Adding more router ports..

sillygoose

Hi, welcome opinion on this situation.

I have a router with 4 gigabit ports (so its obviously a switch too)

I am adding another NAS drive I don't have enough ports so I bought an 8 port switch with gigabit ports.

The fastest communication I need is within the network, PC to NAS and so on (everything has gigabit ports, cat6 cables), the connection to the internet via the router is relatively slow in comparison (50mb/s).

Can anyone see a problem with moving all the local devices onto the new switchbox ports and just connecting the switchbox to the router? - physically in my setup it would be neater.

Or I could just connect a router port to the switch box and move a couple of devices to the switch box?

Devices are:
Main PC
Sky Box
Laptop dock
NAS1
and now NAS2

Obviously I don't want anything to get strangled transfer speeds or internet bottleneck... so does anything make any difference?

Thanks (probably stressing about nothing as usual)

John_Gray

If you have connected a gigabit switch port to a gigabit port on the router, you could connect any ethernet device to any of the remaining router ports or to any of the remaining switch ports, to get the results you require - provided the ethernet port on the device is gigabit-capable (it would run at 100 Mbps otherwise).

That's exactly what I had to do on my home setup...

kwikbreaks

Most of my kit is connected to a gigabit switch along with the internet connection from the modem/router. The reason I chose to do it that way is purely for tidiness. Two of connections from that main switch go to other switches.

I also guess that the switch itself is able to carry the full 8GBps potential but if you route multiple devices across a single link between switches then that is going to result in that link being shared and a theoretical bottleneck. In practice I don't have multiple devices capable of full GBps transfers and certainly not several operating at the same time this remains theoretical for me and probably most other home users.

droopsnoot

In theory keeping the NAS away from the router should improve performance, because the data volume is higher to and from the NAS. That is, if you were to leave the NAS devices on the router, and connect your PCs and laptop to the new switch, the single link between the router and the new switch will carry both the NAS traffic and the internet traffic down a single port, which would impact throughput. So by using the layout you originally proposed where the new switch is effectively the centre hub of the network, the only traffic to the router will be for the router, and so on.


In practice you probably won't notice anything, as the net traffic is probably sufficiently slower than the capability of the switches that it won't matter, but if moving everything to the new switch makes it better in other ways, all good. Like kwikbreaks said, above.

Fightsback

Slightly off topic, but info relevant:

http://www.extremetech.com/internet/236573-new-ethernet-standard-will-offer-up-to-5gbps-performance-using-cables-you-already-own

sillygoose

Thanks for the opinions all. I will try using the switch as a hub and do some transfer tests later

Cheers.

S0litaire

What will you be using the 2 NAS's for?

Will you separate between only having "Media" on one and "Backups" on the other? Or will they be general use (mixing backups and media?)

I've not noticed any major slowdown on my network sticking everything on the one switch.

My set up is :

BT HH3
-- "SamKnows" Broadband Testing Unit
|
-- Link to 5 Port Gigabit Switch
|
-- Empty
|
-- Empty

5Port Switch
-- Link from BT HH3
|
-- Smart TV
|
-- Linux Box
|
-- NAS
|
--Gaming PC (only on when playing games)

AndyPix

I would have all your devices connected to the switch , and then one of the ports of the switch connected to your internet router.


All the devices will talk to each other at gigabit speeds (providing they have gig interfaces of course)

spud17

I'm the same as AndyPix suggests.
Trendnet 5 port gigabit switch, Netgear DG834GT on one port, everything else off switch.