21 replies to this topic

[Pgoodwin1]

The DI-604 router is only 5-ports as is the Netgear Switch. I've had the router for a long time and the network has grown considerably (wireless devices added plus a couple of added computers). I was thinking of replacing the DI-604 and FS105 Switch with a 10/100/1000 wired router - 8 port. Given the number of connections going through it, I was thinking that a faster router might speed things up some. I realize that the limiting factor at the port to the outside world (the cable modem) is 10/100 and Time Warner only really guarantees 10 Mbps download. I also realize that the Airport Extreme could be used in place of the DI-604, however, the D-link and modem is in the basement where the house ethernet distribution system box is - a long way from any wireless devices. And the Airport Extreme Base Station is upstairs fairly close to the wireless devices. So I'd rather keep it upstairs.

The six wireless things at the bottom are almost always doing something. The Dell laptop is my wife's work laptop (encrypted data traffic) - she works at home but interfaces all over the country all day. The MacBook Pro and i3 iMac are part timers (home use) with substantial use. The other computers are not used much. The BlueRay players stream Netflix and are on simultaneously at times.

For downloads: the MacBook Pro averages about 7 Mbps, the i3 iMac averages about 8.3 Mbps, The iPads average about 5 Mbps, and the iPhones average about 1.7 Mbps. I haven't measure the Dell laptop speeds, but would imagine they are similar to the MacBook Pro times - although I don't know what impact encryption has on network throughput.

For uploads: the MacBook Pro averages about 0.9 Mbps, the i3 iMac averages about 0.9 Mbps, The iPads average about 0.7 Mbps, and the iPhones average about 0.5 Mbps.

Questions:
1. Would upgrading the router and switch to a single higher speed router improve performance?
2. What 8 port 10/100/1000 router(s) would you recommend? - they're require Mac software compatibility

[TriRan]

a faster router in general might help a little, routers have ram, and cpus so a more up to date router with a faster CPU and more ram will be able to handle more simultanious connections at a single time easier you may not notice a speed increase but if you have any sort of network slowdown when lots of requests from multiple computers go out or come in then you will surely see improvement there. also if you do go with a Gbit router/switch you will a significant increase in local file transfer speeds although that won't really show in your real world connection because as you said its limited by the modem

~ Mark

[Pgoodwin1]

Thanks TriRan. Those were the same thoughts I had about the router-more up to date with a better computer in it. I hadn't thought about the local transfer speed improvement though but that's right, they would be better. Now I just have to pick one. I do see significant slowdowns at times here but they never last long enough to nail down the problem. I don't really know if it's inside or outside my network that's varying.

[mudmanc4]

[....] I do see significant slowdowns at times here but they never last long enough to nail down the problem. I don't really know if it's inside or outside my network that's varying.

You have the perfect scenario for running the automatic test set at 30 minutes , or less, for a few days.

[Pgoodwin1]

Mudman-I'll try that to see if it's periodic.

[Pgoodwin1]

I can't find many wired 10/100/1000 routers out there. Everyone makes scads of wireless ones with 4 ports. There's lots of ethernet switches but not many routers. Almost all of the routers are only 10/100. Anyone have any suggestions.

[TriRan]

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16833124091

cisco makes great stuff

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16833704123

i have a few tp link products they are just so-so

edit: another thought. you could always get one of the wireless routers that are Gbit and just disable the wireless

[Pgoodwin1]

TriRan. I thought about that too - getting a wireless on and not using the wireless but there aren't many of them with more than 4 ports either. I'll checkout the ones you mentioned above. thanks

I'll go on Cisco's website again. They're product picker on the website isn't the easiest thing to use. I need more than 4 ports Of the RVS4000. I'm sure they make an 8 port.

[TriRan]

TriRan. I thought about that too - getting a wireless on and not using the wireless but there aren't many of them with more than 4 ports either. I'll checkout the ones you mentioned above. thanks

I'll go on Cisco's website again. They're product picker on the website isn't the easiest thing to use. I need more than 4 ports Of the RVS4000. I'm sure they make an 8 port.

why don't you use a 4 port router with a gbit switch to expand the ports? i'm sure that'd be cheaper lol

[Pgoodwin1]

Yes. I'm starting to see/understand that that might be a much cheaper option.

[mudmanc4]

You can put together a firewall and router with an old machine laying around, grab a $20. cisco 2900 series 24 port switch off ebay, and be done with it.,

[TriRan]

He wants gbit though

[mudmanc4]

He wants gbit though

Wont do much good internally. You really have to ask yourself, am I moving files all the time so large , within my house , that I need more then 100Mb ? Really ?

Sure , some of you might , but even so the best argument cannot explain away being able to exceed your incoming bandwidth by 10X ? You can stream how many HD movies through 100Mb two ?

The gigabit for the average household is useless and a sham aligned with markets.

[TriRan]

Agreed but I made the change with the future in mind which is what he could be doing aswell

[mudmanc4]

How wide spread is 100Mb in any area of the USA ? Not much . The future for that will be more then well past the EOL of anything not even on the market yet as far as residential equipment is concerned.

Save your bucks , get some "old" equipment, learn how to use it, wire the place up cat6 plenum and have a coke and a smile.

[TriRan]

How wide spread is 100Mb in any area of the USA ? Not much . The future for that will be more then well past the EOL of anything not even on the market yet as far as residential equipment is concerned.

Save your bucks , get some "old" equipment, learn how to use it, wire the place up cat6 plenum and have a coke and a smile.

in Tennesse you can get residential Gbit

[Pgoodwin1]

good discussion- haha. At times we do have two BluRay players streaming HD video and a PS3 gaming all at the same time, and while all that is going on, the iPhones and iPads are always doing something-syncing/backing up wirelessly. So there's quite a bit of traffic. I also back up files across the network, many times sending 100s of gigabytes from one computer to another's ext HDD. I'm also thinking of hanging a big drive off the Airport Extreme Base Station's USB port and using that as a shared networked volume, although hanging a FireWire 800 drive off the iMac might be a better solution-it's always on.

So I think spending a few bucks for the faster equipment would help internally. I don't expect to get much improvement in Internet speed, not with Time Warner RoadRunner as the ISP

[Pgoodwin1]

Mudman- I do agree though that it's not often that I'm moving the huge GB of data across the network, and it's not that often that the PS3 is running games online while both BluRays are streaming Netflix. But I'm not going to spend all that much money on all of this. The router and switches I'm using were probably designed in the 90s, and I've owned them for years. They've been on 24/7 for probably 50,000 hrs or more, and probabilities tell me they're likely to fail before too much longer. Of course, buying new stuff is a quality crapshoot these days.

[mudmanc4]

And this is really why I suggested grabbing up something like this cisco switch You don't have to worry about the quality crapshoot , the switch was new at around 2 grand and made for enterprise situations. You can find many many others out there for free shipping , there are thousands of them EOL right now.

Hell , you can make the thing a dummy switch if you don't want to learn to admin ios, and it'll just do what switches do, supply a route.

You have a lot of equipment there , I'm sure you have an old machine , or parts in the closet , installing something like pfsense is free and used worldwide by many high end mission critical offices and households. The machine can be anything made roughly in the past 20 years , although in the last 10 would be much better.

I'm just voicing my personal experience, I don't mean to push you around. I just know what you'll get going out and buying something new for what your doing , will not out perform my suggestion in any way. And the capabilities you would be gaining outweigh ten fold.

Whatever you do , have fun with it and let it expand you !

[Pgoodwin1]

Can you administer a 2900 series Cisco with a Mac running Safari or Firefox?

LOL if it's command line programming, it's a No