Spoiler: It can improve your connection. A network switch is a device you connect to your router. It opens up more Ethernet ports, allowing your router to connect to multiple devices.

Like wireless connectivity, a managed switch can allow or deny access to the network based on the physical port of the device attempting to connect. An ACL is precisely as it sounds.

Putting the Switch between the main network and a test computer showed it had a throughput of just over 90 Mbps, which is about all that could be expected from the USB-connected network interfaces.