Expanding the home network

[frankly frankie]

So - if you extend the network with a switch - how does the IP addressing work?

Say I like all my wired devices to have fixed IP addresses.
Say I have a router 192.168.0.1 in room A and two wired PCs ...0.3 and ...0.4 in room B,
and I want to 'improve' this setup by having a single wire to a switch in room B -

does the switch have its own address, like a router does?  Do the PCs have to route via this new address?  If so, how do other devices on the home network and routing via the router in room A, resolve all this?

(Switches are cheap, perhaps I should just buy one and find out.)

[tiermat]

FF, no the switch doesn't have it's own address

A switch is probably best viewed as a repeater or extender.

So from a topology view point it doesn't matter if your machine connected to the router or the switch.

As long as all addresses are in the same range, with the same subnet mask they will all just see one another.

So, in ASCII art it would look something like this:

Router > Machine A
            > Machine B
            > Switch > Machine C
                           > Machine D
                           > Machine E
and so on

You do start running into problems if you try chaining too many switches, but one switch off the back of a router is not going to cause any issues.

[frankly frankie]

Thanks 

[henshaw11]

(The Homeplug is the white rectangular thingy)

Serves me right..being an engineer I ought to have added  'for optimum performance' or some other weasel-worded qualification..oh well, if it seems to be working ...

Perhaps you need some tie-wraps on your Christmas list 

[Polar Bear]

Cheap as chips TP Link switch applied and installed.   Everything just tickety boo   

Thanks very much chaps for your help   

[pcolbeck]

You do start running into problems if you try chaining too many switches, but one switch off the back of a router is not going to cause any issues.

No you don't/ You can chain as many switches together as you like and it should still work fine. Spanning Tree has a maximum diameter of 7 switches but if you haven't made any loops your network will work way past 7 switches.  Ethernet hubs on the other hand do have an issue when you start chaining more than a few together. The chances of being able to buy a hub rather than a switch these days are somewhat slim.

[Feanor]

And the cheep-as-chips switches are not even going to impliment STP.

[pcolbeck]

True. Single ASIC devices the 4 port ones usually.