Possible to split a cat 5 cable?

[Adam B]

Issue as follows:

Have a single cat 5e cable to chimney breast on which is mounted a TV plus a sky mini box plus a Sonos soundbar.

On other side of room are two Sonos play 1s and the sub which I would link together with the soundbar for reasonable surround sound.

Currently the cat cable plugs into the q mini only. Mini to TV via HDMI. Haven’t connected up the Sonos to anything yet but the soundbar has two cat 5 cable sockets.

Ideally I would like to have the TV, Q mini and Sonos soundbar all hard wired to router via the cat 5 cable, and all with their own IP addresses. Is that possible with only a single cable?

Running additional cables would be difficult and costly so not an option.

Thanks

[Alex Z]

Yep, just use a small switch like this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-SF1005D-V14-5-...

[Adam B]

Brilliant

Thanks didn’t realise it was that simple - and each item plugged in gets recognised separately?

[toastyhamster]

Yes, simply switch is your answer, I have one serving Kodi, Amp, xbox and sky Q.

[Alex Z]

Adam B said:

Brilliant

Thanks didn’t realise it was that simple - and each item plugged in gets recognised separately?

Correct.

[Adam B]

Thanks again

Sorry last question

Any advantage in throwing financial caution to the wind and buying higher spec one?

TP-LINK TL-SG1005D 5-Ports Gigabit Ethernet Switch https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ZOOJXEG/ref=cm_sw_r...

[matjk]

In reality no but I guess it might future proof the switch if in years to come sky upgrade the Q mini to do UHD and you need more bandwidth , the cheaper one is more than man enough for what you need ,
Does the tv have 2 Ethernet ports ( or the sky q mini ?) if either does you could get away with no switch just daisy chain the lot together , internet in sonos , out of sonos to tv out of tv to sky q , you need just one more port on any other device

[bristolracer]

Get the gigabit version.
Sky Q boxes can be fussy about their ethernet

[Adam B]

matjk said:

Does the tv have 2 Ethernet ports ( or the sky q mini ?) if either does you could get away with no switch just daisy chain the lot together , internet in sonos , out of sonos to tv out of tv to sky q , you need just one more port on any other device

Interesting

TV not to sure, q mini no, but Sonos soundbar does could do as you say - does the daisy chain also show up 3 devices as separate?

The plus of the adapter is it leaves a couple of Ethernet sockets spare which I could use to plug in laptop etc

Edited by Adam B on Wednesday 17th October 07:45

[tenohfive]

It's £4 more for a bit of future proofing. Not even worth thinking about IMO.

[Adam B]

Yes agreed, just assessing the daisy chain alternative

[anonymous-user]

dont daisy chain, its more trouble than it's worth as half the time it won't work, just buy a switch

[Adam B]

keirik said:

dont daisy chain, its more trouble than it's worth as half the time it won't work, just buy a switch

Exactly what I needed

Thanks all

[lukefreeman]

If I was in the market for a switch, I’d personally be in market for a POE solution.

Just in case, in the future

[tenohfive]

lukefreeman said:

If I was in the market for a switch, I’d personally be in market for a POE solution.

Just in case, in the future

You realise the cost difference right? It's easily 4 times the cost to get a 4+4 PoE switch vs. a simple gigabit switch. I'm guessing you're looking at either adding a load of AP's or PoE cameras?

[Adam B]

the AV guys fitted something complicated looking in the cellar on the AV rack with the router

something liek this
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-T1600G-28PS-TL-...

I need something small and neat to fit behind a wall mount TV to split one cable, not something like the above!

[dci]

Adam B said:

the AV guys fitted something complicated looking in the cellar on the AV rack with the router

something liek this
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-T1600G-28PS-TL-...

I need something small and neat to fit behind a wall mount TV to split one cable, not something like the above!

I have one of these behind my TV. I have incoming WAN from the router, Xbox 360, Xbox 1, smart TV and Kodi box running through it with no issues. I've streamed Netflix via smart TV while downloading games and updates on the Xbox one in the past without issue. No comment on the throughput when sending 4k UHD or audio between devices via the switch though as I'm poor and don't have 4K equipment or a decent surround sound system.

Pointless buying anything more specialist as the Cat5e cable you have installed will become the bottleneck eventually. Also consider investing in some good quality cat6 patch cables for your connections between the switch and devices.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DLink-5-Port-Gigabit-Desk...