UKC

The router is in the front downstairs room of the house and I want to hard wire it to the Smart TVs in the back down stairs room and back upstairs bedroom as well as installing a wired socket for connecting the laptop from the bedroom to the router as wifi is unreliable in that part of the house. (I have wifi extenders but they aren't good enough to run the upstairs smart tv as the connection speed is below 2mbps).

In a simple world I would run 3 long ethernet cables from the router to the individual devices etc but there isn't 3 spare Lan inputs on the router.

So if I connect a Cat 6 cable (I am using Cat 6 as I can get it free of charge plus the various crimp ends etc) to the 2 smart tvs and the ethernet wall socket (if that's what it is called) how do I connect them to the router if there isn't enough ports to plug the 3 cables in to?

Hope this makes sense I am not tech savvy but am good at DIY so if someone could give me some basic instruction and I will work the rest out.

Thanks

In reply to Alan M:

You can get another hub for about £20. You can connect that to your router, and run ethernet to the devices from that. You can either put it next to your existing router or somewhere more convenient - just remember it will also need power.

In reply to Alan M:

This sort of thing:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netgear-5-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged/dp/B0007S...

In reply to climbwhenready:

He isn't after another hub he just needs an Ethernet switch

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/5-port-d-link-gb-easy-desktop-gigabit-10-100...

In reply to climbwhenready:

Thanks for the advice and link, its even easier than I thought there was me thinking I was going to need a crash course in home network installation!

Now just to work out what to use to make the area where the cables exit the wall behind the router look neat and tidy. Is there anything you would recommend? The ceilings are down currently so looking to hide cables in the ceiling void and bury in the wall down to the router.

In reply to Alan M:

Just use powerline ethernet. Miles less faff.

In reply to Removed User:

Considered the but not sure how it works.

How well do they work if one is plugged in down stairs and one is plugged in upstairs? The down stairs ring main is separate to the upstairs in that they are on separate breakers in the fuse board. Or do they both need to be on the same ring i.e. both plugged in downstairs or both upstairs? Like I say have no idea how they work as I have only recently found out they exist.

Or do you mean these:
http://www.screwfix.com/p/power-ethernet-powerline-socket/41241

In reply to Alan M:

Powerline routers work great - we have two of them chained here to give 3 node points and it works fine. The only thing I'd say is to make sure you don't have 3-phase supply as they only work on the same phase. Not an issue for most residential houses but this used to be a working farm and they seem to have installed a 3-phase supply for heavy-load farm machinery. Means we have to make sure we only plug boosters into sockets on the same phase as the main router. No problem if they're on different circuits (or ring mains if you're in the UK.)

In reply to Alan M:

You need an ethernet switch - less than a tenner from Amazon:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000FNFSPY/ref=pe_385721_37038051_TE_dp_1

In reply to Removed User:

If you can afford to run the network cables (and the OP does say that Cat 6 is effectively free for him) then a switch should be a lot cheaper than powerline ethernet. Plus you avoid any possible RF issues from modulating high frequencies on to unshielded cable.

(Powerline ethernet is a poor solution to a lazy man's problem IMO.)

Second vote for powerline adapters, as long as they are on the same phase and theesame fuse box they will work no problem.

In reply to Route Adjuster:

Powerline adaptors here as well. I was amazed they worked given the combination of extensions and adaptors in the way but can stream iplayer in HD with no issues.

In reply to Alan M:

You won't get any rf issues with power line Ethernet however it will cost more. I use it but if I could use cat6 cable I would. Normal ethernet is faster if you end up sending large files across your network, cheaper and will add value to your house.

You may hit the bandwidth limit if you have two tv's connected. Bt say they have 100mbit connection but that's the Ethernet link to your power line not the connection speed through it. There are reviews on the net that say what speed you will be getting. I would tell you what mine is with the bt device but my desktop died. So if you go with normal lan you only need a 20 quid switch and your never going to have an issue