Running out of network ports

What does one do when one runs out of network ports near one’s desk?

Back when I was installing the computer network in my house (pre IP PBX days), I never envisioned needing more than two network ports at my desk. Accordingly, that’s all I installed.

Right now I have three devices on my desk that require a network port. Sometimes I’ll have four or five.

Fortunately my IP phone has a two port network switch built in, so I can always plug a device into that, but it looks rather untidy. My solution:

As of a few minutes ago, I have a small 5 port switch discretely mounted underneath my desk. This is connected to the master 16 port switch over via my wall mounted network port and the in wall cabling.

I now have the capacity to have 5 devices at my desk (6 if I want to use the port underneath my IP phone). Any other devices will need to use something else - like utilising one of the two wireless LANs I have installed (802.11g and 802.11b) :-)

Until next time!

-Shaun