New Home Network

[MotF Bane]

I have a Verizon FiOS 5/2 internet line. I'm looking to purchase (and maintain personally) a Netgear GS605 Gigabit-ready router. The GS605 will have one port occupied with linking to a D-Link DI-624 Wireless router. My parents and my sister will be hooked into the D-Link via wired and wireless connections. The Netgear will carry my computer, and at LAN parties with my friends over, will carry more routers slaved behind it.

A few questions on this setup...

Will this give the rest of my family a fast and stable internet connection?

Will I need to reset the D-Link whenever I add another connection or another router to the Netgear?

How can I access the routers? Both of them are accessed via http://192.168.1.1, so how can I specify which one? I want to be able to adjust both, even if I am purely connected to the Netgear. Any ideas?

Thanks for any help you can all give me.

 

[Madwand1]

The GS605 is not a router; it's an unmanaged switch. There's nothing to configure; it should all be plug and play.

http://www.netgear.com/Products/Switches/DesktopSwitches/GS605.aspx

No re-booting of the main router should be needed. Consider the GS105/GS108 instead; I think they might be a bit more forgiving of cabling (esp. connector size) issues.

 

[jlazzaro]

not to mention, 4 ports isnt nearly enough connections for a good LAN party~!

 

[MotF Bane]

Jlazzaro, we're going to attach another GS605 (that a friend owns, not me) to one of my GS605's ports to expand it outwards. Besides, I only know about 5-8 people who ever want to do a LAN party.

Madwand1, financial constraints there. I'm trying to get a solid Gigabit router for the least amount of money possible. What do you mean "more forgiving of cabling issues"?

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: MotF Bane
Madwand1, financial constraints there. I'm trying to get a solid Gigabit router for the least amount of money possible. What do you mean "more forgiving of cabling issues"?

The GS60x switches have cosmetic covers which overhang the LAN ports, and these can sometimes cause problems with cables with large connectors. The symptoms are failure to connect, failure to connect at gigabit speed. Jamming the cable in further somethings helps. Swapping cables with ones having smaller connectors sometimes helps. So the GS60x are in practice more finicky about cables than some other switches.

Another issue that I've seen sometimes with them is what I'll call "broadcast happy mode". If you switch connections enough, especially changing NICs on the same machine, it seems to get confused about addresses and starts broadcasting all packets in some paths to all ports. If any of the connections are 100 Mb/s, as they would be in your case due to the router, this can significantly slow all traffic down from gigabit speed.

Fortunately both these issues aren't significant ones in practice in most homes, because the cables and connections stabilize. However, they could be more significant for a dynamic LAN party if people bring their own cables and if connections are changing, and you're trying to deal with all of this in a short setup time.

Once you're aware of the cable issue, you can deal with it. The broadcast issues might not arise. OTOH, you could be better off with a switch which just doesn't have such issues.