Home router LAN ports all used, but I need another LAN port?

[VectraMan]

speed (advertised speeds are 'up to', and you know how crap that usually turns out with broadband)

Yes but that applies to all these things. Who thinks Gigabit Ethernet actually gives you 1Gb/s?

I originally bought homeplugs because my old 11Mb WiFi was flakey, and particularly with a client supplied laptop. But later I upgraded to 54G and it's worked flawlessly since, which surprised me because I assumed whatever interfered with 11Mb would have had the same effect on 54Mb. Perhaps it was just a better router.

[Fred Bloggs]

Follow up question regarding these network switch type thingies. I have recently successfully used a couple of homeplug type network adapters (Slinglink ones to connect a Slinbox upstairs to the router downstairs over the home wiring). I'm impressed with the homeplug adpater and wish to attach a PC (currently wifi connected and a weak signal) as well as the Slingbox to the home plug's single ethernet socket using one of the network switches suggested earlier in the thread. Will it work like that? Thanks.

[PAH]

If the slinglinks allow other network traffic besides slingbox then it should all work fine.

You could have:

router -> slinglink -> slinglink -> switch -> slingbox, PC, etc

If only the slingbox is required at the end of the slinglink, or the slinglink requires direct connection to slingbox, you could have the switch alongside the router to allow PC and other devices connected there, for a faster network connection than the slinglink may allow.

router -> switch -> slinglink -> slinglink -> slingbox
router -> switch -> PC, etc

[Fred Bloggs]

Thanks for your help. I have a PC linked to the Slinglink and I swap the cable when I want the Slingbox connected, so I know it works. Thanks for your help, I'll order a couple of those switches from Ebuyer now.

[PAH]

You'll probably only need one switch, unless you want one at each end of the network for flexibility.

[Fred Bloggs]

You'll probably only need one switch, unless you want one at each end of the network for flexibility.

Cheers, yes, flexibility and adding a VOIP device is my thinking. Thanks.