On Nov 16, 2004, at 12:06 PM, Jerry Yeager expostulated: > If you are running only one computer and a USB printer then I would > agree. But if you are running a couple of wired (ethernet) machines > along with several network printers along with some wireless computers > off of a base station that is connected to the LAN then the separate > switch approach makes more sense because you have a lot more ports to > plug things into. If you shop around the prices of switches (Asante) > are quite inexpensive.
Since the original question was about "...a co-worker is wanting to hook up their Mac and PC at home using DSL..." it seems to me that a four-port router is more than enough. There are still ports left open for a printer and another device. My inclination in such situations is to keep it as simple as possible. The KISS approach cuts down on phone calls at odd hours. You seem to imply there are problems plugging switches into the router. I hang a 15 port Dell 10/100 switch off my four-port NetGear wireless router and see no problems with the arrangement. Five or more years ago, when the 10/100 switches were just starting to become really common, there were a few problems stacking devices from different manufacturers. These days, I've read several articles about how the engineers have made them all talk the same (Cisco?) dialect. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: smime.p7s Type: application/pkcs7-signature Size: 2363 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.math.louisville.edu/pipermail/macgroup/attachments/20041116/715a0dd4/attachment.bin
