Max speed limited by Router or Switch

[ronthedon]

Hello,

I have a 100 Mbps router (which I can't change). But all my computers, media players/streamers, NAS have gigabit Ethernet. Currently, under exclusive use I do approach the 100 Mbps limit (seen a lot of times my laptop transferring files from/to NAS around 14 MBps). But since my devices are capable of handling higher speeds I am thinking to upgrade to a Gigabit switch. That brings me to my question.

If I have 100 MBps router and a Gigabit switch (1k Mac table), what will be max speed between devices connected through the switch?

I am aware anything that goes via the router will hit the roof at 100 Mbps. But will the devices under the switch operate at Gigabit (due to the direct transfer based on mac address)? Or will everything still go through the router who is giving out the IP addresses (the switch having no DHCP) and limit the speed?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Simo606]

The traffic should go straight through the switch and avoid the router after the first broadcast. From then on it knows which switch ports the other devices are on. It only goes to the router (default gateway) if it doesn't know where to send traffic.

You can even just have a switch by itself and no router with multiple PC's on the same network and it will still work.

The router is only needed if the switch doesn't know what to send traffic, in that case it's probably in a different network and the router routes across to another network, you don't have to worry about that though.

So yes you should get 1000mpbs across the switch to other devices on the same switch that support 1000mbps. Anything using the internet will go through the router and the link will be capped to 100mbps.

 

[ronthedon]

Thanks for clarifying. It helps.

"You can even just have a switch by itself and no router with multiple PC's on the same network and it will still work. "

It sounds interesting. Can you please elaborate a bit on that? Who will hand out the IP addresses? Do you propose configuring the devices manually with Static IP?

Currently, some of my devices can't be configured to use a specific IP, such as smartphones. Hence, I rely on the router to also do the DHCP server duty.

 

[Simo606]

Thanks for clarifying. It helps.

"You can even just have a switch by itself and no router with multiple PC's on the same network and it will still work. "

It sounds interesting. Can you please elaborate a bit on that? Who will hand out the IP addresses? Do you propose configuring the devices manually with Static IP?

Currently, some of my devices can't be configured to use a specific IP, such as smartphones. Hence, I rely on the router to also do the DHCP server duty.

Yea if you give each of the devices a static IP within the same subnet/network it will work. (no need if you have a DHCP server thought)

That was just for demonstrational purposes, you should keep the router as part of your network topology.

So basically with the router and switch configuration. The devices with DHCP enabled ask for an IP address. The DHCP server (router) hands them out to the devices making requests. Now the devices have an IP. Now when you send traffic from PC1 to PC2, once the MAC address table gets populated, the switch will know that PC2 is connected to it and it does not need to ask the router where to send traffic to it, likewise from PC2 to PC1.

So basically all devices connected directly to the switch are not going to have their traffic sent to the router unless the destination address is not in the MAC address table.

For example, traffic to and from the internet, the switch will not know where to send the traffic so it send its to the default gateway (router) to route the traffic onto the internet.

 

[ronthedon]

Thanks for clarifying. It helps.

Somehow I am unable to select the post as best answer. What could be wrong? Any moderators here to help?

 

[Simo606]

Thanks for clarifying. It helps.

Somehow I am unable to select the post as best answer. What could be wrong? Any moderators here to help?

If this is a discussion post then you can't select best answer. If it's a question post then you can and the button is located on the right side near the messages.

 

[ronthedon]

Best answer selected by ronthedon.

 

[ronthedon]

Thanks. Apparently one of the scripts on the page was linking to some sites that I have blocked. I tried after removing the restrictions and it worked.

//OT// Too many websites peeping into what you are reading/writing on Internet these day. Privacy is least important. //OT//

 

[Simo606]

Thanks. Apparently one of the scripts on the page was linking to some sites that I have blocked. I tried after removing the restrictions and it worked.

//OT// Too many websites peeping into what you are reading/writing on Internet these day. Privacy is least important. //OT//

Glad to help. A little tip to check in the future, do 'tracert' followed by the destination ip address in command prompt. This will show the IP address of each hop to the destination. If you put PC-B's address in from PC-A command prompt, it will directly go to PC-B rather than to the gateway and THEN PC-B and visa-versa.

Have fun!