ekiga as an asterisk client

is this the typical Asterisk topology ? On my home system, I have the Asterisk server, tleilax, and the client, doge, connecting into my router -- so that they're both on the same network. The IP addresses are: router 192.168.1.1 tleilax 192.168.1.2 doge 192.168.1.x (usually 3) Based on the above image, I don't quite understand what the topology should look like. What if you have multiple clients? They can't all connect to tleilax unless you put in a ton of NIC's! Here you see multiple clients connected to an Asterisk box: but no mention of a switch... Pardon, if it's in the definitive guide , I missed it. (I have the 4th ed.) This diagram: well useful, doesn't help me to understand the network topology of a simple setup, but with multiple clients..