Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question
Solved

Help me upgrade my network (NAS, router, firewalls etc)

Tags:
  • NAS / RAID
  • Firewalls
  • Networking
  • Hacking
  • Routers
Last response: in Networking
Share
April 5, 2014 10:53:27 PM

I started out a few weeks ago wanting to add a NAS to my home network and I've gone down a rabbit hole of research and now I'm confused about what I even need and want.

I like to tinker and have been learning a lot of linux lately so I like the idea of hacking and running things like FreeNas and DD-WRT)

My current set up is:

1 .Laptop, iOS, Android and Roku devices over wifi
2. Desktop connected ethernet
3. Pogoplug hacked with Arch linux running as a samba server attached ethernet

I just set up my cheap hacked NAS and getting 2 MB/sec wifi file transfer speeds. Through research I just realized my router doesn't have gig E ports just 10/100 (Netgear WNR-3400). The router also won't run DD-WRT or any open source software but those weren't concerns when I bout the router.

So now I am trying to figure out what I should do?

1. Buy a new router that supports DD-WRT and has gig E ports and stick with my hacked NAS
2. Buy a wired Gig E switch to put between modem and wifi router and connect Pogoplug to gig E switch. Possibly buy off the shelf NAS or build a real computer to run FreeNas. If I do this will my wired network be slowed to 10/100 because of the wifi router still won't support Gig E?
3. Add an inexpensive hardware firewall with gig E? ($100-200 range not Jupiter/Cisco)
4. Now I see Netgear makes a router/NAS combo that I can add a 3.5 hard drive to.

I am confused about where to spend money. I want to keep my entire upgrades to $500 max (less is better). I mainly want to be able to have a faster NAS (still going to be connecting most clients wifi though). Also want to be able to run custom firmware instead of Netgear management apps. Also want a device (NAS, server, router) that can also run some services like torrent.

If you were me, what would you do?

More about : upgrade network nas router firewalls

Best solution

April 6, 2014 5:50:41 AM

You might as well do it in steps and figure out what features are most important as you go. I would start with a $20 gig switch and put all your wired devices on it. This will allow you run all your wired stuff at 1g.

If you go and research some of the sites that have run real world type tests on wireless you will find that unless you go to 802.11ac you will not get over 100m down on most routers so the lack of gig ports is not the bottleneck. Even the 802.11ac routers come nowhere close to even 1/2 the 1300m speeds they talk about. Then when you add multiple devices all using wireless at the same time it degrades even more.

So for anything wired a cheap gig switch will give you pretty much the optimum network for the lowest cost. If you want toys to play with the asus ac68u is the fastest rated device on the market and it supports dd-wrt if all its current options are not good enough. To get the high wireless speeds you would have to get all 802.11ac devices and all these must support the 3x3 mimo which is very rare.

I think we are still a little too early on the 802.11ac and now they are coming out with even a newer standard in the fall so do you buy today and get outdated in less than a year ? The key feature I see in the new 802.11ac says it solves some of the issues of many users on the same router at the same time. Something called MU-MiMO. But no device currently has it so nobody know. It would have to be a feature like this to allow wireless with a number of devices to actually get good speeds.
Share
April 6, 2014 9:24:34 AM

bill001g said:
You might as well do it in steps and figure out what features are most important as you go. I would start with a $20 gig switch and put all your wired devices on it. This will allow you run all your wired stuff at 1g.

If you go and research some of the sites that have run real world type tests on wireless you will find that unless you go to 802.11ac you will not get over 100m down on most routers so the lack of gig ports is not the bottleneck. Even the 802.11ac routers come nowhere close to even 1/2 the 1300m speeds they talk about. Then when you add multiple devices all using wireless at the same time it degrades even more.

So for anything wired a cheap gig switch will give you pretty much the optimum network for the lowest cost. If you want toys to play with the asus ac68u is the fastest rated device on the market and it supports dd-wrt if all its current options are not good enough. To get the high wireless speeds you would have to get all 802.11ac devices and all these must support the 3x3 mimo which is very rare.

I think we are still a little too early on the 802.11ac and now they are coming out with even a newer standard in the fall so do you buy today and get outdated in less than a year ? The key feature I see in the new 802.11ac says it solves some of the issues of many users on the same router at the same time. Something called MU-MiMO. But no device currently has it so nobody know. It would have to be a feature like this to allow wireless with a number of devices to actually get good speeds.


Thanks. I agree that I don't want to spend a lot of money to be on the bleeding edge and then be obsolete in a few months.

Sounds like adding a gig E switch is the cheapest option but will I hit a bottleneck when I go out of the gig E switch to the wifi router since the router doesn't support gig E?
m
0
l
April 6, 2014 10:30:19 AM

Yes you will get a bottleneck when you go to the router but it isn't so much the 100m port but other limitation. If you are going to the internet that will obviously be less than 100m. The wireless may be faster in theory..ie it says it can do 300m but it really can't.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/bar...

The bottleneck generally is the wireless signals itself. Pretty much why using wired connections is always preferred over any wireless. There are other sites that have similar data this one is easier to read.
m
0
l
!