On Tue, 21 Aug 2018 13:55:20 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

On Tue, 07 Aug 2018 11:15:01 -0500, Charlie Hoffpauir
wrote:

Thanks for all the information. I'll probably go with the 16 port
switch, just to be sure. I can get by for a while with only the 8-port
because not everything is back in service, since Harvey repairs are
still incomplete.

If you remove the Asus router from the picture (as a redundant router),
you have a couple of options regarding its reuse as a Gigabit switch or
as an access point, or as both a switch and an AP. You'll only gain two
LAN ports because you'll use one LAN port on the HughesNet router and
one LAN port on the Asus, but the additional AP might still be
desirable, depending on your WiFi coverage situation.

To use the Asus as a switch and/or additional AP, you'll connect it to
the HughesNet router via one of its LAN ports, (its WAN port will be
unused), and you'll need to disable its DHCP function so it doesn't try
to assign IPs to clients. Disable the WiFi function if you're only going
to use it as a switch.

Related note: if the switch ports on the HughesNet router are only 100
Megabit, you'll want to use only one LAN port on that router as a
downlink to a Gigabit switch so that your intraLAN comms aren't limited
to 100Mb. For quite a while now, PC network interfaces have been
Gigabit, so interconnecting everything through a 100Mb switch will step
everything down to the lower speed. All of your wired PCs should connect
to one or more Gigabit switches, and that switch should have one uplink
to the slower (if true) HughesNet switch.

Good point... I hadn't thought of that, but as it turns out, that's
how I configured it. I changed the way I use the ASUS router.... I
connected one cat 5 from the Hughesnet to the ASUS LAN input, and then
all the TVs and DVRs feeding from the ASUS. The reasoning behind this
is a bit convoluted.... MY Hughesnet limit is 50 GB/month. That seems
to be just about right, but if I exceed 50 the speed is greatly
reduced (from about 40 Mbps to less than 1). So as I near the limit, I
can tether a cell phone to the ASUS and disconnect it from the
Hughesnet system entirely, then stream content using the cell phone. I
have 6 GB cell data which I rarely use, so I can get an additional 3
to 4 hours of streaming video this way. Also, having the TVs on a
"different" LAN hasn't been a problem.