Hi, My friend wants to setup quite a large home network He needs roughly 8+ wired network ports (wants gigabit) and also wireless ability. My suggestion was to use a wireless router as a Network Access point and connect it to a gigabit switch. I have now realised that this wont work as there is nothing acting as DHCP server, is there a better solution then this? Can you buy a wired switch with built in DHCP?

Actually, most wireless SOHO routers do provide DHCP. Before you purchase one, check the spec's out and make sure it does. You could then plug your switch into it's LAN port and the clients you want hardwired into the switch. Keep in mind, you won't get anywhere close to Gigabit bandwidth with wireless and it totally sucks for gaming.

Better than wireless up to 85Mbps: http://www.powerlinecommunications....

Thanks Curt R, I am aware of DHCP with a wireless router but will that still work with a switch connected to one of the ports? and would the wired connections still be working at a gigabit? My friend isnt too bothered about wireless speed, just wants his wired connections to be fast.

I can think of no reason other than design which would prevent your wired clients from receiving their TCP/IP settings from a wireless router's DHCP server. And designing it to not do that would be counterproductive as well as just plain silly. If you have 1000 Mbps NIC's in the clients and they're plugged into a 1000 Mbps switch then all data transfer between them would be 1000 Mbps. Of course you do realize that as soon as you access the internet, your client's connection speeds drop to that of the internet connection.

Yeah i realise it will be slow over the internet. One final question - wont the wireless router be a bit of a speed bottle neck for the clients on the wired network? Each will be querying the DNS / DHCP / NAT on a regular basis through a single connection to the router?