Currently, my network is Virgin Hub 3.0 -> TP-Link TL-WDR7300 AC2100. The problem is that my router only has three ports (Virgin TV, Printer and desktop). I have no place to plug in my server which can take two ports on its own. It seems I need an unmanaged switch and that 8-ports should be a good balance of size, price and capacity. I was thinking that I would need to go with something on the market place as I'm happy to buy used hardware. I did a quick search and found that unmanaged 8-port gigabit switches are pretty cheap. D-Link 8-Port Gigabit Easy Desktop Switch GO-SW-8G - £12.99 NETGEAR GS208-100UKS 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Switch - £16.97 NETGEAR GS308-100UKS 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Desktop/Wallmount Switch - £16.99 TP-Link TL-SG1008D 8-Port Desktop Gigabit Ethernet Switch - £16.99 Do I set it up so that it is Modem -> Router -> switch? Do I need to change any setting in the router? Does the switch act as an expander, increasing the number of ports to the router? Can I connect devices to the router and the switch and have them in the same network?
Yes. No. Effectively, yes. Yes. Just remember that you'll need a wire from the switch to the router - so your three-port router will only have two ports to play with, and your eight-port switch will have seven free ports. In other words, you'll have up to nine ports free, rather than the 11 ports you might expect when adding eight ports to three. Also, back in the day you'd have needed a special cable called a crossover cable (MDI-X) between the switch and the router, but not any more - all modern Ethernet hardware is auto-MDI.
That was a very efficient answer. I knew that the switch would take up a LAN port in the router but I didn't realise that an 8-port switch was not 1 WAN + 8 LAN. I think I will be fine with 7 ports in the switch as my current requirement will be 5 ports. Will all of the sub £20 unmanaged gigabit switches work the same? I used the compare function with two 8 port models on the Netgear page and all the specs were identical.
I tend to go for D-Link or TP-Link and avoid Netgear - I've had issues with Netgear in the past, so personally avoid them like the plague - but in the sub £20 market, they're all pretty much the same.
There's no such thing as a WAN port on a switch: that's purely a router (or gateway) thing. A switch is LAN only, though some bigger switches will have dedicated 'uplink' ports for connecting to other switches: it's common to see 24 or 48 port switches with two high-speed fibre ports as uplinks (usually unpopulated.) Yup. Maybe find one with a metal case, it helps dissipate the heat better.
