Will a switch do what I need?

[fizikz]

I have a room with a single ethernet connection, but I would like to connect two devices, a computer and a printer, to the network via ethernet. Currently the printer is connected wirelessly. Both devices have static IPs. Do I need a switch (like a Netgear FS105 ProSafe) to share the ethernet connection with both devices? Will I be able to maintain the static IPs of these devices?

The reason for this change in network configuration is that I am trying to upgrade the wireless network from G to N and the printer, an HP L7780, is the last remaining G device. Is it even possible to upgrade the wireless adapter of a printer to avoid the need for adding a switch to the network? I did not see any indication of it being user-upgradeable, so I figured using a wired connection to the printer would be one solution.

 

[coxhaus]

A switch is the way you increase ports. Add a switch and you have more ports. Wired connections always run better than wireless so always used wired connections if you can.
PS.
Static addresses should not be affected by using a switch but the MAC will be different for the wired Ethernet port on the printer. Just switch the IP for the wireless port to the wired port.

 

[fizikz]

Thanks. If the switch, being a middleman between the router and the devices, does not impact the static IPs then I imagine there should not be any complications.

 

[thetoad30]

The switch won't impact IP leases, but the change from the wireless MAC to the Ethernet MAC will. This is only assuming you have static IPs set inside a router.

If you have set the device (printer) itself to a static IP, then you should see no change.

 

[Deleted member 19960]

I wouldn't suggest the Netgear FS105 ProSafe unless you already have it lying around. It's an older 10/100 switch from about 2003 and you can get a faster switch for about the same money. Just search in Amazon for "Gigabit 5 port".

In regards to the printer's wireless card, no you can't swap that out for an N. It is G forever.

A few questions:

• Is there a specific reason for the static IP addresses?
• Were these IP addresses assigned by your Internet Service Provider?
• How many LAN ports does your Wireless Router have on it?
• What Wireless Router do you have?

The reason I ask is that it may be a good time to change over to DHCP and let your Wireless Router assign addresses for every device as a DHCP server. Also, a lot of Wireless Routers have 4 wired LAN ports on them. You can plug the wired devices directly to your Wireless Router if it has the ports.

Some wireless routers only have one LAN port. If that's what you have,so, you really will need a switch - or possible a need for another Wireless Router with the 4 ports.

 

[coxhaus]

It will not matter how the static address is set. If it is in the router just change the MAC for the printer IP to the wired MAC address. If the address is set on the printer just move the IP to the wired Ethernet port. Your printer clients are setup with only the IP. The printer clients may currently have the printer associated with the wireless MAC but if you reboot them after printer changes they will learn the new MAC automatically after you make the change. If your wireless network is in a different network than your wired clients then this will not work. I don’t think you would be asking this question if they are in different networks but just feed me the info on your networks and I will tell you how to make the changes.

 

[fizikz]

I just checked it, and it turns out the printer has been set up with a static IP in the printer's configuration. This has been done for both the wired and wireless devices, even though the wire is currently not being used. It may have been used a long time ago. There is also a port that is mapped to the printer's IP on the router.

I only have one network, so the printer and all other devices, wired or wireless are all accessible to each other.

For some of the other questions:

• Static IPs were set to make it easier for clients to find the printer and print. It was done years ago, but I think this worked better than DHCP.

• No, this is not the external IP, but the internal IPs on the home network. i.e. 192.168.2.xx

• Four ethernet gigabit ports

• Engenius ESR 9850

I figured any old 10/100 switch that worked well in its time should be fine here, considering that the ethernet cable has a Powerline AV segment before reaching the switch. Wouldn't a gigabit switch be inconsequential?

The setup is as follows:

[Modem] -> [Router] -> [Powerline AV] -> ((potential switch ->)) [Wired Computer]

The printer which is currently wirelessly connected to the network would instead be plugged into the prospective switch via ethernet.

I found a Netgear FS105 ProSafe locally for $5 which seems interesting considering it looks solidly built, but I'm open to other suggestions.

 

[00Roush]

Not a bad deal for a switch that works and it looks like it has a lifetime warranty from Netgear.

Typically the recommendation is to upgrade to a gigabit switch whenever it makes sense. The benefit is that while most of your devices may be not using gigabit currently down the road you might get two devices that can use the gigabit and transfer speeds go way up. But gigabit only really makes a difference when you start transferring larger amounts of data. So if you don't forsee a need I would say you would be fine with 10/100 switch.

The static IP for the printer makes sense but generally I have found using DHCP on the client computers works well as no manual configuration is needed. Just my opinion though.

00Roush

 

[Deleted member 19960]

If the Engenius is near where you need the Ethernet ports, just use those four ports, if that is enough.

If you need more than 4 ports or you need the wired ports away from where the router sits, the $5 switch sounds as if that will work fine. It just means that you would have to run an Ethernet cable from the router to the switch.

I'm a big fan of letting the router do DHCP.

An easy way to switchover from wireless to wired on the printer is to swap the IP addresses on the printer using DHCP. If you don't have them, the manuals for your printer are online and clearly explain how to change IP addressing.

• Wire the printer via Ethernet to your switch or router.
• Enable the DHCP server on the router.
• Put in the current wireless IP address in DHCP reservations list on router with the MAC address of the wired connection of the printer.
• Put the original wired IP address in the DHCP reservation list on the router with the MAC address of the Wireless connection of the printer.
• Reset both the printer's IP address to use DHCP instead of Static.
• Restart printer.
• Reset all the workstations to use DHCP
• Restart all workstations or use ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew (assuming Windows on the workstations.)

Do this and everyone will have the correct (same) IP address to the printer, but it will print via the Wired connection instead of the wireless. It will also convert your network to DHCP at the same time. I checked the GUI for your router and it uses the term "DHCP Static IP Address" for what most people call DHCP reservations. That's a little confusing to my mind.

If you want to, you can put in reservations for all your devices that have Static IP addresses currently. This may be helpful if something is shared out and connected to by IP address instead of computer name.

Though wireless has gotten very stable, it is usually better to connect infrastructure like printers and file servers with the wired connection when you have the choice.

 

[fizikz]

Thanks for the detailed replies.

Perhaps we're talking about the same thing after all. When I said static IP, I was referring to the "DHCP static IP" table in the router, or DHCP reservation list with your terminology. I'm not sure what the difference is between that and "true" static IP. A static IP selection on the client end?

The switch is needed away from the router, and there is a Powerline AV "500" segment in between. Because of that bottleneck, I thought that a 10/100 switch would never become a bottleneck. I'm not against gigabit switches if they offer an advantage. I also see used TP-Link and D-link gigabit switches for $20.

 

[Deleted member 19960]

Thanks for the detailed replies.

Perhaps we're talking about the same thing after all. When I said static IP, I was referring to the "DHCP static IP" table in the router, or DHCP reservation list with your terminology. I'm not sure what the difference is between that and "true" static IP. A static IP selection on the client end?

The switch is needed away from the router, and there is a Powerline AV "500" segment in between. Because of that bottleneck, I thought that a 10/100 switch would never become a bottleneck. I'm not against gigabit switches if they offer an advantage. I also see used TP-Link and D-link gigabit switches for $20.

Glad I found that nomenclature. When I read Static IP, I was thinking a true static IP address assigned on the device itself, as you so thought.

If you are using the DHCP Static IP list, then you are pretty much set. Once you have the printer wired to the switch and the switch Powerlined to the router, just swap the IP addresses for the printer's two entries and you should be set.

What it comes down to in your case is how much more do you trust the PowerLine AV's stability in your situation versus the printer's wireless stability.

You are correct that behind the Powerline AV, the $5 switch should do fine and is not that much of a bottleneck. The Powerline is rated as being faster than your switch, but less than Gigabit Ethernet. Not a bad match, actually.

 

[fizikz]

The Powerline AV is definitely more stable, although I've had no trouble printing with the wireless. The Powerline AV model I have is a TP-Link TL-PA511KIT which actually has a gigabit port, however the actual throughput I get is closer to 40Mbps (link rate reported ~100-175Mbps). With a TP-Link gigabit switch there is the appeal of keeping brands consistent, and also having a gigabit switch later on if I should change configurations. However, the Netgear looks more solidly built.

Thanks for all the help. It's now clear that either will work fine, so I'll just go with whichever is easier to acquire.

 

[Deleted member 19960]

The Powerline AV is definitely more stable, although I've had no trouble printing with the wireless. The Powerline AV model I have is a TP-Link TL-PA511KIT which actually has a gigabit port, however the actual throughput I get is closer to 40Mbps (link rate reported ~100-175Mbps). With a TP-Link gigabit switch there is the appeal of keeping brands consistent, and also having a gigabit switch later on if I should change configurations. However, the Netgear looks more solidly built.

Thanks for all the help. It's now clear that either will work fine, so I'll just go with whichever is easier to acquire.

Agree with you on which ever one is easier.

Printing on such a small network with your printer through a Gig switch gives no real benefit. I have your printer's cousin, the L7590. The speed of the printer is the limiting factor (especially two-sided printing,) not the connection speed of Gig vs 10/100.

The advantage of a Gig switch in your situation is if you can connect two or more workstations that share files via wired Ethernet to the same switch. Then you can see some real benefit.

 

[coxhaus]

I would always use copper over using wireless for any network duties where possible. I use a Netgear Powerline 500 Nano on my network and it’s very stable. It has been running for months without a reboot which is the time period I have owned it. I would use and I do use this option over using wireless. I have wireless for portable devices. Unless you move your printer around a lot I would run it over copper. Copper being either Ethernet, power plug, or coax wires.