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So we recently wired the house for ethernet. We have four computers in different rooms and a mac airport express. We would like to be able to have at least 6 connections to the router. The current equipment situation is one four port linksys router and one four port switch. The router is starting to be a bit flaky and it is rather old.

Anyone have a good suggestion to fit into this system? Is there such a thing as a good 8 lan port with wireless router so everything would be integrated? Currently the airport is acting as a repeater and is located in the center of the house. If the router was wireless it would be in a basement corner, so maybe that isn't the best.

From the products offered at Newegg it is really hard to get an idea of what will work. The reviews are all over the place!

Thanks!

I've been using Ethernet over power lines for about ten years now. Never had a problem despite living in three different houses over those ten years. One was built in the 1920's and the other two after 1990.

I have 8mb/sec cable and the power line kits have never bottlenecked my speeds.

I put the wireless router in the right spot in the house and connected one power line unit to it. In each room where there is a computer I connect another power line unit. All the power line units self configure and connect.

Downstairs I have half a dozen computers connected to a switch which has it one of its ports connected to a power line unit. They are all on the network without issues.

Since power line networking works at layer 1, all network services like dhcp and uPNP work without issue.

You can even use the router's wan port over a power line unit if the cable/dsl modem is in another room.

someuid wrote:

I've been using Ethernet over power lines for about ten years now. Never had a problem despite living in three different houses over those ten years. One was built in the 1920's and the other two after 1990.

I have 8mb/sec cable and the power line kits have never bottlenecked my speeds.

I put the wireless router in the right spot in the house and connected one power line unit to it. In each room where there is a computer I connect another power line unit. All the power line units self configure and connect.

Downstairs I have half a dozen computers connected to a switch which has it one of its ports connected to a power line unit. They are all on the network without issues.

Since power line networking works at layer 1, all network services like dhcp and uPNP work without issue.

You can even use the router's wan port over a power line unit if the cable/dsl modem is in another room.

Don't LAN over Power devices have horrid interlan transfer speeds?

It's all relative. If horrid you mean somewhere between 100 and 500 Mbps. It's not as perfect as a gigabit ethernet connection, but it's still faster than wifi that goes through thick walls.

Why go for integrated? Stick with a separate switch and router and you will be fine.

rogthewookiee wrote:

So we recently wired the house for ethernet. We have four computers in different rooms and a mac airport express. We would like to be able to have at least 6 connections to the router. The current equipment situation is one four port linksys router and one four port switch. The router is starting to be a bit flaky and it is rather old.

Anyone have a good suggestion to fit into this system? Is there such a thing as a good 8 lan port with wireless router so everything would be integrated? Currently the airport is acting as a repeater and is located in the center of the house. If the router was wireless it would be in a basement corner, so maybe that isn't the best.

From the products offered at Newegg it is really hard to get an idea of what will work. The reviews are all over the place!

Thanks!

Maybe get an Asus RT-N66U Router and turn your current router into a switch. For better info on networking you may want to try www.smallnetbuilder.com.

Anything more then a four port router is going to be expensive, business equipment, and you'll need to buy APs.

Just get an Asus router and a switch.

Another vote for a separate router and switch. Watch for Newegg sales, they frequently have 8-port gigabit switches (D-Link or Rosewill) for cheap.

just brew it! wrote:

Another vote for a separate router and switch. Watch for Newegg sales, they frequently have 8-port gigabit switches (D-Link or Rosewill) for cheap.

I've used an 8-port TrendNet switch for several years now and it's the perfect piece of gear in that you simply don't know it's there.

anotherengineer wrote:

Maybe get an Asus RT-N66U Router and turn your current router into a switch. For better info on networking you may want to try http://www.smallnetbuilder.com.

Second this recommendation. I have the ASUS RT-AC66R and it is an awesome router. Getting 300 Mbps on my X300 and 802.11ac on the wife's Galaxy Note 3. Sadly, my Vita and the wife's X230T don't support 5 GHz spectrum, so they are "only" getting 144 Mbps. The RT-N66U doesn't do 802.11ac, but is still one of the fastest N routers around.

Voldenuit wrote:

anotherengineer wrote:

Maybe get an Asus RT-N66U Router and turn your current router into a switch. For better info on networking you may want to try http://www.smallnetbuilder.com.

Second this recommendation. I have the ASUS RT-AC66R and it is an awesome router. Getting 300 Mbps on my X300 and 802.11ac on the wife's Galaxy Note 3. Sadly, my Vita and the wife's X230T don't support 5 GHz spectrum, so they are "only" getting 144 Mbps. The RT-N66U doesn't do 802.11ac, but is still one of the fastest N routers around.

Turning the existing router into a switch is potentially non-optimal for a couple of reasons:
- He says it is getting flaky and is pretty old. Could very well be bad capacitors, which could eventually affect the switch side as well.
- If it is that old, it is probably only 100 Mbit.

just brew it! wrote:

Voldenuit wrote:

anotherengineer wrote:

Maybe get an Asus RT-N66U Router and turn your current router into a switch. For better info on networking you may want to try http://www.smallnetbuilder.com.

Second this recommendation. I have the ASUS RT-AC66R and it is an awesome router. Getting 300 Mbps on my X300 and 802.11ac on the wife's Galaxy Note 3. Sadly, my Vita and the wife's X230T don't support 5 GHz spectrum, so they are "only" getting 144 Mbps. The RT-N66U doesn't do 802.11ac, but is still one of the fastest N routers around.

Turning the existing router into a switch is potentially non-optimal for a couple of reasons:
- He says it is getting flaky and is pretty old. Could very well be bad capacitors, which could eventually affect the switch side as well.
- If it is that old, it is probably only 100 Mbit.

Well, sounds like he needs a new router anyway. He could get the RT-N66 to replace the linksys and keep using his old four port switch.

How big is your dang house? Can't you just chuck the Linksys and use the Airport Express with a $15 switch?

So the ethernet of power isn't really needed anymore. There is cat 6 run to each room with a common terminus were the dsl modem is.

The house isn't huge, but it was build in the 50's by my paranoid great-grandfather who used a particular kind of sheet-rock that appears to block or greatly reduce the signal strength of any EM signal. Cellphone must be used close to windows for instance.

I'm personally not a fan of the airport express, but it was a gift and it gets the job done.

I'll take a look at the Asus router and keep an eye out for switches. Black Friday after all!

I think the switch I have is fine, but yeah the router seems to need to be reset more and more often.

rogthewookiee wrote:

I think the switch I have is fine, but yeah the router seems to need to be reset more and more often.

Have you tried installing DD-WRT or Tomato on the router?

If you aren't game for installing custom firmware on your router, you could try updating the firmware to the latest version if you haven't already.