Home Networking

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A community to help people learn, install, set up or troubleshoot their home network equipment and solutions.

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do i actually need a router? (alien.top)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm unclear on the purpose of a router. Could I just have a cable modem directly connected to a (smart managed) switch that feeds all the clients?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Your router routes. It also assigns IP addresses to devices. So no, you can't just connect a switch to a modem and be Online. It may be possible if your ISP gave you multiple IP addresses and you set them static to your devices, but you also do not want your private devices directly on public Internet.