Networking a Mac

[applemax]

Hi.

I'm trying to network my house which contains a Mac, a Dell and an Xbox 360. I have attached a diagram of the setup I would like. Wireless is just for the MacBook and I'd rather have ethernet for the 360 and the two computers. My main question is, we will be having one of the cables coming out of the DG834, going upstairs and into another office. Then I would like this cable to go into some sort of box that will split it into multiple sockets. Now, the problem is: I don't know whether the box marked with a ? should be a network switch or a router. Although, if it was a router, would there be a problem having 2 routers on one network? Also, I want the Mac downstairs to communicate with the Xbox with Connect360. Please help me with this. Thanks.

EDIT: Also, for note, the ADSL/Router downstairs is a Netgear DG834 (1st Gen). Any reccomendations for the '?' upstairs are welcomed. Also, will 2 Netgear boxes work together?

 

[Eraserhead]

Why not just buy a wireless router with 4 ethernet ports? Then you can run an ethernet cable from this to the Mac, the XBox and the Dell... You would then get internet wirelessly too...

If the Netgear DG834 doesn't have 4 ethernet ports why not either
a) stick it on ebay

b)get a wired 4 port ethernet hub (it'll be cheaper) and plug this into the Netgear DG834 and then plug the computers/xbox into that, it should work fine.

 

[applemax]

Why not just buy a wireless router with 4 ethernet ports? Then you can run an ethernet cable from this to the Mac, the XBox and the Dell... You would then get internet wirelessly too...

If the Netgear DG834 doesn't have 4 ethernet ports why not either
a) stick it on ebay

b)get a wired 4 port ethernet hub (it'll be cheaper) and plug this into the Netgear DG834 and then plug the computers/xbox into that, it should work fine.

Yes, but I may want to expand upstairs at a later date maybe with another PC and I don't want to run another cable upstairs and I don't want to go wireless. Please just help me with my setup.

 

[Le Big Mac]

Yes, but I may want to expand upstairs at a later date maybe with another PC and I don't want to run another cable upstairs and I don't want to go wireless. Please just help me with my setup.

You should need only a switch upstairs.

Not quite sure of the equipment you have, but if I understand you right, both the ADSL and teh airport can distribute IP addresses (say my DHCP). You could do one of two things.

1) Use the ADSL router to distribute IP addresses to a) your mac, b) your aiport, c) your other computers. If that router has three or more ports, plug the mac into one, the airport into the second, and the upstairs cable into the third. Then, upstairs, put in a 4-port switch, into which runs the upstairs cable and the cables into the xbox and dell.

2) Use the airport as your router (or another wireless router). have the ADSL router plugged into the airport. That gets you wireless. Then run a cable out of the airport into a switch for any other computers. If you don't need any other ports downstairs, just run that cable upstairs and plug into the switch there. Or get two switches, one for downstairs one for upstairs.

To simplify, all you need is one router on the whole system. You may have second router for wireless purpose (i.e., a system router and then a subnet for the wirless) but that's probably more complicated than you need. Once you have a router, it will work with the switches to assign IP addresses to the various boxes (xbox, dell,e tc.)