Your looking for a device called a hub or switch (switches are more reliable and use different technology to save network traffic.) By ethernet I'm assuming you mean Cat5 or Cat5-e. These can't be "split" like coax can. Traffic on these cables must be controlled at all times during sending and receiving thus you need an intermediate device between the two to split this connection.
hub or switch will work if that ethernet port is coming off of a router. if it is not coming off of a router then you can purchase a router from Newegg, best buy, officemax etc to share the internet connection between your devices.
All my rooms are coming off a main router. I just had one opening left for this room but have more than one device to run. Most likely they will not be running at the same time.
Is a switch better than a hub?
The reason is it will control the traffic better than a hub. A hub will simply send all the data to every device connected to it, while a switch will kind of sort the data and send it to the right device
Originally Posted by ingeborgdot
So a switch is better than a hub? Any big reason?
Yes. When a packet is sent over a hub, it is repeated to all the computers connected to it, and then they decide if they need it or not. Switches, on the other hand, can pick and choose where to send the packets to. This not only increases bandwidth when you have more than two computers attached (your router counts as a third), but it also prevents packet collisions that occur when two computers try sending data at the same time.
you should go to a computer store and buy a 5 port switch thats what we use, our bigpond modem and a 5 port switch very easy to setup, you just have to plug all the Ethernet cords in and vola its done
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