5 reasons your home needs a network switch

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While most households are likely to use wireless internet for most of their devices, there are some times when a wired connection is preferred. With modern routers, it feels like Ethernet ports are an afterthought, with many not even coming with four ports like Wi-Fi routers of earlier generations sported. Even if you don't need 10GbE on your home network, there are plenty of reasons that you might want a network switch (or two), as many home devices work better when they're connected via Ethernet.

If you're planning to buy a new switch for your home network, you should give to top priority to these four features

It's true enough to say that most consumer devices don't come with Ethernet ports. Phones, laptops, and smart home devices all predominantly use Wi-Fi, though they might have had Ethernet ports once. This push toward convenience has made it so that router manufacturers, which traditionally put four Ethernet ports on every router, have been able to reduce that, often down to two or even one spare Ethernet port on many mesh routers. That's fine for many people, but what about if you have devices that work better with Ethernet, like game consoles, or if you want to hardwire some Wi-Fi access points at the other side of your home? Your router might not have enough ports, but as long as you have one free, you can get a network switch to add more.

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Many smart home devices use wireless connectivity, but they all have another thing in common. That's the need for some sort of hub to connect them to, which means you need Ethernet ports available. We've already established that many routers don't have enough ports, and that's even true for routers with four ports. You'll want to pick up a network switch if you have any thoughts about extending your smart home, and you might want to consider a more feature-laden managed switch.

The main reason is Power-over-Ethernet (PoE), which means you can power devices like cameras from the Ethernet cable that supplies data access to them. That means only having to run one cable and not worrying about dangerous supply voltages and trying to convert them. It also means you only need to run one cable, and that's a win in anyone's book because pulling cable is nobody's idea of fun.

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If you're worried about complicated setup routines, make sure you're looking for an unmanaged switch. This is the simplest type of network switch and is basically the networking version of the power strip you use behind the TV. It takes one Ethernet cableand turns it into however many ports the switch has. All you have to do is plug in the Ethernet cables from your device into a port on the switch, and your router will handle the rest.

They shouldn't cost much, with good eight-port unmanaged switches going for around $30. Almost any brand is good because you're not paying for advanced firmware features like VLAN support or monitoring traffic; you just need the physical connectivity. Look for Gigabit ports from any reputable networking company that has a decent review score on your online store of choice and you're pretty much set.

If you want to extend your network and add more devices, an unmanaged switch could be a great idea.

If you have a part of your home with many wired devices in one place, like a home office or entertainment center, you can run one Ethernet cable to that spot and then plug in a network switch. This enables you to use shorter cable runs to the individual devices. It makes it easy to get wired network connections to a bunch of devices at once, and your home won't look like a spaghetti explosion.

The reverse is also true. If you've decided to run Ethernet cables through your walls to Ethernet wall jacks, you can put a network switch at the router to handle the individual runs, or have a second switch on the next floor to handle the runs to each room. The point is that without a network switch or two, you wouldn't have enough ports for wiring your devices, and you'd have to think of solutions using Wi-Fi, making your wireless network more congested.

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If you have many devices connected to your wireless network, you know things can get pretty congested when they're all trying to use the internet at once. That's on a good day when the Wi-Fi networks of your neighbors aren't also congesting the airwaves and making everyone's wireless connection suck. While adding a Wi-Fi router that supports Wi-Fi 6E or 7 to get the 6GHz band is generally a good idea anyway, there's another thing you can do.

And it's a simple fix. The fewer devices connected to your Wi-Fi network, the better the wireless experience is for the devices that are. So, by using a network switch to run Ethernet to any devices that can use a wired network connection, you're going a long way to solving your networking issues. The other thing is that wired network connections are more stable, and often faster, so you might notice the improvement on every device in your home.

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Whether you're using it to add more ports to a modern router or to bring Ethernet up to another floor of your home, a network switch is a powerful tool for making your network more responsive. They don't have to be complicated, managed switches with settings pages similar to your router; they can mostly be unmanaged ones that are plug-and-play, making your job easier. That gets you better network performance for all your devices, and it's well worth the effort.

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