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I currently have a long wire ethernet chord travel from my office to my bedroom (the rooms are side by side), as I wish (It's a long ethernet cable wire).

I went from a 1.9 MBPS to a 15.+ MBPS after switching from wireless to ethernet. Yay.

Now, we're thinking to add a splitter to the ethernet line, so that I have a way to connect directly in my office and my bedroom, depending on where I'm at, or say if I have a guest who wants to share ethernet line in one of the two rooms.

My question though, since I am the main person using, will adding a splitter, by default reduce speed, if it's just one person using the connection?

Thanks in advance.

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  • I had duped this to superuser.com/questions/764576/… , but I realized on further review that you were asking a slightly different question since you only want to use one of the two jacks at a time.
    – Spiff
    May 19, 2015 at 22:42
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    Can you be more specific about what you mean by a "splitter"? Can you provide a link to the device you're asking about?
    – David Schwartz
    May 19, 2015 at 22:43
  • It appears you've created two Super User accounts. Please see the instructions here for merging your accounts.
    – Excellll
    May 19, 2015 at 23:21
  • Can you clarify what it is you're trying to do? Which room is your existing switch in? What are you trying to connect and where are you trying to connect it? If the line runs from your office to your bedroom and you only want one device in each room, what would you split exactly?
    – David Schwartz
    May 19, 2015 at 23:30
  • What do you mean by a "splitter"? Are you talking about splicing wires, or do you mean a device that's like a 3-port hub?
    – Wyzard
    May 20, 2015 at 2:12

5 Answers 5

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You need a switch in your bedroom.

Switches at Amazon

A switch will allow you to use full network bandwidth when you are the only one using the bedroom Ethernet run. But you will still be sharing Internet bandwidth with all users connected to the network.

If another person adds a device to that switch then the bandwidth will be shared. You will hardly notice any slowdown of network speed if you add a person that is only surfing.

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  • how would another person add a device to a switch? how does that work? would it just mean getting an ethernet wire connecting to the person's laptop and the switch? like shown here? sweeting.org/images/microsoft_ics_2.png If so I still have the issue of a long wire going to my alternate room (office), correct? thanks so much for your help (everyone) -- I dig the online community.
    – SnazzyE.
    May 21, 2015 at 0:41
  • superuser.com/users/449817/russwd @russwd follow-up question above
    – SnazzyE.
    May 21, 2015 at 17:39
  • You probably have a router in your office. The Ethernet run from your office to your bedroom would plug into any port of the switch. Any other port on the switch could be used for devices in the bedroom. See this diagram... cdn3.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/…
    – russwd
    May 22, 2015 at 11:56
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I can confirm that this will work. I've seen this implemented in enterprise environments with cubicles that weren't originally built out with dual data drops in each pod, but had the requirement introduced due to VOIP upgrades. Given how sensitive VOIP can be, and that no issues were present with this solution, I have no reservation in recommending it for you.

You'll require two splitters, one at each end. The splitter at the switch side will utilize two ports, and the splitter at the drop will provide access for up to two computers.

I highly doubt that any performance degradation will be noticeable by a human. Given the resilience of data transmission, and the speed of the networking equipment these days, it shouldn't be an issue.

Note: Splitting CAT5 cables works because the protocol only utilizes four of the eight wires in a cable. That said, you cannot chain splitters to get more drops.

Enjoy.

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    The 100mbps Ethernet specification only uses 4 of the 8 wires, you will lose the ability to run at Gigabit speeds.
    – Fiasco Labs
    May 20, 2015 at 3:12
  • You won't get to saturate 100mbps on your LAN, and you won't get a 1000mbps drop off 99.9% of edge switches out there unless you're in one of the creative departments, and even then, it'll be only to the storage device, not to the internet. It's not a concern. :P
    – EvilKittenLord
    May 20, 2015 at 3:42
  • Just forestalling the inevitable "I was getting 1.9Gbit on my WiFi and after all that work I only got 100Mbit". Yes, except on DVD downloads from CDN services on a 100/7 cable internet connection, it's hard to saturate a 100MBit Ethernet connection. Used to say that 10Mbit was all you needed if you were just using the internet, not so much anymore.
    – Fiasco Labs
    May 20, 2015 at 4:42
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You should not use a splitter. I don't even think that would work. You should buy a 5 port switch or at the very least a 5 port hub.

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  • use a switch... hub's are so 1998
    – Tyson
    May 20, 2015 at 0:42
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The presence of the splitter and the stub of cable for the "middle" jack will screw up the electrical/noise characteristics of the line, causing signal integrity problems that may result in anywhere from degraded performance, occasional dropped frames, or just not working at all.

10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet is not designed to be a bus with mid-span taps (jacks). It's only designed to have a single jack on each end.

For further discussion, see: Why does just splitting an Ethernet cable not work?

Your best bet is to use a small inexpensive switch (almost everything you can buy now is a switch, not a hub, but some people still erroneously call them hubs) instead of a splitter. Either that or only plug in one cable at a time.

If your layout is office -> bedroom -> guest/alternate room, then you might be able to get away with having one cable from office to bedroom, and a separate one from bedroom to guest room, and when you want to use the network in the guest room, you disconnect the computer in the bedroom and connect an RJ-45 female-to-female connector in the bedroom so that you end up with one long line from the office to the guest room. But I'd personally still prefer to buy a cheap switch and keep it installed in the bedroom.

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I understand the interest of splitting an existing ethernet run to 2 user. But I believe you will have severe interference caused by the splitting. I bet it won't even work if both splits are connected to device, even if powered off.

There are already suggestions about using a switch and also running an extension from room B to room C. But I would bring up a 3rd option.

You can turn an 8-wires Ethernet cable into two 4-wires Ethernet cable. Your 1Gbps link will become two 100Mbps link and it is not exactly allowed by the standard but it will work. And you have to pick the wires to split carefully.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-your-own-Ethernet-%22splitter%22/

You will get lower speed (100Mbps + some additional noise). The benefit is that both computer can be used at the same time and you don't need a switch and its power.

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  • You do need a switch. As the article says, you must, "plug two patch cords from the splitter to two free ethernet jacks from the switch".
    – David Schwartz
    May 19, 2015 at 23:22
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    The other end should be an existing switch. In typical home, it would be an integrated gateway with switch. No additional switch is needed in his office/bedroom.
    – some user
    May 19, 2015 at 23:25
  • As I read the question, the line runs from his office to his bedroom. And he wants one connection in each of those very same rooms. So no solution would involve an additional switch, just two connections from his existing one.
    – David Schwartz
    May 19, 2015 at 23:28
  • I guess I read it differently. My interpretation is he had added a wired connection to replace his poor wireless connection and he now wanted the same wire to be used in either bedroom or office without moving the wire.
    – some user
    May 19, 2015 at 23:33
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    A switch is the way to go. The only reason you would go with a 1GE-to-2x100Mbps splitter is that you don't want to throw in a switch because of space/power constrains. A switch is cheap and usually management free (just plug in the power and Ethernet wires).
    – some user
    May 21, 2015 at 19:21

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