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Help setting up LAN with Gigabit

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slimeballzz   10-16-2007 at 01:03:37 AM

My setup right now is as follows:

Internet 10 Mbps--> Firewall/Router (10/100) --> Switch (Gigabit) --> 5x Computers (Gigabit)


How would I retain gigabit speeds? I plan on adding a multifunction as well in the near future but don't want to lose the gigabit performance.

Any ideas?


Message edited by slimeballzz on 10-19-2007 at 01:05:24 AM
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Riser   10-18-2007 at 05:27:26 PM
- 0 +

All NICs need to be Gigabit and you would need to use Cat 6 cabling.

Obviously, your bottle neck is at your Router. No big deal though. Have all your Comptuers that are Gigabit capable connect to the Gigabit switch using Cat6.

You should be set - check your network settings to see if it negotiated at 10, 100, or 1000. If it doesn't pick up 1000, try manually setting your NIC to 1000/Full Duplex under properties in Device Manager.

------------------------------ "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. Goddammit Otto, you are an alcoholic. Goddammit Otto, you have Lupus... one of those two doesn't sound right." M. H.
 Reply to Riser
dobby   10-18-2007 at 05:53:08 PM
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well firstly, YOU DON'T NEED CAT6, cat5e will do the job fine. although i too recommend cat6 as it give future capability.

you will never be able to reach full gigabit speeds, its theory not truth. however you can get close by using good NICs like Intel gigabits not just the one on your motherboard.


although you have a 100base connection with your Router this should not affect the speed of the other computer tlking to each other.
altohugh you have a 100

Reply to dobby
Riser   10-18-2007 at 09:31:56 PM
- 0 +

Yes, Cat5e will work as well but its easier to stick with Cat6 so as the person does not try using Cat5.

------------------------------ "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. Goddammit Otto, you are an alcoholic. Goddammit Otto, you have Lupus... one of those two doesn't sound right." M. H.
 Reply to Riser
slimeballzz   10-19-2007 at 01:05:01 AM
- 0 +

The house is wired with Belden Cat5e cable and I made all the network cables myself using Belden Cat5e as well.
So is there any noteable or potential performance difference if I changed it all to Cat 6?


As for the speed, isn't there some sort of rule that goes along the line of: "Your network can only be as fast as the slowest object in the network" ?

Reply to slimeballzz
Riser   10-19-2007 at 05:57:34 PM
- 0 +

If you're wired with cat5e, stick with it. Cat6 just has more twists per inch than cat5e. The E is for 'enhanced' and was originally created for colleges and the like that were passing large throughput like audio.

As far as the speed - if you have a slow network device (Router, switch, network card) that will be your limitation.

If you have everything for gigabit, you'll be fine.

------------------------------ "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. Goddammit Otto, you are an alcoholic. Goddammit Otto, you have Lupus... one of those two doesn't sound right." M. H.
 Reply to Riser
slimeballzz   10-21-2007 at 10:15:50 AM
- 0 +

I intend to upgrade my router to gigabit. But even if I do upgrade wouldn't my Cable Modem still limit the rest of the network?

Another thing is if I look at my network speed on each computer it says 1.0 Gbp. But is it really transferring files at gigabit speed if my router is still at 10/100?

Are there any programs that can test my network speed?

Reply to slimeballzz
Riser   10-22-2007 at 08:19:19 PM
- 0 +

Your bottleneck will be your ISP which is far slower than the CAT cables.

Most routers today have a 10/100 WAN port, newer ones are coming with 10/100/1000. But your ISP is probably like a 7mbps which doesn't even break the 10.

Europe seems to have faster internet where the 10/100 would be used more appropriately.

------------------------------ "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. Goddammit Otto, you are an alcoholic. Goddammit Otto, you have Lupus... one of those two doesn't sound right." M. H.
 Reply to Riser
slimeballzz   10-24-2007 at 05:30:16 AM
- 0 +

Does my cable modem affect gigabit transfer speed?

I just transferred 26.2GB in about 30.5 minutes (Raptor to Raptor). That is extremely slow as it equates to 14.3 MB/s.
Any idea why so slow? Or should that be on a new topic?

Reply to slimeballzz
Riser   10-26-2007 at 03:55:57 PM
- 0 +

Technically yes and no.

Your WAN port on your Router most likely doesn't even support gigabit. Why? Because your internet connection is actually extremely slow compared to your private network.

You have 10/100/1000 but you might have 5/7/10mbit internet connection. I have 7mbit at home, which doesn't even break the 10 in 10/100.

So your cable modem doesn't effect your gigabit at all. You won't reach those speeds on the internet. Gigabit is really only good, at this point in your situation, to transfer files between your computers. Other than that it won't make surfing the internet any faster or anything like that.

------------------------------ "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. Goddammit Otto, you are an alcoholic. Goddammit Otto, you have Lupus... one of those two doesn't sound right." M. H.
 Reply to Riser
slimeballzz   10-27-2007 at 08:31:08 PM
- 0 +

I think I've found a solution for all of this.

Since most of the computers I have, have dual gigabit ports I will split the network and use two smaller switches. 1 switch for the internet, the other switch for LAN use. This way I think I can use jumbo frames as well (will have to check all my nics).

Any recommendations on which 8 port switch to buy?

I read the review of the 8 Gigabit Switch Roundup over at smallnetbuilder.com but with all the comments everyone wrote I'm not sure which switch to buy anymore.

Reply to slimeballzz
Riser   10-29-2007 at 06:26:20 PM
- 0 +

When in doubt, go with Linksys.

If the Router has a built in Gigabit switch, you can use that. You won't need to use both NICs. You need to create a line from PC 1 to PC 2 that each connecting point is gigabit capable.

------------------------------ "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. Goddammit Otto, you are an alcoholic. Goddammit Otto, you have Lupus... one of those two doesn't sound right." M. H.
 Reply to Riser
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