Network conundrum

Normally, to make this working you would go out and buy a "switch", the equivalent of a power strip for networking. You put it upstairs, connect it to the cable running downstairs and then you can connect multiple network devices including your PC and Pi.

The switch does the same thing as a bridge, but with multiple ports. It is invisible to network protocols, IP addressing, etc.

i.e. how to make the most expensive ethernet switch of all time :-)

technically a switch is a bridge that spans nothing.

If it was just for me, I'd behave like the pack rat I am and just leave everything in a pile on the desk and floor and.... (makes changing any connection at all a puzzle in the topology of knots!).

But in the small living room of a flat you're trying to rent to people who are quite possibly tidy individuals, strips on the wall wouldn't look too good. An excellent suggestion for me, far better than my usual casual approach, but not for the general public.

Actually, I think the real solution might be a common power supply with dozens of separately regulated outputs. Then there'd be only one mains cable, and tiny sockets, maybe colour-coded to show voltage, to connect the various dongles and what-have-you. Could be quite compact, but a problem to ensure you never feed 19 volts centre-positive DC into something that wants 6 volts AC.

I wonder if such a thing already exists.

Strictly speaking a switch isn't a bridge because it doesn't join two different networks as a bridge does, it only enables extra nodes to be added to a single network.

An ethernet bridge does exactly the same thing as a switch. It joins two network segments by transferring frames that are learned to be "on the other side" by looking at the MAC address.

Originally a bridge connected two coax segments each with several stations on them, now they usually join UTP segments with only a single node. However, in a network with 3 switches, the central switch joins two networks in the same way a bridge did.

a bridge was also convetionally the term required to something which used a DIFFERENT transport layer below (e.g.) ethernet to 'link' two possibly geographically remote (ether) networks across e.g. a high speed serial line.

In this case its across the insides of a computer, in the case of a switch its across an internal buffer in the switch.

Nah. Saved me 20 quid innit.

Much more importantly, it saved me another box and another wall wart.

I had an old router that could be configured as a switch. I gave it house room for 6 years - I threw it in the bin 3 weeks ago...

Another Dave

but cost you an ethernet card...

I DO sympathise tho. I have been trying to reduce 'box count' here as well.

hence the ADSL wireslss router switch..that also does VOIP..

I got annoyed with having a wall wart for both a switch and wireless bridge box so drilled a hole in the wireless box to make a power output and daisy chain them off one wall wart Then I hot glued the cases together :)

I think that can be tidied still further. For starters, if the USB hub won't power the RPI, replace it with one that will: then you only need two mains sockets, so glue a two socket mains extension adapter (available from Wykes) to the Buffalo. Shorten the Buffalo mains cable and plug it into the adapter along along with the USB hub's wall wart. Now everything else can be powered from the hub. Cables too long, get shorter USB cables for the RPi, Buffalo and tuner. Cables as short as

They do seem to breed, you have to take a look occasionally and cull those that aren't really required any more.

SPOF

Each one of those is seperate here, partly from the SPOF angle but also that the best physical place for say the ADSL modem may not be the best place for the router and/or switch and/or wireless AP and/or the VOIP box (that also has built in DECT).

got a 19" rack with the PABX above it and all the house wires coming in..

..biggest issue is that the walls are foil backed and wifi has a 3 meter range..must put in a wap or two. But every room has cat 5 in it.

Out local department store often disposes, at a reasonable price, of curtain material samples, made up as curtains which fit a "window" about

Something to do with board and lumber, perhaps?

The advantage of using a piece of wood is that you can drive a few screws into it wherever you need, supplemented with washers, string, metal strap or rubber tube to hold things in place.