Author Topic: Networking geniouses ohoi! (Read 599 times)

Nilsen · « **on:** November 07, 2005, 01:54:26 PM »

Hello.

Here is the thing...

When we buildt the house, the electric person set up a cabinet next to the fuse box cabinet in the utilities room.

In that cabinet we have the tv signal box thingy, and it sends the tv signals to every room in the house except the bathrooms. The cable modem is also in that cabinet and i have hooked it up to the wifi-router.
There are also 8 network cables there that connects to nothing but leads to all the rooms in the house. I wanna put them to the use they were intended..

Sooo... Im gonna get a 16 port gigabit switch and plug all the loose ends into it.

Here comes the question...

Can I take a wire from one of the 4 lan ports on the Linksys wifi router and plug it into the uplink port on the switch? ofcourse I can, but will the router work in that way?....distributing internet to all 8 connected wires, or do i need a different setup?

AKS\/\/ulfe · « **Reply #1 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:01:52 PM »

You don't need a gigabit switch unless you plan on setting it up as a small workgroup to distribute files and stuff in your house because your internet connection isn't going to go to 10mb/s.

But yes, the router can route to the switch and then the switch will control data traffic to the router and other computers on the switch. You will have to configure the switch though with an IP since I don't think it will use the router's DHCP service.
-SW

Nilsen · « **Reply #2 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:20:59 PM »

The plan is to share files across the network too, not just internet. The missus is also gonna start working from home soon so we will share files, printers, scanners and internet. The wires are ready for gigabit and i also plan on installing a NAS box in the cabinet sometime this year. There is a slot for a 1U server in the cabinet but I don't think ill need that for now.

indy007 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:22:25 PM »

Unless you've got cat5e or cat6 cables I don't think the gigabit switch will do you all that much good. Probably a waste of $$. A 10/100 switch will do the job just fine for quite a bit less. Unless you're moving large files across your house, you're still going gigabit to a 10/100 uplink port on the router, so it's pretty useless.

The uplink port will let you stack the switch and the router. Just make sure the switch is just a switch, or it won't work. I've known quite a few people that used up their 4 ports on their routers, and went out and bought another router. That can cause problems. Most off the shelf, residential use switches won't even need an IP assigned, and everything plugged into it will grab DHCP from the router.

2bighorn · « **Reply #4 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:24:07 PM »

Router should be plugged into modem and switch into router.

EDIT: your network speed will be limited by disk IO rather than anything else. Unless you have some good RAIDs in your machines, Gigabit is overkill and you won't be able to fully utilize it.

Gunslinger · « **Reply #5 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:25:15 PM »

in this case couldnt he use a hub off the router?

indy007 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:31:00 PM »

He could, but it'd be slower than a switch due to network collisions. Plus, with the prices nowadays, I'd shell out the extra few dollars for better performance.

2bighorn · « **Reply #7 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:33:44 PM »

With switch you can run full duplex, ie switch auto negotiates connection, hubs don't ie packet collision

Nilsen · « **Reply #8 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:36:36 PM »

The thing is that I'm not gonna pay for the switch anyways so thats why i figured that I may aswell get a gigabit switch.

To simplify the setup i was thinking about..

Modem --> router --> switch.

IF I install a server in the future should it be like this?

modem --> server --> router --> switch. or should i just hook the server up to one of the ports on the switch?

2bighorn · « **Reply #9 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:37:43 PM »

modem -> router -> switch -> workstations & server

Nilsen · « **Reply #10 on:** November 07, 2005, 02:40:18 PM »

thx

Btw.. im pretty sure that I will be able to use the gigabit bandwith in the future when there will be streaming of video, workfiles and VOIP that may all be happening at the same time to many parts of the house.

2bighorn · « **Reply #11 on:** November 07, 2005, 03:01:10 PM »

Nothing wrong with Gigabit switch. You'll have aprox 3 times better network performance over 100Mbps, just don't expect having full gigabit speeds.

Gunslinger · « **Reply #12 on:** November 07, 2005, 03:03:34 PM »

Admit it nilson.......we know what you are up to.

I can see the website now: "welcome to the future home of: norweiganvoyerhouse.com"

Nilsen · « **Reply #13 on:** November 07, 2005, 03:11:21 PM »

Lol Guns

I know i wont get the full giga speed and thats why ill get the giga switch... im thinking that if ill get "only" 100mbit, the real speed is gonna be lower so ill go for max speed right away.

Nilsen · « **Reply #14 on:** November 07, 2005, 03:53:35 PM »

Any brand of switch you would recomend?

Performance is ofcourse important, but so is power consumption... if there is a difference between the brands. There is gonna be alot of gadgets/junk in that cabinet and I don't want to install a nukular plant to support and cool it all