Home Network - Security Questions

[mcaren]

Hi -- we just had cat6 ethernet jacks added to several rooms of our house and our current configuration is:

cable modem --to-- wireless router (linksys wrt54g w/tomato) --to-- switch (HP J9078A 10/100/1000Mbps ProCurve Switch 1400-24G 22 x auto-sensing 10/100/1000 Port 2 dual-personality 8000 entries).

The security aspects of our network confuse me -- I haven't used a wired router in years, and am thinking about replacing the wireless router in the above configuration with a wired one (so I could use the wireless router in a better location as an access point). However, I'm not sure I'm approaching this in the right way. I want some sort of firewall behind that cable modem, but don't know if there is an advantage to having a wired router between the modem and the switch, or if I'm better off ($$-wise) just sticking with a wireless router (plugged into the switch).

(The current parts are in a closed wood cabinet -- we're getting fairly good wireless reception in the immediate area, but I wanted to have a wireless router plugged in to a more centrally located jack -- hence the router replacement in the above scenario.)

I would like a speedy network, and although I haven't purchased anything with gigabyte network cards specifically, I think a few of my more recent builds are 10/100/1000. I don't know much about speed/bottlenecks -- don't want to spend a fortune, but would like a smart configuration.

I'd appreciate any tips! Thanks. mcaren

 

[riser]

If you router connects to your wireless via a wire you will be pulling the max bandwidth. Your ISP is your bottleneck basically.

The only other bottleneck you'll have is computer to computer data transfer over wireless since it will be slower than over a cable.

Your configure is fine for what you want.

 

[tkrl26]

So you current config looks like this ISP ->Wireless router->switch but you want to move the wireless to a different location.

So you could do ISP-> wired router (DHCP/Firewall)->switch->wireless router (Turn off DHCP, and plug the wire into one of the ports, NOT the WAN connection) This way your wireless and wired network will be on the same subnet and can talk to each other. Also you do not want two DHCP servers on the same network, unless they lease different scopes... anyways...

Either set up you will not see a difference in speed. The only way to speed up PC to PC file transfer would be to get gigabit NIC's.... And/or be closer to the AP, but like the other poster stated, the ISP will always be the bottleneck...

Hopefully that helped... I am not quite sure what your exact question was...

Added, YES you want a router/firewall between the modem and switch! to keep the bad guys out... or at least try to...

 

[mcaren]

Thank you both for your comments. I wound up purchasing a Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 gigabit router, and as far as know most of my computers have 10/100/1000 nic cards so I'm hoping I'll see some improvement (at least with the ones that are plugged into the wall jacks). mcaren

 

[riser]

You will only see computer to computer speed increases - only on your local area network. Anything out to the internet will be minimal to none and only because the new router will most likely better handle ISP traffic.