Gigabit LAN and file sharing between computers

[hypeMarked]

I've read briefly about setting up a gigabit lan and that jumbo frames plays a big role. So I planned to equip all my computers with 2 nics (one for internet, the other for giga and hooked up to the giga switch). Then I'll adjust the MTU accordingly, and here's a couple questions that I have unanswered:

1) How would the computers know to transfer files over giga nic locally? I planned to have one subnet for internet (hooking up to router) and another subnet for LAN.

2) By setting the MTU to 9000 (like the site above suggested), it would benefitting transfering big files, but would I experience great loss in sharing small files? (ie I have a server that shares pictures, small home made videos, and mp3s and I want to share that)

Thanks

 

[Atheus]

I wouldn't do this if I were you. Way too much trouble.

1) How would the computers know to transfer files over giga nic locally?

You would have to route connections depending on higher-level protocols, like if SMB use eth0 else eth1. Easy done with linux/bsd but I assume you're using windows.

2) would I experience great loss in sharing small files?

No.

The main problem with this whole idea is that it'a a lot of woork for exactly zero rewards. Why not just send everything over gigabit? There's no way you could max it out.

 

[spidey07]

As far as the routing is concerned, just use the IP address of the gigabit LAN to connect to hosts and the conversation will flow using the gigabit.

jumbo frames have no impact on small files.

jumbo frames can only be a bad thing when there is packet loss. And there should never be any packet loss whatsoever on a LAN.

 

[hypeMarked]

Are you suggesting to have one active nic (the gigabit nic) per computer? Then connect those computers to a gigabit swich and then connect the switch to the router? But from the info I gather from various site, people said that if that's the case you won't be able to set the MTU to 9000 (which is where you would get the benefit of gigabit), thus the gain from having a gigabit lab would only be ~25% over the 100Mbps.

 

[hypeMarked]

I knnew about the addressing by ip address will initiate which ever interface I desire. I was wondering if there's a better way.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: hypeMarked
Are you suggesting to have one active nic (the gigabit nic) per computer?

Yes.

Setting a large MTU would help on the LAN, but would choke your internet connection. What you need is a router which can accept jumbo frames, but send a smaller MTU over the WAN port. No idea what routers are capable of doing this, never tried it.