Virgin Modem - what device comes next?

[vlad996]

Hi, greetings from a newbie who now realizes he may have taken on more than he can chew!

I have a Virgin Modem which used to go to a Belkin Wireless router. This router had 4 ports. (I believe provided a firewall also) but has recently died.

Now I have a couple of these new fangled Smart TV's in the house I thought it would be fun to wire the house 4 bedrooms , sitting room and office with Cat5e which I have done.

Now need to connect it all together thought I needed a 8 port switch something like the Netgear FS108 or GS108 but then reading up these dont provide a firewall. (Dont want always on wireless)

The Netgear GS108 guide show the modem going to a Firewall FSV3018 going to the switch GS108 (even though the firewall has 8 ports itself?)

Do I need a firewall (before the switch), will this cause an issue for the TV's.

so perhaps the cable from the modem can go to the switch with the 7 other ports to the 6 rooms and media server.

Or perhaps all I need is the Firewall FVS318 with its 8 ports out to all the rooms cat5e cables?

I want to have the wired network always on (they'll be a media server connected also) and then from that switch (router?) to a wireless point that can be switched on and off .

Apologies all the questions in a first post!

Rob

[GoNz0]

the initial router provides the firewall, the extra switch is firewalled by the router. you only really need to worry about firewall from the internet so the initial device can worry about that.

the netgear 3700 i use has a settable wifi timer so it can be scheduled, you can use one of the ports from that to go to a switch to do the rest of the devices.

you could even upgrade to 30mb cable and get the superhub, wifi and 4 port, then hook up a gb switch to that

[Smudger]

The netgear fvs318g is a vpn/firewall thing that has 8 ports - it's simple to set up and gives you enough ports for all you need plus 1 for hanging a WAP off. Just make sure you update the firmware though - early versions were prone to random restarts/freezes.