When [googling “ethernet splitter”](https://www.google.com/search?q=ethernet+splitter&tbm=isch) intuition immediately tells that you can have one input (where the cable coming from the router enters) which can be split to 2 computers at the other end.
However, this is not how it works:
>To use splitters, you’ll need two: one to connect your two devices, and another at the other end to “unsplit” the connection. This means you’ll still be using the same number of Ethernet ports on your router as if you were using two separate cables. You don’t add any Ethernet ports by using a splitter, you simply share a single cable.
(source [https://www.howtogeek.com/797864/ethernet-splitter-vs.-switch-whats-the-difference/](https://www.howtogeek.com/797864/ethernet-splitter-vs.-switch-whats-the-difference/))
**QUESTION**: why isn’t the signal simply **split** ? What is it that a switch does differently ?
In: 1
When you look at a cable like a basic Cat-5 Ethernet cable what you’re really seeing is a collection of 8 smaller (colored) wires all bundled together. Each of those individual wires connect to a pin in the terminal clip that you plug into the Ethernet port and hardware at both ends are expecting certain data from that pin. A lot of uses for the whole cable only uses 4 of those wires. So basically your splitter is separating those pins into two sockets, and you need a splitter on the other end to make sure the data from each wire goes to the right place.
It’s much like an 8 lane interstate highway. A bunch of cars coming from different places but going the same general direction for a while merge onto the highway. But they all eventually have different destinations so they need to be split back off into separate roads.
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