Help me find a repeater please...
 

I have a 4 port modem in the "office" (at home).
Two PCs in that room are hardwired to this modem.
There is also another ethernet cable routed to the living room (by way of the roof), and it is plugged in to the media player next to the TV.
And there is the usual gamut of laptops, phones and whatnot feeding off of the Wifi, emanating from the said modem.

My problem is that one ethernet cable by the TV. I need to "plug it in" in three more devices.
So, I figured I need a 4 port repeater at that location, so I can plug the ethernet cable from the modem in it, and connect it to the 4 devices I need to bring online.

Please tell me if I am on the right track so far...

I saw this on Ebay:

300Mbps Wireless Router WiFi Repeater Extender Range Access Point AP 4 LAN Port | eBay

Do you guys think this is the correct gizmo to buy to take care of what I need? ]

Why wouldn't you just use a switch?

Would I be able to see these individual devices on the network with a switch?
And, would they be able to access the internet independently?

Yes and yes.

5 port hub (or switch, either will work) or 8 port for future expansion.

One of the access point I have at home also has 4 ethernet ports, so it's both an AP as well as a switch.

Yes, and it'll be quicker too. very briefly, a hub/repeater does exactly that, it floods every port apart from the source port with the frame (data).

A switch learns via the connected devices MAC address what device is on what port, and once known only sends the frame to the relevant port.

For the cost differential it's really not worth skimping on a switch.

Hubs are but a thing of the past right now. No online or blick-and-mortar retailer has a network hub for sale.

FWIW I have Cat6 cable in my house, a main 1GBps switch, and access points throughout the house at 10-25% output power. This provides great coverage for mobile devices with the minimum required RF power (long term potential health benefits), and the devices that require bandwidth (desktop workstation, media player) are all on the 1GBps ethernet.

Literally any un-managed ethernet switch will work in this application. It will not contain a DHCP server or perform NAT, all IP addresses will continue to be served by the existing modem (or router), and all machines will continue to see one another.

Examples (yes, I realize this vendor is in a foreign country. I don't know what the Turkish equivalent of Newegg is):

D-Link DES-105 5-Port Fast Ethernet Switch 10/100Mbps 5 x RJ45 2K MAC Address Table - Newegg.com

Cisco Small Business 100 Series SF100D-05-NA Unmanaged 10/100Mbps 5-Port Desktop Switch - Newegg.com

NETGEAR 5 Port 10/100 High Performance Desktop Switch (FS605) - Newegg.com



You want a plain old wired switch. Not a router, a switch. Years ago, this was the most common form of network infrastructure device. They're getting a little harder to find today, but they're still around.

And forget about hubs. Hubs have been obsolete for two decades. A switch is functionally equivalent to a hub for your purposes- they manage traffic more efficiently, but do not perform any sort of bridging / routing / NAT which will break your home network.

The only reason hubs still exist is for situations where someone may accidentally, or intentionally plug an Ethernet cable between 2 ports on the switch/hub. With a hub this is no big deal, with a switch it will knock it offline.

You need a switch.

Even that isn't really much of an issue any more. $50 buys you a managed switch that has Loopback Detection.

Newegg.com - D-Link 5-Port EasySmart Gigabit Ethernet Switch - Lifetime Warranty (DGS-1100-05)

They're also quite handy in the development environment, where you want to use a promiscuous sniffer to look at all of the traffic on a network segment, such as the communication between three or more "other" devices in a peer-to-peer structure. While there are many switches available which offer the ability to eavesdrop on a single port, very few allow you to redirect all traffic from multiple ports to a sniffer port.

But I digress.

Commie, buy a switch. A cheap, unmanaged switch. Any shop which sells networking equipment for the small-office market should have these in stock. Here in the US, I'd expect to pay no more than about $30 for one.

Thank you for your guidance and help, gentlemen...
I did buy a switch.

Ignorance. I just did not know. Really.

Thanks, I did just that.

That would be Newegg. Like mt.net, or Amazon, or Ebay. ;)

I managed to buy a switch. I guess it is unmanaged. I'll manage, I guess.

I paid 26 TL, which is about 430 bucks US.
Kidding. it's like 12 bucks.