Question on home office network

[kissvid]

Hello all,

It's been a while for me here. I hope someone knows about this. This is what I want to do. I am a videogpraher and I have a very busy season approaching. My home office has 5 computers. They all have their own dedicated purpose such as editing, duplication etc. I want to get a 8 port gigabit switch so that I can connect all the computers together. This way when let's say a show is authored and finished on 1 computer, I have a 4.7gb file that I can just drop to 1 of the duplicator computers and be ready for duplication. I like the idea of a gigabit switch due to the speed.

Now for the confusing part. If I do this will the computers be able to pickup wireless internet still due to this wired connection? I am in a location in my house that is not close to the router. I'd love to be wired to the router but that will take drilling holes and routing cables etc. Am I making a big deal over nothing? Just wanted to get answers before I start the project. Thanks in advance.

Marc

[Cornucopia]

Drill the holes. Wire the computers. Connect the switch to the router so both wired and wireless can share.

Scott

[hello_hello]

Whether you connect the router to the gigabit switch or not, it should work fine. Chances are your wireless router currently assigns IP addresses to each PC (do each of the five PCs have a wireless card so they can connect to the wireless router individually?). If you also connect the PCs via a switch, each wired network connection will need a unique IP address too, and without the router assigning IP addresses to the wired connections you'll have to set them up manually, but it's not hard.

I've got a similar setup using 3 PCs. They're connected to a gigabit switch which is also connected to an old wireless router running as an access point. The access point connects to the ADSL router a couple of rooms away. That way none of the PCs require a wireless card to connect to the internet, and as the router/access point assigns IP addresses to the PCs connected to the gigabit switch, it makes it nice and easy to connect and disconnect wired/wireless devices without having to set up the connections manually. In my case I had an old Netgear router lying around and I installed dd-wrt firmware instead of the Netgear firmware which allows me to run it as an access point, however a dedicated access point probably wouldn't be very expensive, so that's an option you might consider. In my case, the ADSL wireless router runs the "primary" network while my access point connects to it wirelessly and runs my "secondary" network. I can access the PCs in the primary network and of course the internet, but the rest of the computers in the house (the kids) can't access my little network from their computers.

[Cornucopia]

I have my home set up this way: CableModem (Internet) goes to Wireless+Router, wired port out of WLR goes to 24port Gigabit Switch. Mediaserver which is wired off from Switch provides DHCP & DNS. Very fast, very solid (unless the MS goes down, which only happens about every 6 months due to my stupidity). Everything sees everything, even tablets & phones & TV & PS3 & printers (~16 devices in all).

Scott

edit: I control access by using Login-based security. I, as admin, can manipulate everything. Wife, as delegated admin, can See everything, but not necessarily modify. Adult kids, as PowerUsers, can see some things & work with most devices. Minor kids, as Restricted Users, can see a few things and only work with a few devices.

[kissvid]

Thank you so much for all the replies. Wired onnection is the way i want to go to get the internet signal but it's a bit more than drilling holes for me to get to that paret ofthe house. Not an easy job. What do guys think of powerline adapters. Since I would be using the adapters for an internet signal only, i'm thinking theoretically it should go over pretty well. Any thoughts?

[kissvid]

Thank you so much for all the replies. Wired connection is the way I want to go to get the internet signal but it's a bit more than drilling holes for me to get to that part of the house. Not an easy job. What do guys think of powerline adapters. Since I would be using the adapters for an internet signal only, I'm thinking theoretically it should go over pretty well. Any thoughts?

[TreeTops]

I really need to hire Cornucopia to set up my home networking like his.

[kissvid]

Well this is for the home office not even the house.

[kissvid]

Hi Hello Hello, That might be a viabale option for me. I've never run a router as an access point but I can't imagine it beig that hard if Ihae the right firware. I'm gonna look into that.

[p_l]

What do guys think of powerline adapters. Since I would be using the adapters for an internet signal only, I'm thinking theoretically it should go over pretty well. Any thoughts?

It's been over a year now and it's still one of the best networking purchases I've made.

[hello_hello]

What do guys think of powerline adapters. Since I would be using the adapters for an internet signal only, I'm thinking theoretically it should go over pretty well. Any thoughts?

It's been over a year now and it's still one of the best networking purchases I've made.

Would a powerline adaptor connect the OP's router to a switch and provide internet access to all the PCs connected to the switch? I've never used a powerline thing but I assume they will?

[p_l]

You can connect anything you want. The WD Livewire model has 4 network ports on each end. At the near end of mine, in addition to the wireless router/internet access, I've got a hard a hard-wired computer. On the other end, I've got two computers and a network printer. Everything is seen on the network and all the computers have internet access.