This article explains the steps you need to follow to setup a network switch with a router. The details related to the hardware required and the necessary IP address parameters required to setup and configure the topology is outlined.
A FAQ section is provided at the end of the article with appropriate answers to all the common questions asked related to the setup.
Step 1
Purchase the switch based on your need. This can be a managed or unmanaged switches with the required number of ports. Check out switches here – Network switches
Step 2
Once the switch is purchased , connect the port of the switch to the router using a straight through cable. The cable can be purchase here Network cable. A straight through cable is always used for connectivity between switches and routers. The diagram is shown below.
Most switches contain up link ports. These ports are used for connecting to devices like routers or other switches. If the switch does not contain an up link port, any port can be used.
Step 3
After connecting the router with the switch using the cable, configure the IP address for the devices.
Step 4
Case 1 – All users are on the same subnet without internet.
Assign the TCP/IP address of the systems on the network from the range 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.10. This is based on the assumption that there is a maximum of 10 users on the network. If there are more number of users on the network, then the IP address range has to be modified accordingly.
Configure the IP address of the interface of the router with the IP address 192.168.1.1 and subnet mask as 255.255.255.0. The systems connected to the switches can be configured with the IP address starting from 192.168.1.2 till 192.168.1.10. Configure the subnet mask of the systems on the network as 255.255.255.0
Case 2 – All users are on the same subnet with internet on the router
The IP address parameters remain the same as in the above case. In addition, all the systems on the network should also be configured with the default gateway and dns server IP address on the TCP/IP setting. This IP address has to be the IP address of the router , which is 192.168.1.1 in this setup.
The IP address in both the cases can either be configured dynamically using the DHCP service on the router or manually using the static IP address configuration.
Step 5
Once the above connection is setup, the systems should be able to ping each other as well as the router. When internet is enabled as with case 2, systems on the network should also be able to access the internet.
FAQ
1. Some of the users require wifi access. What should be done to achieve this.
Purchase an access point. Connect the access point to a port on the switch using a straight through cable. The cable can be purchased here Network cable.
Configure the access point with an IP address specified in the range and with other parameters required for Wifi access like security parameters, SSID etc.
Connect the Wifi clients to the SSID of the access point for gaining access to the network.
2. How do I connect two network switches to the router
Connect the two switches to each other using a Network cable. Connect one of the switches to the router using another cable. This setup would ensure that the routers and switches are interconnected with each other.
3. I would like to setup a network with two subnets. Is it possible with a single switch and a router
It is possible. The router should have multiple interfaces in this case. The interface of the router should be configured with IP address belonging to two different networks. For example, interface 1 is configured with 192.168.1.1 and interface 2 is configured with 192.168.2.1.
The IP address of systems on the network should also be configured in the same IP address range.
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