).

I had anticipated another cable run for a Ubiquity WAP, but after I tested the signal coverage from the Asus router it was not needed(full coverage everywhere in the house).

Copying files like movies and vhds around my network through a 100mbps switch I was getting like 8-9MB/s. Replaced my switch with a cheap full gigabit one and now I get around 80-90MB/s. To move a 5GB movie that's the difference between 1 minute and 10 minutes. In my case it was worth it but I guess if you are only streaming Netflix and surfing the web you won't saturate the 100mbps link.

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-GREENnet-Standard-1000Mbps/dp/B001QUA6RA 8 port Gig router for about $30 would be good to get. If your at 8 people and have internet you will need another switch and someone can't be on gig.

Do your thing pricebot.

I have one of these

and it works great. Just plug a cable into one of the port from your router and you're done.

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Gigabit-GREENnet-TEG-S80g/dp/B001QUA6RA

This is a great unit and goes on sale fairly often:

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-GREENnet-Standard-1000Mbps/dp/B001QUA6RA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382020357&sr=8-1&keywords=trendnet+gigabit+switch

I use TrendNet GREENnet 8 port gigabit switch. Found it on sale for under $20 recently. Had it’s 5 port version earlier.. both are solid buys.

https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Switching-Protection-TEG-S80G/dp/B001QUA6RA

I'd tell you to deactivate DHCP on one of the two, that's what causing your problem. Even better would be to replace it with an unmanaged switch.

My personal choice... https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Gigabit-GREENnet-TEG-S80g/dp/B001QUA6RA

Here are a few options. Any basic gigabit switch should be fine. I am not sure how many ports you want, but all of the options come in different versions with different number of ports.

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Gigabit-Ethernet-Desktop-TL-SG108/dp/B00A121WN6/

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Gigabit-GREENnet-TEG-S80g/dp/B001QUA6RA/

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Gigabit-Ethernet-Desktop-TL-SG1008D/dp/B001EVGIYG/

This switch qualifies for amazon prime. http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Gigabit-GREENnet-TEG-S80g/dp/B001QUA6RA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397013077&sr=8-1&keywords=trendnet+switch

EDIT: Plastic housing costs considerably less.

TRENDnet Green series; I prefer the all metal cases. I have several and they have been running for 5+ years without issue.

https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Switching-Protection-TEG-S80G/dp/B001QUA6RA/

I feel it would be acceptable to use the switch you specified and the AP I mentioned, assuming this is just for casual use. What I mean by that is, I assume the PC and the wireless users are just browsing the web randomly, sending a few emails, doing tweets, browsing Facebook, watching occasional YouTube, etc. If that's the expected usage, it should be fine. If this is an important business operation point (bulk email distribution, hosting of a church web site, live streaming of weekly services, etc.) then you may want to consider a better switch to ensure that it will provide rock solid reliability.

Note that the switch is only 5 ports, and right away you'll be using 3 ports (PC, WAP, connection to main router). For roughly the same price, I have used this model in the past (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QUA6RA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), and it has 8 ports, so if you ever add another PC or network-enabled-TV in the future, you'll have a few spare ports.

For SSID, yes you want to make it the same properties as what already exists (name, password, authentication type, etc.). The idea would be that people who are connected would automatically connect to the stronger AP when they move around. Understand that the topic of AP selection by the device is a complex topic. Generally speaking it works, but there are subtleties that make it a little finicky. The only thing that should be different on the APs is the channel (the frequency of the wireless transmitter). They want to be different channels, and they each want to be a channel that is not used by a neighbor. See the comments by /u/OfensiveBias.

For IP addresses, this can get deep but I'll keep it brief. There is a public IP address that your router uses to communicate with your internet provider (Cablevision, TimeWarner, Verizon, AT&T, etc.). That address is assigned by the provider, and it will remain as it is. But the network inside the building, like the PC and the WAP, has an IP address in a different range called "private". It will be something like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x. These addresses are assigned by you (or managed by the router). So the idea is, let's say your router is currently 192.168.1.1, and your PC is 192.168.1.10, and any wireless users are assigned in the range 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.150. You could configure the AP as 192.168.1.5 for example. It will come with a default address, and you need to configure your PC to something in the same range in order to initially connect to it, but then you can change it to match what your church inside network is already using. Once that's done, any wireless devices will simply pass through the access point on their way to the router to the internet.

I didn't intend to provide this much detail, so hope this helps rather than confuses.

Even beyond the CAT6s ability to physically handle the load, are smaller switches more "efficient" as far as managing all that traffic compared to larger switches? I curently have a TRENDnet 8-port GREENnet switch and am pretty happy with it. Especially the unmanaged part, total plug and play which is awesome!

I'm pretty much going to echo /u/ilumos, but you have too many chiefs and not enough indians.

Your router is the boss of the network. What makes a router different from your switch is that it builds the network. Using DHCP, it hands out IP addresses to all of your connected devices and defines what belongs in the local network.

A switch is like a power strip for a network. You can take one port on your router and make it 8 (or 16, or 32, etc). It doesn't really perform any tasks other than extend the size of your network.

When you throw more than one router into same network, you start creating DHCP server conflicts. Essentially, you've created two networks on the same wires and the computers have a 50/50 chance of joining one over the other. In your case, some PCs were joining the router with an internet connection and others were getting stuck with the router that didn't have an internet connection.

The internet drops your one friend experienced were likely caused by IP Address conflicts, which were probably happening all over your network.

This is all really, really bad...but it's really easy to fix. Pick one router and set aside the other. If you need to connect more devices to the network, be sure to take up all 4 ports on the back of your router/modem and then all the ports on your switch. Need more? Invest in another switch. I highly recommend looking into getting a few of these TrendNet switches. They go on sale ALL THE TIME! Watch SlickDeals and you should be able to grab one for around $20.

Right now there's a great 8 port Netgear gigabit switch on sale for $20 [Edit: And this ZyXEL switch just went on sale for $15!]. Grab a couple of those, plug them into your router and all your problems will go away. Hopefully. =D

Gigabit Switch

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanaged-Protection-GS105NA/dp/B0000BVYT3

https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Switching-Protection-TEG-S80G/dp/B001QUA6RA


OR

If you want something that WILL let you configure things for gaming (like QoS to keep say videos Netflix from undermining your gaming Overwatch traffic then you want a managed Switch) but they are much more expensive..

Check this out..

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Streaming-Advanced-Protection/dp/B01MU3GE5L/

Yeah. They don't have Gigabit ports. Inexpensive gigabit switches are harder to find. I paid $20 for the one I have. I bought it on Amazon (US).

Their price has gone up since then. http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-GREENnet-Standard-1000Mbps/dp/B001QUA6RA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369506079&sr=8-1&keywords=gigabit+switch

Do you have a router? If so, you can use the remaining ports on that router and maybe one of these http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-GREENnet-Standard-1000Mbps/dp/B001QUA6RA/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377833383&sr=8-1&keywords=gigabit+switch, most devices ISP's rent these days, are modem/router combos. Also ask your friends, maybe they have spare switches and what not, my friends always did, as well as I.

Depends on whatever other equipment you have. If you just have a normal consumer grade router then any unmanaged switch will do as they're all fairly synonymous. I like the metal TrendNET ones personally here :


http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Unmanaged-Gigabit-GREENnet-TEG-S80g/dp/B001QUA6RA

Going even deeper, almost all consumer routers these days are not actually just routers, they are a switch and router and WAP (wireless access point) in one. Heck, your modem is actually a modem and router under the hood too. So you can actually just have a modem and WAP (which is all most people need anyways).

Most routers come with 1 WAN port and 4 LAN ports and one or more antennas. But what if you have more than 4 wired devices? Well, you can just buy a switch instead of an expensive 6 or 8 port router! Like this guy has 8 ports, so you just plug one Ethernet cable from your router to the switch, and then you get 3 + 8 total wired ports to use!

What I did is returned the modem (because it was an old as shit model that for some reason they didn't want to upgrade, and at the time it was a $5 fee) and got this modem instead. Then for a router I got got some Linksys thing and called it a day.

If I were you, and if you want to go fancy (not /r/homelab levels), then go for a WAP like this and call it a day. If TWC don't want to give you a modem for free, check if it will make fiscal sense for you to just buy a modem instead of dealing with the fee.

As you said in another comment, your Hills Home Hub is a patch panel. There should be five ethernet wires connected from it to the 8 port Dlink switch (one for each of the Home Office PC, Lounge 8 port Dlink switch, Theatre Room 16 port Dlink switch, Nighthawk WIFI repeater, and TV).

Your setup is similar to mine so it should work okay. Make sure all of your switches are Gigabit switches. If they're not then replace them with Gigabit switches (put cheap unmanaged Gigabit switches like this in the Lounge and Theater room and consider using a managed switch for the 8 port Dlink switch). I use all Unifi equipment (router, access points, managed switches; I have some non-Unifi dumb switches) so I'm not sure about your router/repeater.

Its going to be around $10 from my ZIP to NYC. I screwed up, sorry. Apparently USPS First Class has a 13 oz weight limit and this dosen't pass that requirement. So I would say for you its going to be $20 shipped. These go on Amazon for around $30 plus shipping and taxes. I would say that this is a worst case scenario since I'm shipping clear across the country, so hopefully rates will be less if anybody else is interested.

You might consider going with 3 8 port switches, as it might be a little cheaper, but you will be giving up 3 ports to connect them to the router. Here's a link to one that costs $30. Most 24 gigabit switches are over $100. And when you buy a gigabit switch, remember that some of them will say they are gigabit simply because they have a couple of gigabit ports.

I have used a couple of these unmanaged TP-Link at home with great success: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QUA6RA/

Though mine have given me no issues for several years, I'll probably replace them with 8-16 port L2 switches.

Personally, I prefer using a purpose built device for my needs. When I want Wifi, I prefer to use a Ubiquiti Unifi AP. It's built for wireless and that's it's primary (and almost) exclusive use.

Short(er) range
or
Long(ish) range

The Verizon router will handle your wired devices and routing/firewall just fine. I might suggest a Gigabit switch to expand your available wired ports as-needed.

So far you've listed Wii U, Playstation, Xbox and Computer... there's 4 ports, but you'd need another port for the wifi ap if you go with my preferred solution.

I'd probably go with a green dlink 8 port gigabit switch to give you enough room for all of your listed devices and still have 2-3 left over ports for what ever you decide to expand to down the road.

Hope this helps!