Regarding the Cisco 8 port, I see no difference between that and the ZyXel 8 port one.

At least no massive difference...

ZyXel are a good brand as are Cisco ... Yes teh headline specs are similar, and without delving too deep there will not be massive differences at the level you will be operating at.

Once advantage with Cisco could be warranty and support. My Linksys 24 port switches (now Cisco) have lifetime warranties and support - even for the silly problems where I messed something up.

Perfect - I think I'll order the Cisco 8 port one. I can't really justify the 16 port cost bearing in mind for the next 2 years it'll probably only have 6 ports at most occupied at any one time.

So If I have say a laptop wireless to the router, it can still communicate with the devices that are connected through the switch as if there was no switch there?

Yes you can. The DHCP server is still running in the router and that allocates all of the local IP addresses. Simplistically, the switch will look at the IP addresses of connected devices and remember which port they are connected to, then when a packet arrives it will check the destination IP address and if it is one that is sitting on a port, it will send the packet directly there. If it does not recognise an IP address it will ask the DHCP server for information and then route accordingly.

Also, when you want to add another 8 ports, the new switch connects to the original.

If it's of any use, I've been running one of these for ages with no problem at all. Prior to that I used the same one but fast (10/100 as opposed to 1000) for three years. They have never given me a moments problem and both are still working fine.....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/8-Port-Unmanaged-Gigabit-Des...

A bit late to this, but if you do buy a switch with lodsa ports, think about where it will live - the larger switches often have an internal fan,. and you may not want any noise where you plan to put the switch.

In reply to a post by craigglawson:

Regarding the Cisco 8 port, I see no difference between that and the ZyXel 8 port one.

At least no massive difference...

I've had a Zyxel Gigabit switch for over a year & its been fine, far better than the Netgear switch it replaced.