Switch/router... hmmmm
 

Friend of mine wanted to connect his Modem to a router.. the router only has one port and wireless so he then wanted to put a switch on it to allow more PC.. now my understanding of IP address etc says this wont work.. as the switch is not a DHCP...

BUT will the router be able to use the switch ?

yes, the router will be able to use the switch to add more ports. All you need to make sure is the switch has auto uplink (99% of modern switches) have this feature.

modem to router to switch should work just fine. The router's DHCP should be fine, failing that just assign static IPs.

This kit must be old though. Would it not be a lot better to buy something new that has the modem, router and switch all built in? £30 would buy you a nice shiny piece of kit.

Thats what I have told them to do. I just wondered if the router could work through a switch.

Pimmo, just think of the switch as a extension to the ethernet cable from the router, like a hub all its doing is extending the ethernet lan.. a switch is a little different to the old hub as it switches each bit of traffic directly to the port thats being used, in simple terms that is.. Your probably thinking of a layer 3 switch that can also route between vlans siwthin the switch... in effect all that he would be doing is allowing more devices to connect to the port out of the router, so the advise and your initial thoughts are spot on...
Daz