Reddit reviews Netgear 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (10/100/1000) - Grey Model GS308-100UKS

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-GS308-100UKS-Gigabit-Ethernet-Wallmount/dp/B00AWM7PKO/

Really, it's hard to go wrong with unmanaged, non-PoE gigabit switches.

For the remote connection into your network, I would look at something like PiVPN, which leverages OpenVPN for running on a raspberry pi. You're not going to get gangbusters performance out of it, but it will get you inside the network. You'll need to forward ports from your router to whatever is running the VPN software, but there's install guides that can tell you where.

The thing with "router" versus switch is, all the routers you're used to ARE switches, they just also do NAT. That will be your main advantage to using an actual switch over a home router; with a switch, it just... multiplies the number of ports connected to the powerline adapter. It functionally is like adding more ports to your router, albeit at the other end of the powerline link. If you were to use a router, you'd need to get ANOTHER VPN connection to get through THAT router to get to your lab, and that is begging for nightmares. I'm not even really sure it's possible, to be honest.

Note, do NOT connect both powerline adapter ports to the switch. Whatever switch you get may not have loop protection; if it doesn't and some bit of software starts spamming away broadcasting to find out what's on the network, it will completely cripple the entire network from the broadcasts looping back through the switch. (It's called a broadcast storm, and it makes blinky lights on switches stop being blinky. That's bad. Awesome to see on a 48-port switch, but still really bad.)

As for a cheap switch, you only need an unmanaged one at this point just to get you extra ports; in which case I'd probably say go with the Netgear GS308. 8 gigabit ports, no frills or fuss, and just a hair under £20. You could also go with the GS108, but I doubt you'd find anything worth the extra £8 out of it.

I agree with getting a gigabit one (it used to be a premium option, but these days it's so cheap to get so you might as well spend an extra pound or two). That said, that particular netgear is kind of costly for what you get. You could just as well get this 8 port gigabit netgear for 21 GBP or this 8 port gigabit TP-Link model for 22 (18 if you get the plastic version).

You need a switch.

Connect the switch to the router and all your PCs/laptops to the switch. No additional setup required.

Hi,

This is easy! There are multiple ways to do this. I would recommend buying an Ethernet Switch. This one is really cheap and supports upto 1000 Mbps . How many of these 5 devices will run at the same time? Keep in mind that they all will send data over one cable to one port in your router. For gaming this should not be a problem, as this mostly relies on ping. But if you, per example, would want to stream/download heavy content on 3 of these 5 devices, then the maximum speed of your cable (and your router) might start getting a bit problematic.

• What model router do you have?
  
• What type of cable are you currently using to connect your router to one of these devices? A Cat5e cable will support 1 Gb/s upto 100 meters, which should be more than enough for all these devices.
  
  Either way. An ethernet switch is the way to go.

camel camel camel

> 5 old tower desktops, a couple of old laptops, and a raspberry pi

That's more than enough to get a small homelab going.

> can I do this through a regular Wi-Fi router

You probably can but you shouldn't. All your hardware should have ethernet ports, you can get a cheap 8-port unmanaged ethernet switch like this one to connect them together. You would connect each device to the switch with an ethernet cable, and connect the switch to your router with an ethernet cable (your router should have 1-4 ethernet ports on it). The total cost of a switch and cables would probably be less than £/$30, and you probably have some ethernet cables lying around.

> Is it worth connecting a raspberry Pi to a server running 8 computers, like will the resource boost be negligible?

I'm not sure you understand what a Raspberry Pi does. In comparison to most PCs the compute power of a Pi is low, but it can still do lots of useful things (most of the things on the introduction page of the wiki can be done on a Pi). The use of a Pi is as a small computer that can be left running all the time doing important but non-intensive things, e.g., dynamic DNS updates, NTP server, DNS server / ad blocker (Pi-hole). You can run Docker on a Pi (it's a good lightweight way to separate services and make it easier to manage several of them on the same machine). I wouldn't try to run virtual machines on a Raspberry Pi though.

> server running 8 computers

Do you mean running 8 virtual machines?

Better Option

It's an unmanaged switch.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-GS308-100UKS-Gigabit-Ethernet-Wallmount/dp/B00AWM7PKO

Netgear gs308 is 20.99 on Amazon. Pretty solid switch for the money if you don't need managed.

Edit: £16.99 in UK. https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-GS308-100UKS-Gigabit-Ethernet-Wallmount/dp/B00AWM7PKO

NETGEAR GS308-100UKS 8 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

this 8 port gigabit switch is inexpensive also i'd go with a Ubiquiti AP