Gigabit switch/router

[Zoinks]

I want to upgrade my home network to gigabit. Is there an 8 port gigabit switch that also has router for cable modem access? Any recommended hardware?

 

[cmetz]

I am not aware of any all in one solutions yet. Hawking makes the cheapest 8-port 10/100/1000 switch I know of, also a 4-port. Linksys makes a slightly more expensive version of the same. Get one and connect to a regular 10/100 SOHO router - for going to the public Internet, 100Mb/s will hardly bottleneck you.

 

[BlitzRommel]

Originally posted by: cmetz
I am not aware of any all in one solutions yet. Hawking makes the cheapest 8-port 10/100/1000 switch I know of, also a 4-port. Linksys makes a slightly more expensive version of the same. Get one and connect to a regular 10/100 SOHO router - for going to the public Internet, 100Mb/s will hardly bottleneck you.

Heh, 10mbps woul hardly bottleneck you for the internet. Unless you had a connection >10Mbps, which not many of us do...

 

[skyking]

Yes, get the gigabit switch and NICS, and use any router, it will make no difference.

 

[MontysNotebook]

I agree, keep the 100Mbps unless you have a server with 50 clients or so or your internet connection is that fast (which I doubt).

I'm sure that eventually it will become a useful upgrade for home users, but right now it won't do much.

 

[xyyz]

i never understand the desire for the "super overkill" when it comes to these home-based projects.

why would anyone need a gigbit ethernet network for home? i'm not being sarcastic... being honest... seriously... why would anyone need this type of bandwidth for home?

another thing... your home network... is it cabled properly? i'd suggest you start from there and then work back to figuring out the router/switch.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Originally posted by: xyyz
i never understand the desire for the "super overkill" when it comes to these home-based projects. why would anyone need a gigbit ethernet network for home? i'm not being sarcastic... being honest... seriously...

Well, the reason I wanted it was for faster backup speeds. I routinely move around a lot of data, and it should be a lot faster with gigabit links. As it turns out, it's not all that much faster, so it was a waste for me...

 

[skyking]

yea, I have one new intel gigabit NIC in the box, and just can't justify bringing the rest of the network to gig either. Any mega-transfers I need to do can run as I toddle off to bed

 

[xyyz]

you sure it's not your cabling?

i don't know if cat5e allows for sustained gigabit output. you might need to rewire with cat6 or fiber or something.

 

[skyking]

cat5 or cat5e will both do gigabit if properly wired and terminated.

 

[Mucman]

Originally posted by: gunrunnerjohn

Originally posted by: xyyz
i never understand the desire for the "super overkill" when it comes to these home-based projects. why would anyone need a gigbit ethernet network for home? i'm not being sarcastic... being honest... seriously...

Well, the reason I wanted it was for faster backup speeds. I routinely move around a lot of data, and it should be a lot faster with gigabit links. As it turns out, it's not all that much faster, so it was a waste for me...

Yeah... you won't see much difference going from 100Mbit to 1000Mbit there... unless you had 10 servers doing backups at the same time.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Originally posted by: xyyz
you sure it's not your cabling? i don't know if cat5e allows for sustained gigabit output. you might need to rewire with cat6 or fiber or something.

All my cable is CAT5e, and I can run speed tests like QCheck and I do indeed get gigabit speeds, or at least 600mbit or so. It's not the physical transport, it appears to be an SMB overhead issue that limits the file transfer performance.