Setup gigabit home network using 100mbps Router but Gigabit switches

Hi,

1) I want to setup my home network with gigabit speeds (I have gigabit lan on all computers) so that I can have fast file transfers.
2) But I do not wish to invest in a DRAFT-N router (all gigabit routers I've found so far have wireless draft N -> expensive).
3) I do need wireless connectivity a/b/g standards are fine for now.

I have dsl internet thorugh ATT/SBC

Can I just connect the wireless router(a/b/g) to the dsl modem and then connect 1 gigabit switch to one of routers lan ports. All my wired computers can go through this gigabit switch? Will I attain gigabit transfer speeds and still have the internet work?

Thanks

Yes. - Short answer.

Long Answer:

PC
PC
PC - Gigabit Switch - Router - Modem - Internet
PC
PC

If you have any wireless clients obviously they will be constrained by 54mb anyway so the fact the router isnt on 1gb doesnt really matter.

I use:
http://www.netgear.co.uk/rangemaxn [...] nr854t.php
as well as a 10/100/1000 Switch, this means the wireless clients can stream @ upto 300mb and the gigabit line to the server can support that no problem...

I am not sure I agree with that. If you are routing your DSL through the router first which is standard 10/100 mps than through Gigabit switch you are creating a bottleneck through the router. Your switch maybe showing 1 gbs to the computers but it is slowing to 100 mps through the internet connection.

RaisinKain....
Computer to computer will be 1Gbs
Computer to internet will be max 100Mbs from switch to router and probably max 10Mbs router to modem and internet.

this isn't working for me. i have it setup like the above diagram. the 100mbit wireless router is assigning the ip's, not my gigabit switch (of course right?). it seems that data transfer is stepping down to 100mbit btwn PCs, going through the router. how do i make it bypass? also, when one of the PCs is not authenticated with the WEP on the wireless, it can't talk to the others at all.

Here is how my network is laid out. I think it is exactly what you're looking for, except I have some additional hardware installed. Heres the layout
I assume your set up will involve two routers or a 100Mbps router and a 1000Mbps switch/hub.

1)Cable/DSL router
2)Connect a cable to any port on the DSL/Cable Router
3)Take the gigabit router and plug the cable from step to into the WAN port
4)Determine the IP address the gigabit router receives from the Cable/DSL router, log into the Cable/DSL router and assign that IP address to the DMZ
5)Plug any additional gigabit hardware (hubs/switches) into the Gigabit router

What this does essentially, is sets up two networks. The first network being your connection to the Internet, only serves one "client" device, the gigabit router.

By adding it to the DMZ, you bypass any port forwarding needed on the router provided by your ISP. At this point, any port forwarding that would need to be configured would be on the gigabit router itself.

If both routers have wireless modules, you would want to disable the wireless module on the router provided by the ISP. Users that connect to the gigabit router would be able to see clients connected to the ISP router, but the clients on the ISP router would not see the clients on the gigabit router, which will cause frustration and headaches trying share data.


If using a 1000Mbps switch instead of a second router, just ignore the stuff about the WAN port and DMZ. Adding a switch is a fairly simple process and will allow anything that is plugged into the switch to function properly at 1000Mbps, assuming the clients drivers and settings are configured properly. Any clients connected to the ISP router would be limited by 100Mbps, or by wireless protocol a/b/g, depending on the clients connection.

I hope this was helpful.

too bad we can't get this here:

http://au.billion.com/product/voip/bipac7404vnpx.php

wonder if it works on US ADSL?

I am having the same problem. I want to get gigabit network between file/print server and my main. I have gigabit nics and cat 5 cables to a cisco 5 port gigabit switch. The dsl is connected to the switch. The connections on my main and my file/print server only connect at 100 Mbps. I have tried to go in and manually select 1000Mbps on both comps but it just restarts the cards and they connect back at 100Mbps. uggh!!! Why won't the switch connect at 1Gbps???

We're only talking about 10-15 ft max. They are in the same room.

Heck, grab a piece of CAT6 and see what happens. Worth a shot. You'll be kickin' yourself later if you find out that's all it was.

Changed cables and it still connects as 100 Mbps.....not sure what to do ....

If the 100mpbs router is the dhcp server, would that limit the rest of my network speed (setup: router lan to gigabit switch lan to gigabit computers lan) to 100mpbs?

If you are transferring files between computers, to and from hard drives, 7200rpm drives will not be able to transfer faster than 100mbps. Some might be able to burst read and write faster than 100mbps but there is no way it can sustain it.

if you had some WD velociraptor drives or seagate cheeta drives in a stripped array of some sort or a high quality ssd hard drives, you might be able to sustain a read/write scenario past 100mbps. It is going to be the write speeds of the hard drive that will be the killer... note that both the sending and receiving computers would need these specialty hard drives.

since harddrives generally read faster, gigabit home networks are most beneficial when you have a media server that you save videos onto, and stream it to another computer, or media extender, as it will not actually be writing to the non-server computer's hard drive (it may get page filed, but that will be your OS choice).

its also may be beneficial if you say perhaps, you had several hard drives on a home server, and several computers were accessing the different drives (but not the same drive) on the server, then the connection between your server and your switch will not be (as) saturated.

From what I've heard, you can "statically assign" private IP addresses to the machines on the switch side of the LAN, they should be able to transfer at theoretical Gig speeds between them. However...once they all have Static assignments that all are valid to talk to each other.....remove the cable from the switch to the router and drag a file between one machine to the other (only going through the switch). They should speed up, because the switch is merely crossing the cable over. An un-managed or "dumb" switch would route traffic through the router thus slowing to 100Mbps. A managed or "smart" switch will drop the IP info and go by MAC address (I think Layer 3) and go from one device to another directly with no need to go through the router. plus the lack of need for the router to manage the IPs (because they are statically assigned) would in theory allow the devices behind the switch to communicate to each other directly with no need for the router. I am actually testing this theory myself after this very discussion with co-workers today! LOL. If I am wrong or this will not work, please jump in on this! Cheers!

Indeed...In my scenario, it would be two machines (each with Gb NICs) with the Gb switch in between. I would assume they should transfer at the theoretical Gig speeds.

SOLUTION You need a GIGABIT/SWITCH ROUTER!!!! to get this to work without headaches...

Assuming all your devices are 1gb ready (all wired btw)

PC (desktop) ip 192.168.200.2 example static ip(s) or let your gigabit router DHCP them
PC (laptop) ip 192.168.200.3
PC (misc) ip 192.168.200.4

Connects to (no bottleneck 1000mbps)
1gb 4 port or more - SWITCH/ROUTER -192.168.200.1 example static ip -

Connects to (bottleneck 100mbps)

(DSL/CABLE MODEM - INTERNET IP auto givin by your ISP or manually if Static)

Connects to

Internet

Otherwise gets some crossover cabling PC to PC and have a pc sharing the internet connection if you only have 2 pcs
Or you can set up the 2nd NIC on your PC to your gb switch and share that with more than one...

My experiment resulted in 100Mbps speeds because of the router.

Veriozon FioS here is over 153mbps via speedtest, a 10/100 router would definitely be an internet bottleneck for a lot of people in my area

It's $149 / month but worth it when you're sharing one line with a home business and 3 other people.

Comcast is 105mbps and $199 a month, typical Comcast overpricing