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help. need more than 4 ports.

stuxxx7

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Posted December 5, 2011 at 10:16AM

I have very little knowledge on this kind of thing so i will try to explain best i can. I get my broadband from Virgin Media, so i have a D-Link wireless router and its connected to a modem (i think), firstly all devices that connect to this are wireless... am i right in thinking i can only have 4 devices connected at any 1 time? if so how can have have more devices linked at the same time? atm we have 4 laptops 1 desktop pc and 1 ps3 although all arnt online at the same time... but my little brother is going to be getting a ps3 at xmas.

realisticly at any one time after xmas we will proberly have a max of 2 laptops 1 desktop pc and 2 ps3's online at once, if its possible. any help will be great, thanks

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onthelimit1

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Posted December 5, 2011 at 11:00AM

There is no limit to the number of wireless devices that can be connected. Hard wired devices are limited by the number (usually 4) ports on the router.

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stuxxx7

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Posted December 5, 2011 at 11:12AM

Great, thanks for the quick response so even with 2 PS3's gaming at the same time it will be able to handle it?

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mgmcc

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Posted December 5, 2011 at 11:25PM

Bear in mind that, whereas devices connected by ethernet cable will each have the full 100Mbps bandwith (1000Mbps with Gigabit), wireless connections share the available bandwidth. The more devices you connect the slower their data transfer will become.

"There is no limit to the number of wireless devices that can be connected."

Some routers do impose a restriction on the number of simultaneous wireless connections, otherwise the "theoretical" maximum is the number of available IP addresses in the Subnet.

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onthelimit1

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Posted December 6, 2011 at 9:10AM

mgmcc

thanks for the clarification - I was aware that the wireless devices shared the bandwidth, but not that there may be limitations on the numbers that can connect at once.

Simultaneous wireless gaming will certainly suffer because of the sharing.

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T0SH

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Posted December 9, 2011 at 8:57PM

You can buy a relatively low cost " 5 port ethernet switch " google the text within the " ", connect this to one of the 4 ports on your existing router to expand your available port count by another 4

Cheers HC

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