suggestions for a wireless router with 8 LAN ports?

How about adding an 8-port switch?

On 10 Nov 2008 20:57:18 GMT, Bert Hyman wrotd:

...and he can use his very favorite 1- port router for the rest of the function. You'll probably find it much cheaper than looking for an 8-port combined switch/router.

My suggestion would be to buy a 4-port router and an 8-port switch, thereby getting a whole extra two ports 'for free'.... :-)

There are some others, but you don't really need the 8 ports in the same box. Simply adding an 8 or preferably 16 port ethernet switch to one of the wireless router ports is sufficient. There's no effect on performance.

I have one sitting on the shelf. I've had very little experience with it as it was "retired" from a customers system due to constant lockups, lousy range, VPN weirdness, and an inability to stay connected permanently (for wireless printers). I have a bad attitude about having the router and the wireless access point in the same box. I also managed to "brick" the router thanks to Netgears goofy firmware update procedure. NOT recommended.

You will be concerned if you're going to go through a wall or two.

If you want reliability, get Cisco, Sonicwall, or 3com. Linksys, Belkin, Netgear and DLink are much cheaper, but far from reliable.

No. However your question implies that you don't need a router, only a wireless access point (also known as a wireless bridge). Perhaps it would be helpful if you describe what you're trying to accomplish so at least you purchase the correct devices?

No they're not. They're actually easier to deal with than an intergrated conglomeration of functions in one box. You can isolate problems by simply replacing the router, ethernet switch, or wireless access point. If it were all in one, you would end up replacing everything.

Don't bother. Hang a separate switch off of it. Use a 10/100/1000 switch, they're CHEAP these days and you get between 'in-switch' transfer speed. That is, multiple devices cranking along at 100mbps will work faster going through a gig switch. Granted, they'd have to be actually speaking to separate devices, not all trying to get to one server. But if that's the case then putting a gigE card in the server, tied into the gigE switch will certainly help.

What's your definition of maintenance hassle? Are there some complex networking access list, vlans or other configuration issues you haven't mentioned? If all you're talking about is typical network traffic in a responsible work environment then there's absolutely no 'hassles' I can think of using a combination of devices. Certainly not enough to make it worth spending all the extra money to get a combined device.

-Bill Kearney

It would be cheaper to use a gigabit switch and then dangle the wireless box as a peripheral. Then your wired servers and workstations will be fast, and notebooks will be somewhat slower.

Gigabit switches are low cost and 10x faster than the common 100 megabit found on cheap wireless boxes.

Dan - are you @ UMD.EDU ??

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:41:12 -0600, "ps56k" wrote in :

The answers to those questions do not matter in this context -- hanging a switch off a 4-port router works just the same as an 8-port router.