Hi - Shimi's solution will work - use a cross-over cable, though, in order to connect the switches together.
Hypothetically, you should be able to connect multiple computers to the same network cable - that is, wire 2 connectors, in series, at one end. This would give you a "hub" on that segment, and the network cards should manage the collisions themselves. I wouldn't recommend this, though, and I present it strictly as a thought experiment. -Mike 2011/2/13 shimi <[email protected]> > > On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 6:47 PM, Geoff Shang <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I find myself with the need to connect 5 ethernet devices to 4 available >> ports. >> >> I'm running an ADSL modem/router with a 192.168.2.x network (for >> historical reasons) and have allocated static addresses to all of the static >> devices, and a pool of DHCP addresses for devices which ask for it. >> >> Right now the fifth device is running on wireless but I want to plug it in >> if I can. >> >> A quick Google tells me that there's no kind of double adaptor available >> to help solve my problem. The closest I've seen is a way to send two 10/100 >> mbps Ethernet feeds down the one ethernet cable, but you still need two >> ports at each end. I only have one so that's no good. >> >> Assuming that there is no such double adaptor device that I can use to get >> me a fifth port, the only solution I can see is to drag out the Edimax >> router I have here which is no longer being used. >> >> Assuming I do this, I'm wondering how to configure it. >> >> I'm guessing that it will actually have to route. I can't see myself >> doing bridging because there'll have to be two devices on it (the router >> will need to take up one of the 4 ports on the modem/router so this then >> leaves 5 devices and only 3 other ports,). >> >> Presumably I need to configure the WAN port so that it connects to the >> existing network. Do I need to set aside a subnet of the 192.168.2.x >> network specifically for the second router, or can I just enlarge the entire >> network and have it all just cope, with the right packets going to the right >> places? >> >> My preference would be to be able to keep it all as one big network, as >> I'd rather not have to reallocate static addresses if I can help it, which >> I'm guessing I'd have to do if I had to make the second router have its own >> subnet of the 192.168.2.x network. >> >> Netmasks and such tend to confuse me a little and I'm not sure what I >> should be doing here, so any suggestions would be helpful. >> >> > Take the un-used router; Go into its configuration; Disable the Internal > DHCP server; Verify that the router does not have an IP address which > already belongs to any other device in your LAN (if it does, change it to > something else. best something on a different netmask altogether...); > > Then, disconnect one of the devices on your currently active 4 port router; > Connect a cable between the now vacant port to one of the LAN (note: NOT the > WAN!) ports of the un-used router. Then you can use the extra vacant ports > of the previously un-used router as an extension to your existing network. > (The 4 ports in any common router are actually a switch...) > > Good luck, > > -- Shimi > > > _______________________________________________ > Linux-il mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il > >
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