 |
Networking remains a mystery for a large part of the general population. Outside of wireless "plug and play" devices or all-in-one boxes that most people purchase to protect their home networks, most people only understand the basic functionality of these devices. The seller I bought this item from was one of them. He titled the listing with the heading "router", but the device is only a switch. What is the difference? You could find several dozen articles doing an online search, but essentially I'll outline the definition for each device in everyday terms and then tell you the benefits to this particular switch. In most homes you have a Digital Service Line (DSL) that is either run on coax cable, a traditional phone line, or in some areas now a Fiber Optic Service line (FIOS). The modem "connects" you to the internet of the outside world. You then distribute that signal to a wired or wireless router. It does just what it sounds like. It takes that signal and controls the routing of traffic from your intranet network and the outside world. That specific job has nothing to do with hardware connections, it's completely done by software on a small computer processor. Most of the home devices also have a switch built in with multiple ports. The switch is like a much more sophisticated version of a hub. It actually controls physical "traffic" from hardware devices. There are two types of switches, managed and unmanaged, but for this discussion we'll stick to the standard unmanaged type often used for smaller networks. The switch allows you to connect multiple devices to the router that is assigning either Dynamic (DHCP) or Static addresses to the hardware devices on your network. It "intelligently" handles the input and output traffic of the devices to the router. Now we come to why this is valuable in the real world. Let's say you have a newer home with some type of wired network connection run to every room in the house or perhaps you've upgraded your home to have this. Let's say you decide to get a VOIP phone in addition to the computer you have running in your office and a Network Attached Storage (NAS) to handle all of your media files and easily allow anyone in the house to access them without having to phyysically connect the drive to each computer via USB or some other interface. The problem is that you obviously have only one ethernet connection in each room in the house. You could spread the devices out putting one in each of the rooms or you could put them all in a "server location" near the router, but in my case that is in the basement and I need my VOIP in my office. The solution is to use this device. It allows me to take the single port in my home office and connect multiple devices to my wireless router located in the basement. It's an inexpensive way to avoid the cost, time, and potential damage to my home involved in running more ethernet cable or purchasing wireless cards or devices for everything. There is only a limited bandwith on wireless networks and the more devices you connect to those networks, the more you limit the ability of those devices to get effective bandwith. Despite the mass move to have everything be wireless there is a strong case for not doing this and using devices like this D-Link External Switch. I've found their products consistently reliable, well built and to have excellent longevity. Happy networking!Read full review
Bought the product because I am using another switch and router from D-Link. Items are easy to install and suppport, if needed, is available. I have used D-Link for years and have not had any problems with it. Products offer a great value.
Plug n play! Wired is ALWAYS better than WIFI. Nowhere near the packet loss. GREAT for streaming to your smart TV and other stationary streaming devices.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Nice and simple desktop switch, works as expected.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
works very well,easy install,you can depend on it.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Network Hubs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Network Hubs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
