upgrading to 1000mb/s network

[foxtrot26]

anyone suggest whether its worthwhile for a home network?

currently running 100Mb/s throughout the house streams fine but can drop a bit if more than one system in use at a time especially streaming HD sources


anyone suggest a decent switch(min 8 port) and advise if i need to change all my ethernet cables or not?

[iGoD ReLeNtLeS]

well if your router only supports 100 then the whole network is running at 100 regardless of any 1000 hardware connected after the router. I found that there was a big improvement on speeds from my file-server once i upgraded to the WNDR3700 from around 40Mb/s up to a nice 80-90Mb/s with diskspeed being the bottleneck. The load on the router was greatly reduced and that was noticeable from loading times on websites.

If your going for a 1000 router then a netgear or dlink is the way forward, preferably netgear from my own experience and avoid Belkin where possible. Currently running my own network as per here (http://forums.aria.co.uk/showpost.php?p=317741&postcount=8) the WNDR being 1000 and WNR being 100 and they both seem to work fine streaming HD content and large files from the server.

I would recommend upgrading cables to at least Cat5e or Cat6 rather than Cat5 if your going to be streaming large files from each of the machines, or if you just have a file-server/1 machine to stream from then just upgrade the one cable for that up to Cat5e

[michaelkenward]

If your going for a 1000 router then a netgear or dlink is the way forward, preferably netgear from my own experience and avoid Belkin where possible.

I haven't, found a Netgear router with both ADSL and Gigabit. But I haven't looked since about six months ago.

With ASUS motherboards with GB LAN, I went for a four-port 100 MB modem/switch, Netgear DGN2000 (http://kb.netgear.com/app/products/model/a_id/2334), with a 5-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch, NETGEAR GS605 (http://www.netgear.com/Products/RangeExtendersAccessPointsSwitches/UnmanagedSwitches/GS605.aspx).

These are old MBs with dual LAN connections. So I can create a 3-PC network that uses all connections. So internally everything can do GB. The modem also sits on the MB switch. You have to be careful with your "bridge" configuration in this arrangement. But it works here.

There is also space to connect a laptop, but that does only 100MB.

Are you sure that it is the LAN speed that causes the drops?

[Mighty_Red]

What you would do is connect your ADSL/Cable/WiFi Router to a gigabit switch, then connect all your PCs, consoles etc to the gigabit switch.

This would mean that all transfers/streaming between systems are done at 1Gb max though most people will only get between 200-400Mb depending on disk/system speed.

Your internet connection would not change obviously so if you are stuck with 10Mb or less, that will stay as your browsing speed.

[wonderlust]

Don't forget you may be able to use Jumbo frames too help a little too.

[Aaron]

I'm currently using 3 of these:

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Network+Products/Wired/Hubs+%2F+Switches+%2F+Routers/Netgear+GS116UK+ProSafe+16+port+Gigabit+Desktop+Sw itch+?productId=33547

Bit more expensive, but they just don't go wrong. Ever. I'm pretty sure I've almost never had to reset one :lol:

At one place, we used to use the 24port version, and had around 45-50 of them, with most of them maxed out. I don't think any of them ever went wrong..

But yeah, with the GS605 for £35, you can't go wrong for a home network! :)

[VJ]

i just brought a DGN3500 last night...
If I were you, i'd return that DGN2000, mine died on me a couple of days ago due to the heavy load we've put through our network... It heated up and was too hot to hold.

the DGN3500 has gigabit and is an ADSL modem built in.... and runs a lot cooler :)

[michaelkenward]

i just brought a DGN3500 last night...
If I were you, i'd return that DGN2000, mine died on me a couple of days ago due to the heavy load we've put through our network... It heated up and was too hot to hold.

the DGN3500 has gigabit and is an ADSL modem built in.... and runs a lot cooler :)
I'll wait until it dies.

When I bought it there was no DGN350. Grrr.

Aria doesn't stock it. But they are out there at a decent price.

[VJ]

yeah £120 from competitors.
Or you could kindly ask aria to stock, and do a price beat ;)

[iGoD ReLeNtLeS]

Are you sure that it is the LAN speed that causes the drops?

Yes 100LAN will only do around 50-60Mb/s before it reaches a bottleneck and even slower around 20-30Mb/s on cheaper routers. One HD Film requires can draw anything up to 30Mb/s depending on file size if its on your local network, and with 2 PCs stream you have yourself a bottleneck.

Also you never found any ADSL DualBand Gigabit Routers, 6 months ago because it takes longer to develop because the whole thing has to be redesigned from DSL routers because you have to find a way to keep the temperatures from the modem & router down as they are built into the same unit. The singleband gigabit routers where there.


Don't forget you may be able to use Jumbo frames too help a little too.

Yes it would help, but you have to have a Gigabit network in the first place because 100 doesn't support Jumbo Frames. May be wrong but thats how i always thought it worked.

With Aaron on that one, GS605 would be perfect and its very cheap at around £25-30

[wonderlust]

Although the GS60x series need to be installed vertically as they run a little hot.

[michaelkenward]

yeah £120 from competitors.
Or you could kindly ask aria to stock, and do a price beat ;)
One supplier has it at £88.42, "inclusive of VAT".