Is it time to jump to a Gigabit home LAN?

With the ever-growing number of devices itching for port space on the home network, I've come to a crossroads in terms of what gets put into my Linksys 4-port router.

In other words, I ran out of Ethernet ports.  My four ports are reserved for:

1.  The desktop PC (mainly used for online gaming, which for personal reasons requires a wired connection).

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

With the ever-growing number of devices itching for port space on the home network, I've come to a crossroads in terms of what gets put into my Linksys 4-port router.

In other words, I ran out of Ethernet ports.  My four ports are reserved for:

1.  The desktop PC (mainly used for online gaming, which for personal reasons requires a wired connection).

2. The cable for the powerline adapter, which connects the TiVo sitting in the bedroom to the rest of the network for its ability to download TV schedules quickly.

3. One cable that connects to my work laptop for days when I work from home (our IT group insists on a wired connection).

4. Two contenders for this one - the cable connection for the Buffalo LinkStation network-attached storage (NAS) device, or the cable that I use to test new Ethernet-enabled devices (such as the Slingbox, or a new media center, or anything where I need a quick Ethernet connection).

I saved the fourth port for the extra cable, as it made hooking up new devices quicker and easier than reaching to the back of the router each time and disconnecting one of the other ports. This left the NAS box off the network for a short while.

But with five cables vying for four ports (and many more devices on the horizon), I felt it was time to get more ports. Luckily, Netgear sent me its new 8-port Gigabit Ethernet switches, the GS608, which costs $115 (Netgear also makes a 5-port switch, the GS605, which costs about $70.)

I set up the switch in less than 5 minutes - I connected a cable between one router port and one of the eight new ports on the switch. It was actually harder to find an open power outlet in the home office than it was to hook everything up. The switch includes Netgear's Auto Uplink technology, which automatically adjusts for straight-through or crossover cables. This means I didn't have to go rummaging around checking for the proper cable in order to connect this to the home network.

It was odd that Netgear didn't include a cable with the switch, but luckily I had an extra one lying around the office.

Once the switch was up and running, I was able to reconnect the NAS device and now have five open ports on the switch and one open port on the router (I moved the desktop PC connection from the router to the switch). I will soon be moving another PC into the office, which I can then connect to the switch or the router. I am now set for the future in terms of Ethernet-enabled devices.

The big question now becomes whether I take advantage of the Gigabit speeds promised by the switch. In order to do that I will have to invest in some Gigabit Ethernet adapters for transferring files between the two hard-wired PCs. In addition, I would have to replace my older LinkStation with the newer Gigabit LinkStation from Buffalo.

I still have the TV tuner card in my PC, but haven't really recorded shows because of the pain involved in taking the large files and moving them to the NAS box. For example, a 30-minute "Simpsons" episode takes up about 980M bytes of hard disk space on the PC. Transferring that to the NAS box with the current network takes about 3 minutes, but larger files (such as the giant 7G-byte-plus recordings from the 2004 American League Championship Series on the NAS box) would take much longer to transfer.