Router and DW6000 questions

[amkazen]

Hi,  I am about to get my 4-port Greyfox (/www.greyfox.com) router back from the repair shop.  It quit working almost immediately upon installation, or maybe it did not ever work.  I could never get it to work and was really slow in getting the techs back out to troubleshoot it.  Anyway, having Internet in more than one room was not important to me at the time.  However, it is now and I want to get Internet connectivity in the following rooms: living room, bedroom #1, bedroom #2, master bedroom, kitchen, theater room, game room, and garage.  I am having the repair shop credit me the cost of the 4-port and and I am going to a 8-port Greyfox.

The questions I have are:

1) Anybody ever use or heard of Greyfox routers before?

2) Is this a good router to use with the DW6000?

3)  Do I need a router or a switch, or both? (I know, this shows my level of knowledge)

4)  My house is completely hard-wired with structured cabling/wiring, meaning almost every room has audio & video, Internet, and telephone connections.

I am reading the other posts on this subject and will use that info to help.  However,I was hoping my posting directly I could get someinfo on my choice (actually, the A/V store who wired my house, installed the A/V equip, etc) of routers.

Thanks.

[php]

you are much better off with a switch when netowrking a DW6000... it is possible to get a router working, but it takes a lot of time and can be quite hard...

[sparky]

You going to need more then an 8 port, you listed 8 rooms! your going to need a 16 port switch, or better still, go wireless, you dont need to run cables then.

[amkazen]

Well, I am still confused. 

Yes, I listed 8 rooms but I doubt I will ever have 8 people using the Internet connection in each room simultaneously.  If I have 8 rooms why would I need more ports than that. such as the 16 port that was suggested?  Eight rooms is the max ever, meaning what other room could I put an Internet connection in?  I can tell you it will not be me adding to this system.

And, why go wireless when I have had the house already pre-wired during construction?  And besides, I still do not see wireless being all it is cracked up to be.  Yes, Direcway is "wireless" from the satellite to my house but then everything else is hard-wired.  My neighbors that have gone wireless have always had more problems with connectivity than I have.  My friends in town always seem to be having connectivity issues in town.  When I was deployed overseas this past fall, the guys with laptops that were wireless always encountered problems as compared to others who were were not wireless.  So, bottom line is, I am not going wireless.  I am going to get a 16 port switch and use it in conjunction with my hard-wired house.

Now, I know others who are wireless will state they have never had problems. However, this is my experience with wireless vs. hard-wired connections.  I tend to follow what i think works best and in my opinion, hard-wiring cannot be bear.

Thank you for pointing me in the direction of the switch!

[sparky]

The reason I said you would need more then 8 ports is..... most switches, routers or hubs normaly come with 4 ports, this is fine if you want 4 computers hooked up, but no room for an uplink port. most times if you have a 4 port, you will get 3 computers and an uplink to a dw6000 or whatever. same with an 8 port, 7 ports one uplink port, 16 ports, 15 and one uplink.

The uplink is there to connect to other networking equipment, as mentioned like another switch or DSL modem... and so on.

Now I have seen one or two that have the 8 ports and 1 uplink, but that is rare!.

After looking up on your greyfox equipment I noticed that it has the 9th port built in..... so in fact you would be ok with the 8 port you have

Spec sheets http://www.greyfox.com/Tech%20Data%20Sheets/Product%20Technical%20Data%20Sheets/Home%20networking%20modules/F7559.pdf

[amkazen]

Ok, now I understand.  I had no idea some 4-port routers would use one of the ports for the incoming (DW6000) signal.  In my mind, that type of router would be a 3 port!  Go figure!

Anyway, since you both state a switch is better for the DW6000, and who knows about the new 7000, what brand switch works with Direcway?  I gave been told because of the satellite I need a "special" switch or router because of something to do with the bandwidth/signal etc.  I would think any router/switch for a broadband Internet connection would work but once again there I go thinking!    I did not see on Greyfox's website any switch or router with more than 8 ports.  Since I am now believing a 16 port switch is what I need, I need to find one that works with Direcway.  Oh well, I am off to Direcway's websiote to see if they have any recommendations.  Thanks for your help so far, and I look forward to hearing from you on what brand(s) to consider.

[php]

you don't need a special router or switch for DirecWay