Okay, this is upsetting me(networking help!)

I have cable internet, and I have yet to buy a wireless router(waiting for more N routers to come out/get cheaper) so I only have one spot to plug in a LAN cable. So in order to either have internet on my laptop, or on my Xbox 360, I have to unplug the generic Motorola cable modem the cable company gave me, change out the ethernet plugs, and then power it back up, to switch from one to the other.

A friend of mine told me to buy an ethernet switch, as a cheap alternative while I wait to get a wireless router(which has those nice, extra ethernet ports in the back)

So I got the exact same one he has, and hooked it up, making sure to power down the cable modem beforehand. Yeah, it doesnt work, only one can get freaking internet! Either the Xbox or the Laptop gets internet, depending which one the cable modem decides to connect to first, through the switch.

So.... WTF!?!?

Why can't I connect more than one thing to my freaking internet? I know this should not happen...

Any help/advice would be very much appreciated.

 

Why not just get a G router? You probably won't be able to take much advantage of the N-wireless anyways on your router. Plus you'll be waiting a while if you're waiting for them to drop.

50 bucks for a router isn't much these days. With the router you could potentially do this.

Wireless bridging. Your computer connects to the internet via wireless and then you connect an ethernet cable to your 360 so they can both access it.

 

well either way, wouldnt I still be having the same problem as now?

and yeah, I might just get a G router at some point, but still, my friend has his 360, computer, and TiVo all hooked up to the same exact switch as mine, and he doesn't have this problem...

 

A switch alone is not enough to connect your machine and your x-box. You need something called dhcp server to tell the network which data belongs to which, your machine or your x-box. A switch does not have that dhcp server. A router does. That's why it's called a router, because it routes the right data to the right machine.

A switch is just like a hub, it is a little better because it redirects heavy traffic on a network to the part of the network which is not busy. There's a little more to that, but you can probably read it somewhere like wiki.

 

so I pretty much just need a router, the cable modem just isnt designed to understand what's happening with the multiple outgoing connections?

 

Maybe his switch is connected to a router, or a gateway, or access point, what ever they might call it.

 

Yes sir....

 

yeah, he's at college, so I'd assume thats what the internet coming into his room is coming from

ahhh well, at least the switch was inexpensive!