Upgrade to gigabyte home network?

[maddogatc]

About seven years ago I wired the house with cat 5 cable for my network. All has been running well since with cable internet through a linksys wrt54gs router and 10/100 switch for the computers in the basement. Currently I have 3 computers hooked up to the network all gigabyte lan capable. Will I will have to upgrade to cat 6 cable, get a gigabyte router and switch to take advantage of of the gigabyte transfer rate? Will my internet service be any faster (download upload speed)? It will cost a couple hundred bucks+ to buy the equipment and cable plus my time to install. Is the cost of upgrading my network worth the increase in speed?

 

[Madwand1]

FYI, it's called "gigabit".

No, it won't do anything for your Internet access speed unless you have an Internet service and router which can do more than 100 Mb/s. By far most people don't.

However, it can do a lot for your local file sharing -- typically 2-3x the transfer speed of standard 100 Mb/s networking. For this you only need a gigabit switch between your router and computers to start. You'd find out then if it's really necessary to upgrade the cabling. Gigabit was designed with cat 5 in mind, so as long as it was decent cat 5 you should be fine. Any new cabling, where needed, should be done to higher standards.

 

[maddogatc]

I checked with my cable internet service and with my service I get 10Mbps download and 640kbps upload. So no I guess it won't do much for my internet service. The way I have my wiring (cat 5 bought at Home Depot) set up is modem to router-my computer main floor, wire to basement, switch, then my kid two computers. So if I understand correctly I would need a new gigabit router and switch, or two new gigabit switch's to make my new network work more efficiently?

 

[JackMDS]

I think that Home Depot was Not in business in the Cat5 era. So your cables are probably Cat5e and it is Good for Giga

So all you need is a Giga switch Giga NIC in the computers.

Example, http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817111480

 

[Madwand1]

Originally posted by: maddogatc
The way I have my wiring (cat 5 bought at Home Depot) set up is modem to router-my computer main floor, wire to basement, switch, then my kid two computers. So if I understand correctly I would need a new gigabit router and switch, or two new gigabit switch's to make my new network work more efficiently?

Yes, it sounds like you'd need to get a gigabit switch in front of your router, connect that to your desktop and the run to the basement, and then branch that out to your kids' computers via another gigabit switch.

If you have cable in the basement, you might consider moving the modem, router and switch there, to avoid the second switch.

Note however that all this will only increase file transfers from one local computer to another, and even then, not to the degree you might hope for (10x) but more like 2-3x in practice with large files.

 

[maddogatc]

Thank you for your information. I may just leave it as is. We do occasional file transfer but the network is set up more for internet gaming and web browsing. No point in spending the extra cash for no noticeable increase in speed.