Green Newbie question on switch vs. hub?

[cmb7684]

I gutted and rewired my house a while back and used Cat 5 for my Telephone/Internet wiring. I wanted the option to plug into instead of relying on wireless connections.

I have AT&T Uverse as the provider for my internet. I have 6 Tv's in my house each with 2 Ethernet Cat 5 connections in case one wire went bad or I wanted a cable to the TV and the other to Xbox for the kids or whatever the case may be. I used 568 B protocol to wire the jacks if that matters to anyone.


I also have several misc Ethernet connection ports wired around the house in several locations and almost as common as phone jacks (yeah I did go crazy a bit).

I ran all home runs all back to one central location.

I obviously have way more wires than I do ports on my router. I do not want to sacrifice speed but I realize that will more than likely depends on how many items are actually using the connection at once.

It is not really my intent to link two computers together or anything like you would find in a business. My goal is really just supply each connection with internet at the fastest speed possible. I do not anticipate high usage of all connections at the same time. For instance my son may play his xbox360 while my wife watches TV and I surf online. That will not be all day but that with maybe another connection working for another computer or Netflix or something it just depends.

Can you all direct me the best way to accomplish this including the make and model you recommend and why?

Thanks

 

[DistraughtSysop]

It sounds like you just need more LAN ports for wired connections to your router - depending on how many additional ports you need, any consumer grade switch should work. Just connect one of the switchports to one of the router's LAN ports.

Personally, I'm generally partial to old Linksys, Asus, and some Netgear products. However, it shouldn't make any difference. Unmanaged home switches are dumb, plug and play devices. It's akin to adding a power strip to an outlet.

Hubs are obsolete now and only still useful for a very narrow range of uses. I don't know if you could even find one to buy - maybe on ebay or craigslist.

 

[I am confused2]

What even you do, DO NOT get a hub. These are for uses that the average consumer will not use.

Now, what it the total number of NETWORK cables/out lets that you have?

Do you mark on the wall plate which is network and which is phone?

As for a switch, any will do, but I perfer to use a 10/100/1g switch as that will help balance the thru put.

Not knowing where you are, I can not recommand where to get a 1g switch but I have a local parts house I use and I can get them for a good price.

Send me email at cabletech03@hotmail.com and I will work with you.