I have a Netgear MR314 Wireless Router. Currently, one PC is connected
via an MA101 Wireless USB Network Adapter and two PCs are connected
via cat5 cable to local ports on the router. One of these is next to
the router, the other is about 70 feet away. There are now three
additional devices that need to be connected to the network that are
very near the latter PC. My idea was to connect the cable we have
already run, to another router (Netgear RP614 is the one I bought,
though it can be taken back) and then use the local ports on that to
feed the four devices. However I cannot find a definitive answer as to
whether I can connect the RP614 to the MR314. The documentation for
the RP614 [ ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/netgear1/RP614_RefGuide.pdf
] exclusively discusses connecting the WAN port to an internet
connection. The documentation for the MR314 [
ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/netgear1/MR314_refguide_326.pdf ],
page 28, says that if there are more than 4 devices that need to be
connected to the network,
"Connect any LOCAL port of your Model MR314 router to any port of an
Ethernet hub or
switch using a standard or crossover Ethernet cable.
Because the Model MR314 router is capable of automatically sensing the
polarity of the
Ethernet connection, you can connect to the other hub’s normal or
uplink port, using a
standard or crossover Ethernet cable. The LOCAL port of your Model
MR314 router will
automatically configure itself for proper operation."

Two questions:
Can the RP614 be considered a hub or switch for the purposes of the
above discussion in the reference guide for the MR314? I was under the
impression that a router is a switch with additional features.
Assuming yes to the first question, what type of cable will I need to
connect a local port of the MR314 to the WAN port of the RP614?
Crossover cable or standard cat5 cable?
Assuming no, any recommendations for my situation?

Hi,

You don't need to buy another wireless router, simply to gain an
expansion to your existing network. The wireless router that you
already have in place acts as both a wireless access point for your
wireless clients, but also as a gateway to the internet. Connecting
the WAN port to your telco circuit allows traffic to pass from your
local IP network onto other networks (ie the internet - a large
collection of IP networks). This is why you require Layer 3
functionality - a router to "route" between IP networks. Because all
of your clients are local to each other (physically and IP logically),
co-existing on the same IP network, there is no need to route data
between them, in order for them to talk to each other. They can talk
to each other via a less intelligent means using a Layer 2 protocol -
in this case Ethernet.

What the bumpf is saying is that you can get away with a less
intelligent device to provide local area connectivity between the PC's
on your LAN. This is where a Switch comes in. A switch works at Layer
2 of the OSI model. Even easier is to use a Hub and this works at
Layer 1. For our purposes, it is better that you purchase a Switch and
return the new router. It is always wise to stick with the same vendor
of networking equipment and I suggest you go for something like:

Model FS116
10/100 16-Port Dual Speed Switch w/Uplink Button

http://www.netgear.com/products/prod_details.asp?prodID=22&view=

This is a desktop switch but, if you require a rack mounted one then
go for:

FS516
16 PORT 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Switch  
 
http://www.netgear.com/products/switches/rackmntble.asp

Connect the RJ45 crossover cable between any port on the wireless
router that you have in place to any port on the switch - i suggest
for clarity port1-x-port1 (router to switch), and then repatch ALL the
clients on the new switch using normal straight through cabling.
Alternatively, you can use a normal RJ45 straight through cable,
again, port1 on router to the crossover port (MDI-MDX) on the switch
and press the button until the light goes green. Green is good - you
have connectivity at L2 if all the lights are green. Once you have
that, all the clients should be able to see eachother on your
"ethernet". We say you have established Layer 2 connectivity.

A router is a more intelligent switch, but in this case, you don't
need that extra functionality. Effectively, the ports on a router have
IP addresses in different IP networks and the router intelligently
"switches" packets when it recognises that the destination IP address
is not local. For example, when you type in www.microsoft.com in your
browser, your DNS servers will return the destination IP address which
whill be on a different IP network to the one you are on. The packets
go to the router, the router recognises the destination is not local
and send the packet off to your ISP through the WAN port.


I hope this helps.

It is possible to do what you want to do with the equipment you have,
but it is a poor design choice.

However, by connecting one of the (four) switched Ethernet ports on
the Wireless router to one of the ethernet ports on the new router
using a crossover cable (NOT WAN!) you can get connectivity for your
new computers, but this is not scalable. I think that the ethernet
ports on both routers can sense wether you use a crossover or straight
through RJ 45 cable (ie Cat5) and adjust the polarity of the ports
accordingly themselves into crossed mode. In this case u can go ahead
and connect them using a normal ethernet straight through cable.

From a design point of view, and a scalability view it is far better
to purchse the 16 port ethernet switch which is designed to do exactly
this.

Thank you for your helpful comments.

One other question I had, will each machine on the "other" side of the
switch (i.e. connected to the switch) have an IP address just as if
they were plugged directly into the router? Sorry if this seems like a
stupid question, I'm just don't know much about networking beyond the
basics.

It's not a stupid question. Networking is a big subject.

The switch for our purpose is not Layer 3 aware. IP makes no
difference to it as it doesn't forward packets to destinations based
upon IP addresses. The switch makes forwarding decisions based upon
Layer 2 addresses (MAC). If you didn't require a connection to the
internet - you wouldn't need any IP addressing at all and you could
use a protocol such as NetBEUI to communicate between PC's on your
switched LAN.

Imagine a pipe going along the back of the switch box and call it a
backbone. All ports connect into that backbone, including one port
which is connected to the ethernet port on your router. This allows
all devices to communicate with each other so that data can get from
one port to another. ie PC to Server or PC to Router where the
destination is non local. The switch passes traffic from port to port
(source to destination) by building a simple table based upon the
adresses of each NIC card connected to each port and remembering it.

I am assuming you have configured DHCP on the router to automatically
address clients ? If you have enabled DHCP on the pc's then they will
broadcast at startup and the switch will forward the broadcast out all
ports - on one port will be the ethernet interface of the router and
it will respond to the source with an IP address. The switch simply
passes it back to the client that made the broadcast request.

It's a completely transparent process. If the lights are green on the
switch and the PC but you are having connectivity issues - its most
likely a layer 3 issue such as a mistake in your DHCP addressing
schemes.

As long as the ip addressing is consistent throughout yr network, the
switch will act transparently because it does not make forwarding
decisions based upon layer 3 IP information.

I am assuming you are using NAT?

Yes, as far as I am aware the router uses NAT (one address is
broadcast to the internet from the router). DHCP is enabled. What I
meant as far as IP addresses is when I type http://192.168.0.5 in my
browser right now, I can access the computer that has been assigned
that IP address (each computer is running Apache) - I just wanted to
ensure I will still be able to do that for anything attached to the
switch (as opposed to being directly attached to the router).

Yes - so long as you address any clients on your 192.168.0.1-254 /24
network correctly, the switch remains transparent and you will be able
to see anything connected to it. So long as all clients point to the
IP address of the inside interface of the router (default gateway) in
IP terms, they will be able to browse as well.

It's best for you to not connect any clients to the router's switch
ports at all. They should be connected to the switch along with the
router. This way you are only asking the router to route to the
internet, and not act as switch and a wireless gateway as well all at
the same time. If you need to expand your network - you just daisy
chain another switch off one of the free ports on your existing
switch.

It is possible to give the switch an IP address in many cases for GUI
management purposes, but I'm not sure if the Netgear ones will support
that.

Just think of the switch as the 4 ports on the back of the router and
put them in a separate device - that's all you are going to buy
instead!

Good luck.

Excellent, thank you so much for all your help. :)