Switches and Cables

Most routers are limited in the number of network ports. If you need more network (cabled) connections, you can upgrade your router to a model with more connections, however this will turn out to be rather expensive. A better way is to add a switch to your setup.

A switch is a device which allows you to connect multiple devices to you network and makes sure that traffic is steered along the right cables to arrive at its destination. You can use one or multiple switches in your network. Extending the number of connections is the first reason to use a switch, but you can also use a switch to branch the network at a different place than where you keep the router, in order to be able to use shorter cables to connect your devices to the network.

Switch requirements

• Number of Ports: The first thing to decide is how many connections (ports) your switch needs to provide. Whatever the number of connections you expect to be using, it is better to add some headroom, also because upgrading to a larger switch will cost less than buying a second one.
  Keep in mind that connecting a switch to the router will consume one port on each device.
• Connection speed: Switches will provide ports with a certain connection speed. Right now you will find 10/100 Mbps and 1Gbps (also listed as 10/100/1000 Mbps) variations. Although 10/100 connections will provide enough speed for most application users, you want to make sure that the server has a 1Gbps connection to the main switch/router. When buying a new switch, it is best to choose a model with 1Gbps ports only.
• Managed vs Unmanaged: when looking at the offerings for switches you will find that some models are managed. Although managed switches will allow you to do some really cool things, you probably don’t need one, unless you really know why you do.
• Power over Ethernet (PoE): switches with PoE will inject power into your network connections, such that devices connected to the switch can draw power from the network cable. Only devices with support for PoE can do this. If you have a lot of devices with PoE support, buying a switch with PoE ports will be worth the extra expense. If you only have few devices that need PoE, you can also consider the use of PoE power injectors. These are small devices that add power into a UTP connection. Note that there are different standards for PoE, when combining a PoE switch with PoE devices, make sure they are compatible.

Most switches don’t have much to configure, simply plug the power and plug the network cables.
When buying a switch from well known brands such as Netgear, TP-link, HP or Cisco, there is not much you can do wrong.

Network Cables

At first sight there is not much to say about network cables, but we still want to give some small hints about what to look for:

• Network cables come in all sorts of lengths. We mostly don’t buy cables shorter than 3 meter, because shorter cables are often unpractical. The longest (loose) cables we buy are 50 meter. If you need longer cables, you should buy cables on reels. Note that the maximal usable length for a UTP cable is 100m.
• UTP connectors (RJ 45) have a small plastic clip which clicks into the port when you plug the cable. These clips are very vulnerable and break off easily when you handle the cable. When the clip is broken, the cable will not be properly fixated and the network connection will be unstable. To avoid this, it is better to buy cables that have protection of the clip (see picture).
• When buying longer cables, you want to make sure that they are nog too sturdy, because this will make it hard to roll them up. If you want to keep your sanity while handling long cables you might find following instruction video useful: How to Coil Cables | The Over Under Technique . It has saved us already countless hours of messing around with cables.
• When you store many cables in a box (UTP or other) it is better to bind them, so they don’t get mixed. Many people use adhesive tape to bind their cable, however we prefer to use reusable velcro ties strips.