Hi all, Hoping someone can help me with this problem: I need a Home Networking Panel installed. Currently, I have Cat 5e cables running from various points in the house to the exterior. There is no central panel through which they are routed. The cables all meet at a point at the sidewall of a garage before going out to the exterior of the home. I need: 1) A networking panel installed for centralized access to the cables, where I can install a hub/switch/router. 2) Is it possible to still place the router at one of the end points of those cables, instead of where they all meet? In other words can the router feedback its output ports from an endpoint to the centralized panel? 3) If I use only 1 of the output ports of the router to feedback a signal to a switch in the garage from where other computers in the house are connected, will I: a) Lose bandwidth, as compared to using a seperate port for each computer? b) Get a unique private IP address for DHCP/dynamic IP for each computer?

your setup will work, no loss of bandwidth and the router will divy up a dns for each computer.

Mountain, Thanks for your reply. So, does this mean that a router broadcasts all its data to all its output ports? In other words, there is no functional difference between ports of a router? What do I lose if I expand a 4 port router with a switch (using one of the router's output ports), as compared to having a router with more than 4 output ports?

Personally, I would put the highspeed modem, router and switch with the patch panel (where you terminate all cables). It would look like this: cable/dsl >> router >> switch >> patch panel/clients As was pointed out, your idea will work. What you'll have to do is go from the modem's output port through the patch panel (say port 1 for example) to the router's WAN port. Then from your router's LAN port, back through to the patch panel (say port two). You'll then have to run a patch cable from port 2 to the switch and then plug all your clients into the switch (from the patch panel). This will require two network jacks to be available wherever you have your router set. The cables all meet at a point at the sidewall of a garage before going out to the exterior of the home. Is this where your highspeed connection is? If so, the logical thing is as I described first and placing your router elsewhere makes no sense. Remember, you can access the router's configuration page from anywhere within the network. So being physically close to it is moot. So, does this mean that a router broadcasts all its data to all its output ports? In other words, there is no functional difference between ports of a router? Sort of. A SOHO router is in fact a switch with a firewall, NAT and DHCP added to it. It will listen on all ports for DHCP requests. But once a client starts communicating, it will behave as a switch does and only send returning data to the point of origin without broadcasting to all ports. NOTE: While not absolutely necessary, you should use a crossover cable to connect the router to your switch. These days, most switches are auto MDIX, but you can't go wrong if you use a crossover. What do I lose if I expand a 4 port router with a switch (using one of the router's output ports), as compared to having a router with more than 4 output ports? You lose nothing. This is the way it's done normally.

Man, I love this forum! Thanks for all the superfast and accurate answers! Curt R, The highspeed connection is via my cable provider and is available in one of my bedrooms, which I use as a home office (Where I intend to keep the highspeed modem and router). I plan to put the switch near the garage, where all the cables meet. Does this make sense? This way, if I ever need to power down my cable modem or router, I don't have to run to the garage.... I can do it directly from my home office bedroom, where my main desktop computer is. By the way, I have 8 cable lines provided to me by my cable company. The cable company has its own external box on the outside of the house where these connections are made. By the way, is it a good idea to also patch down these cable company wires in my own networking panel on the inside of the house? Not sure if it would buy me anything other than just being able to access the connections easily.

The highspeed connection is via my cable provider and is available in one of my bedrooms, which I use as a home office (Where I intend to keep the highspeed modem and router). I plan to put the switch near the garage, where all the cables meet. Does this make sense? Yes it does. I suspected that would be the case. Too bad it's not DSL, it would be a simple matter to run another phone line to where your switch will be. Like I said, you'll just have to make sure you have 2 cables in your home office for the router, and another for the PC. If you get a SOHO router with 4 LAN ports, you won't need a 3'd outlet for your PC as you could plug it into a LAN port on the router itself. By the way, is it a good idea to also patch down these cable company wires in my own networking panel on the inside of the house? Not sure if it would buy me anything other than just being able to access the connections easily. To be honest, I'm not sure. I guess if you plan on using them in the future it wouldn't be a bad idea to have them run to where your patch panel is.

I'm not sure I will need 2 Cat 5e outlets (Although I do have 2 outlets, 1 I use for telephone and I had got another just incase). At present, my incoming ISP is through a cable connection (So my cable modem uses a cable connection, not a Cat 5e for the WAN) and the router connects to the RJ45 output of the cable modem. So, I don't need to use 2 Cat 5e cables going from the home office bedroom to the garage, right? Ofcourse, for the future, if I use DSL for my ISP, I would need 2 Cat 5e outlets in the home office, as you mentioned.