Switching from DSL to Cable - Help me pick my hardware

[Gorrillasnot]

Right now I'm on Verizon 3000/768 which my contract is about up. Insight offers 10/1 meg service so I'm planning to switch to that.

At the same time I want to upgrade my network to gigabit. I have 4 PCs and a laptop, so this is the hardware I thought about getting.

Modem: Motorola Surfboard SB5120 $52.12 shipped link

Router: D-Link DGL 4300 $73.99 shipped link

NICs: Rosewill RC-400 Qty4 $69.50 shipped link

4 25' Cat 6 cables somewhere around $20-$30

how does this look or what would you change?

also does the WAN cable from the modem to the router need to be CAT 6 too or would CAT 5e be ok?

thanks

 

[robmurphy]

I would recomend the intel gigabit nics see: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106121

The switch in the router does not support jumbo frames, so I would look for one that does.

I use a seperate network for gigabit in my home networks. All the internet and print sharing is done on 100 Meg, and the file sharing and remote desktop is via the gigabit.

I tried a D link gigabit NIC using the same chipset as the Rosewill and found the performance about 66 % of the Intel.

Do not expect to get 1000Mbs transfers as most home gigabit networks struggle to get past 300 - 500 Mbs.

The link from the modem to the router only needs Cat 5, not 5e. I use Cat 5E for my connections, and for 25' I would stick with cat 5E. The intel cards come with a utility to test the signal quality so you can see if the connections are OK. Using Cat 5E instead of Cat 6 would offset the more expensive Intel NICs.

Rob Murphy

 

[bruceb]

If it is available in your area yet, check out Verizon FIOS .. for one very reasonable monthly
fee you get: Cable TV / Telephone Service / HIgh Speed Internet ... and it is delivered to your
home on a Fiber Optic Cable .. A small interface box is installed in your home to break down
the Fiber to the various services .. and the TV picture is superb and much less expensive
than Cable ... channels are the same as Direct TV (but maybe not the same channel numbers)

 

[Gorrillasnot]

Originally posted by: robmurphy
I use a seperate network for gigabit in my home networks. All the internet and print sharing is done on 100 Meg, and the file sharing and remote desktop is via the gigabit.

Rob Murphy

What kinda hardware would be required to set up the 2 networks? Would it be a regular 10/100 + 802.11g router then add gig NICs and a gigabit switch?


thnx for the info

 

[Gorrillasnot]

Originally posted by: bruceb
If it is available in your area yet, check out Verizon FIOS .. for one very reasonable monthly
fee you get: Cable TV / Telephone Service / HIgh Speed Internet ... and it is delivered to your
home on a Fiber Optic Cable .. A small interface box is installed in your home to break down
the Fiber to the various services .. and the TV picture is superb and much less expensive
than Cable ... channels are the same as Direct TV (but maybe not the same channel numbers)

I would LOVE to get FIOS, but it's not available where I live. I live in a small town in east central Indiana so it'll prob be a long time before it will be available here.

 

[Eos]

Originally posted by: phatTweaker

Originally posted by: robmurphy
I use a seperate network for gigabit in my home networks. All the internet and print sharing is done on 100 Meg, and the file sharing and remote desktop is via the gigabit.

Rob Murphy

What kinda hardware would be required to set up the 2 networks? Would it be a regular 10/100 + 802.11g router then add gig NICs and a gigabit switch?


thnx for the info

I have a very similar system in place.

2 computers, each with 2 nics (2 onboard gigabit on mine and 1 of each on hers) and their own internet connection.
A third HTPC with an onboard gigabit nic.
All 3 computers have static IPs (10.0.0.x, separate from each of our WAN ranges) for the LAN and connect to a gigabit switch. IP and sub hard coded, but default left empty.

I really like what I've got setup. Very, VERY fast. 700mb will transfer over in 15 seconds. In fact, I stream files across the LAN to the HTPC for playback. No problems at all. The next job is to run the cables in the crawlspace.

 

[robmurphy]

My setup uses a netgear GS608 switch for the gigabit network. All IP address set as static, and on 10.x.x.x. All the shares are mapped using the IP addresses, e.g. \\10.0.0.3\c

The normal fast ethernet network is a L2 generic switch connected to my netgear wrt624 router. The IPs on this network use DHCP. All the internet access, and printer sharing is through this network.

Each PC has 2 network connections, a 10/00 ethernet and an Intel Pro GT gigabit NIC. Jumbo frames are enabled at 9k on all the NICs.

There is no connection between the 2 networks at present.

That is how I have things setup.

Rob Murphy

 

[Madwand1]

I think the NICs are overpriced. ~$20 for a Realtek-based PCI NIC is much more than I'd spend for such a product. I'd suggest (a) double-checking your computers, and going with on-board where you have it (b) spending either less on a similar PCI NIC or (c) perhaps spending more on PCIe NIC (if you have to) or (d) spending more Intel PCI NICs (if you have to).

(If you have to) means that sometimes there are great deals to be found. I spent ~$5 plus shipping for Marvell-based PCIe NICs on eBay; wish I'd bought more of them when they were available. Note however that Marvell-based PCI NICs don't perform as well.

I feel more comfortable suggesting spending less, on the basis on probability of a random build and setup being unable to take advantage of the NICs to the point that differences in gigabit NICs actually matter. If you're bottlenecked at around 30 MB/s by the hard drives, OS capability, etc., then you're not going to be bottlenecked by even cheap GbE NICs.

To be honest, for myself, I avoid PCI NICs wherever possible and go with what I deem best performance for the money. I also don't bother with segmenting a home network for jumbo/gigabit and non-jumbo/non-gigabit. I'm using a mixed frame but mostly gigabit network at home, which perform very well.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=36&threadid=2044946&enterthread=y

It also sounds like you might out-grow the DGL-4300 shortly. $74 is a great price for that router, but you might still consider getting a big enough gigabit switch to last you a longer time. With switches like the GS108, you'd get 7 usable ports (1 typically lost to the WAN connection), and probably jumbo frame support (depends on the particular switch and version, but I'm being optimistic here).

 

[futuristicmonkey]

Originally posted by: robmurphy

The link from the modem to the router only needs Cat 5, not 5e. I use Cat 5E for my connections, and for 25' I would stick with cat 5E. The intel cards come with a utility to test the signal quality so you can see if the connections are OK. Using Cat 5E instead of Cat 6 would offset the more expensive Intel NICs.

Rob Murphy

Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't cheap out on any cabling. It WILL eventually come back to bite you squarely on the ass. I'm not trying to say that cat5 is insufficient for residential internet duty, but if anyone goes to buy it thinking to save money, then they aren't going to certainly cry when they find out they can save a few bucks by going with el-cheapo brand cat5 instead of the expensive stuff -- at which point the price delta between it and moderate-quality cat6 is going to disappear.

In any case, go with decent cat6 all around and save yourself a headache or 3.

-ben

 

[robmurphy]

Using Cat6 for normal fast ethernet connection (i.e. 100 meg) is massive overkill. Its just a waste of money.

I've got quite a few Cat 5e cables, some are 20 meters and they are fine at gigabit. If you are installing the cable in the building infrastructure fine, go for Cat 6, but for ready made cables the Cat 5e ones I have had so far have been fine. The intel NICs I mentioned have a utility to check the signal quality and you can use this to confirm if the cables are OK.

Rob Murphy

 

[GimpyFuzznut]

www.monoprice.com for cables.
Cat5, 5E, 6... it doesn't matter, its all freakin' dirt cheap. DIRT CHEAP.

 

[busia12]

East Central Indiana? I lived in Anderson, IN for 5 years!! I actually used Insight internet for a while. I know this is kinda like forum trolling since I'm not contributing, but nice to see another Hoosier on the boards.

 

[gib4501]

For the modem i would recommend the motorola sb5101 over the sb 5120. Reason being i heard it may be able to handle the higher speeds better and i believe i read it has a better chipset in it as well. Plus i think they stopped making the sb 5120 anyway.

 

[Gorrillasnot]

I ended up buying the modem from insight. It was an Arris (cant remember model) for $39.99. The cable installer said they use to offer the Motorola modems but had allot of problems with the 5xxx series so they switched to Arris.

 

[Gorrillasnot]

Originally posted by: busia12
East Central Indiana? I lived in Anderson, IN for 5 years!! I actually used Insight internet for a while. I know this is kinda like forum trolling since I'm not contributing, but nice to see another Hoosier on the boards.

thnx fellow/former Hoosier. Yup Anderson isn't to far from me maybe a 45 minute drive. I live in a small town on the other side of Muncie