Frustration implementing home network - network bandwidth

[SnowleopardPC]

I don't care whether it is 10/100/1000 switches from netgear, linksys, cisco small business or routers, and wireless access points. I want to know what "bandwidth" they can realistically handle.

For example. I have been looking at wireless AC solutions for the home. Well if there are 10 macs/pc's running at 1000 full duplex streaming HD or 4k video, I don't want the wireless router to be the bottle neck.

Or say I am having a get together at the house. 50 people are showing up. Say there are 10 pc/s laptop's, 25 ipones, and 25 android phones.

Everyone is connected to wifi.

I want all the devices to get the maximum connection speed they are capable of at the same time.

So when I am looking at switches and routers on Amazon, Newegg, etc anywhere and I am reading the specifications, its like great..... individual connections can be 867kbps...... what if there are 50 connections and they all want 867kbps?

So I started contacting manufacturers to ask them what the max. bandwidth the switch or router can handle and it is like pulling teeth sometimes.

I hope I have not confused everyone what I am trying to figure out, but I could use some help.

For home use, I am not looking for some half million dollar cisco switch, but I am looking for a solution that has the bandwidth to handle that type of traffic.

The reason I bring this up is I have had switches and routers that were technically rated really well, but once they had a load on them they became junk.

 

[nsafreak]

Are you really going to have that many wireless connections streaming high bandwidth content all at once on a regular basis? If so then you're pretty much looking at business grade equipment and not home office.

 

[VirtualLarry]

SmallNetBuilder router reviews have most of what you need.

 

[JackMDS]

Or say I am having a get together at the house. 50 people are showing up. Say there are 10 pc/s laptop's, 25 ipones, and 25 android phones.

Everyone is connected to wifi.

I want all the devices to get the maximum connection speed they are capable of at the same time.

To achieve this you need Hardware that its cost might end up well above $500. Just an Internet connection that support all the above is in the Hundreds.

Giving your post you are coming across as Not very knowledgeable in Networking and Wireless. So for the system that support the above you should hire help from an onsite consultant.

 

[SnowleopardPC]

Are you really going to have that many wireless connections streaming high bandwidth content all at once on a regular basis? If so then you're pretty much looking at business grade equipment and not home office.

At least twice a month my family and friends have get togethers and everyone is in the tech field/programers, dba's. If we are working on projects together they will bring their laptop's phones, etc.

Internet is through google fiber, and I know 10GbE is coming down in price to where it will be affordable at home, but that is still allot of bandwidth that the internal network needs to handle.

Just because I have a couple of 24 port 10GbE switches, doesn't mean that the max bandwidth of the switch is good.

I was going to ask about 16GB (1 x 16GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM 1600MHZ for laptops in the memory forum, but I guess that might seem strange too.... (looking for 64gb ram upgrades for Eurocom, Sager, Origin, Alienware and Dell Precision m6400's.)

 

[smakme7757]

People come in here all the time wanting to buy XYZ mega awesome components for their home. Its not strange for people to actually ask the question "Do you really need it"?

Most quality switches will be able to deliver up to their maximum bandwidth in both directions. Wireless isn't as blessed with stability as cabled networks so you shouldn't expect gigabit throughput over wireless.

But I have no idea why your talking about 10Gb. A switch capable of 1Gb is fine because its 1Gb per port. Not all up.

 

[Sephire]

Just buy this and get it over with.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Wifi, unlike a switched ethernet network, is every-device-sees-everything-because-air-is-magic. (Works like a hub. I forget the technical term.)

So, take the maximum bandwidth for the frequency you're using, divide by the number of devices, and cut that in half. That's your best-case.

If you're serious about streaming 4k to a bunch of devices, run some cables.

More than a couple dozen wifi devices will overload any "mere mortal" wifi router anyway, regardless of actual traffic load.

 

[Fallen Kell]

As dave_the_nerd just said, wifi is shared bandwidth, whereas with good wired switches, you will achieve full port to port bandwidth. Please note that I said "good wired switches". There are plenty of crappy ones that do not have the backbone to support full bandwidth to all connected devices, but there are plenty out there that can and do.

Also 4k video will need ~14gigabit without it being compressed (and thus losing picture quality). Don't plan on having a connection to your home that supports 50 people all streaming 4k video anytime soon.

 

[azazel1024]

Also, unless its a damned cheap switch, the maximum performance of the switch is port speed x the number of ports.

That is the switching fabric you want to look at (which almost all switch manufacturers list).

Most 16 port switches have a 32Gbps switching fabric. That means it can handle 1Gbps each direction on every single port at once. Granted, any ONE port can still only do 1Gbps in each direction at once.

For a wifi router, its worse than that. Figure 40-60% of the stated performance is the best you are likely to see. If you have more than 2-3 users utilizing it heavily, figure take the maximum bandwidth, multiply by 40-60% of the base figure, then figure skimming a few percent off the top again for every device over ~3 that are HEAVILY utilized (not simply connected). This is because the more devices, the more management time is taken up from the air time (IE all of the "wait....okay now it is your turn" frames that have to be sent to each device).

So if you have 20 people all trying to play a 4K youtube video...well, that'll never happen on wireless, at least not through one wireless router.

Honestly, for one who has tons of techie friends, it sounds like you are not the techie of the group (or at least not the one that knows anything about networking).

Through wireless it isn't possible to get the maximum connection speed to every single device AT ONCE. Its all shared bandwidth. On wired, the only sharing is where it all has to be funneled at connection points. A switch generally has full switching fabric for the ports (as I mentioned at the start), however each port is still limited to its speed, so if you have a 16 port gigabit switch, it generally has 32Gbps of switching fabric, but you only have a single port connected to your router, all devices are going to be limited to the speed of a single port shared between all devices getting to the router and then the internet. Of course the internet is likely to have at best a single 1Gbps port, so it is rather academic (other than traffic/QoS management at each port to handle proper bandwidth sharing).

Also, I guess I am not drinking the right koolaid, but 10GbE internet is not likely to be affordable for home use for quite a few years. If I were to guess, 10+ years before you can find it anywhere (and by anywhere, I mean available to >.1% of the US home populace) and at less than $500 a month.

1Gbps internet as it is is extremely rare (less than 1% of the US populace last I checked).

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Honestly, for one who has tons of techie friends, it sounds like you are not the techie of the group (or at least not the one that knows anything about networking).

This actually doesn't surprise me anymore. It is amazing how cripplingly specialized engineering types can get.

 

[Zargon]

exactly how big do you think a HD vid stream is....?

 

[azazel1024]

exactly how big do you think a HD vid stream is....?

10 gigaquads.

 

[azazel1024]

This actually doesn't surprise me anymore. It is amazing how cripplingly specialized engineering types can get.

Ermm, now that you point that out. Sigh. Okay, I can relate and you have a point. I know some people who are mind kroggling amazing at things like java development, or data base enterprise design...who know absolutely nothing about networking other than their router is plugged in to their cable and they connect their computer to that for the internet.