Wired Home Networking Help

[gstelmack]

As I slowly add more wired networking devices in my house, I think I'm hitting a point where I may need to take a hard look and revamp some of the hardware I'm using, since what I have has been piecemealed as I've built up. I'd love advice from some of the IT folks out there who have more experience with routers and switches than I do. Note that for the purposes of this discussion, wireless does not exist, I want to keep everything wired.

Part of the motiviation for this is that I'm not getting the speed I expect from my RoadRunner connection. I'm seeing 5-6 Mbps, when I'm paying for and have received 10 Mbps in the past. This may be due to the cablemodem itself, it may be due to the router/switch setup, or it may be due to line issues which I've dealt with before here. I do know that I plugged a computer straight into the cablemodem, rebooted the cablemodem, and saw 10-11 Mbps for a short time, but it didn't seem to last long, and I didn't leave the computer plugged in very long since I was outside my router. Mostly this is important because I would love to get something that lets me monitor network traffic better, so I can see if the problem is some other device sucking bandwidth on me, or if it really is slow line speed.

Anyway, here is my current setup:

Motorola cablemodem from TWC for the RoadRunner connection
Netgear 614 (pretty sure original release, not v6 or anything) 10/100 Router.

From the router, one line runs upstairs (just installed) where it goes straight into a Sony Blu-Ray player.

Another line runs to an 8-port Netgear 10/100 switch. This switch then connects to 3 computers, probably 4 soon. Speed tests from these computers (dslreports, RoadRunner's own speed test, etc) are the ones showing 5-6 Mbps downloads.

The third line from the router runs out to the living room, where I have a 5-port Netgear 10/100 switch. This switch connects to a Wii, Xbox360, and another Sony Blu-Ray player.

I can get exact model numbers tonight for the switches/routers if that helps. But the real question is, is that a reasonable setup? If I wanted to go to 1Gbps for the computers (no other devices have gigabit ports), I know I can replace just that switch, but are there any recommendations? If I swap that out, is it worth also upgrading the router or other switch?Since most of these are home routers/switches, they have basic functionality, but no way for me to easily monitor bandwidth usage and who is doing what when. Are there better switches / routers for doing the monitoring? That router is getting old and so could be part of the problem, any recommendations on a new one? Or is this setup pretty reasonable, and any real upgrade would cost more money than it's worth?

And if it helps, I'm very likely to swap from RoadRunner to U-Verse in the near future for 18 or 24 Mbps speed.

[Desnudo]

Do the PCs have gigabit cards? If not, you'll need that as well to get the full benefit of a gigabit switch. Also, it may not help increase your internet speed if you are capped at a relatively low speed. It's better to have a high quality 10/100 router than a cruddy gigabit.

The easiest thing to do would be to eliminate causes of performance bottlenecks. For example, buy some top-end consumer switches and routers and see if it makes a difference at the various points in your network. You can always return the equipment.

What are your thoughts on getting a home server? Your user scenario sounds tailor made for that kind of thing.

http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft...oduct/19E91820

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

What are your thoughts on getting a home server? Your user scenario sounds tailor made for that kind of thing.

This is probably coming eventually for me.

Thanks for the other advice. The computers do have gigabit cards in them, and I may look at upgrading the router as I highly suspect it; it's had 2 or 3 hardware revisions since the one I bought, and it's several years old at this point. I'm strongly considering Newegg.com - D-Link DGL-4100 10/100/1000Mbps GamerLounge Broadband Gigabit Gaming Router 1 x 10/100Mbps WAN Ports 4 x 10/100/1000Mbps LAN Ports - Wired Routers when it comes back into stock. And their switches get pretty good ratings as well. I'd spend a bit more money if I could find something that would let me get reports on which ports are using up bandwidth so I could monitor the network better.