Connecting more than one wired computer to Aiport?

I would suggest a plain-jane hub for it or switch if you prefer, since a router would really cause you pain if you want to communicate between the wired computers and airport.

a switch is going to be the simplest thing for you. they run about 50 bucks for a 4 port one. all you have to do is plug it into the base station and it's is as good as gold. I was told a hub could slow things down a while back when i asked this same question so i just bought a switch

Originally posted by Macpoops
a switch is going to be the simplest thing for you. they run about 50 bucks for a 4 port one. all you have to do is plug it into the base station and it's is as good as gold. I was told a hub could slow things down a while back when i asked this same question so i just bought a switch

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A hub will not necissarily slow things down, as you will get a 100megabit connection between the two machines. What a switch does is allow it to effectively become 200 megits by allowing 100megabits send, and 100 megabits recieve simultaneously, rather than a total of 100 send/recieve at the same time.

You will not notice any speed difference just using the internet, but if you are transfering large amounts of files between the machines that are directly hardwired into the switch.

Really it is just a matter of price comparison, if there is a switch for the same price or just slightly more than a hub, by all means get it.

To answer what port to plug it into, it will be the LAN port of the base station, connected to the WAN or uplink port on the hub/switch.

realistically switches only perform better than hubs in certain situations, most of them occurring on very large networks. you might use a switch to connect a half a dozen hubs together, or something like that, but for a handful of computers a hub will be just as fast, and cheaper...

basically the difference is that a hub just repeats signals from all ports to all ports, which is why it's also called a repeater, and a switch looks at the signals and determines which port that particular computer is on, then sends it on that port only...

pnw

Originally posted by paulwhannel
realistically switches only perform better than hubs in certain situations, most of them occurring on very large networks. you might use a switch to connect a half a dozen hubs together, or something like that, but for a handful of computers a hub will be just as fast, and cheaper...

basically the difference is that a hub just repeats signals from all ports to all ports, which is why it's also called a repeater, and a switch looks at the signals and determines which port that particular computer is on, then sends it on that port only...

pnw

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Yes, mainly switches are for over-burdened networks looking to cut down on congestion caused by all the packets flying around the network that don't need to go out to every machine.
they are useful in some home situations though if you are the average geek.

This thread got kinda off topic, he already has a linksys router, which will work just fine. I haven't used an Airport, but it should be simple. Just hook up the uplink port of the router to the LAN port of the Airport. Does the airport do DHCP? if so, turn it off on your router before hooking it up. Then it basically becomes a dumbed down switch. Thats what I do, as we have a main DSL router, and my wireless router is "dumbed down" to a simple switch.

Originally posted by WannabeSQ
This thread got kinda off topic, he already has a linksys router, which will work just fine. I haven't used an Airport, but it should be simple. Just hook up the uplink port of the router to the LAN port of the Airport. Does the airport do DHCP? if so, turn it off on your router before hooking it up. Then it basically becomes a dumbed down switch. Thats what I do, as we have a main DSL router, and my wireless router is "dumbed down" to a simple switch.

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I never got my linksys to sucessfully do that and still be able to communicate to other machines, such as seeing servers under "connect to server". I have turned off DHCP too, but still have oddball problems. Is there anything else to do, if so could you ellaborate on it?

1) Turn on DHCP, That is how the Airport Gives a NAT address to your machines.
2) You may need to plug into the crossover port on the hub, or use a crossover cable between the Airport. OR The Basestation may already crossover internally, so try plugging into a normal port on the hub not the crossover.
3) You will need to turn off any features of the hub.
4) You can also try hooking the DSL in to the Lynksys, hooking the two computers to it and connecting the Basestation to the hum as thought it was a computer (And attache it to the LAN port of the Airport.

Other than that, my friend you'd be SOL.

TEG

Originally posted by TEG
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4) You can also try hooking the DSL in to the Lynksys, hooking the two computers to it and connecting the Basestation to the hum as thought it was a computer (And attache it to the LAN port of the Airport.

Other than that, my friend you'd be SOL.

TEG

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That's what we do now, except instead of airport, i have another linksys wireless router. It may be easier this way if you already have the linksys hooked up and running, then the Airport is just being the wireless gateway.

also, if you hook it up the other way (that way being that the airport does the routing, and the Linksys is the dumbed down switch) i made the mistake of using the WAN port, when it should have been the LAN port, not sure if that's the same mistake you made.