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roldogg

Regular Contributor
I have approximately 42 devices on my home network, and about 15 of these devices are hardwired into 2 ProSafe Smart Switches, which both run directly to my Asus RT-AC87R router along with a NAS, which also runs directly to my router. The router has one open port not being used, and the router connects directly to my cable modem, which is getting 150Mbps download speed. Would there be any benefit to run my cable modem to a managed switch and connect my other 2 managed switches, the router, and my NAS directly to it instead of using the ports on the router?

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I don't understand the part about moving the cable modem connection. Doesn't it have to connect to the router WAN port?
 
If you don't need the management features I do not see a benefit to purchasing a third switch to run everything through. There may be a small advantage to purchasing a switch with more ports so everything could connect directly to it. But this would only help if you are currently saturating the connections between the switches.
Edit: I am assuming all your switches are currently Gigabit switches?
 
Yes, each port can handle 2GB of throughput, and I have 2 ports on my desktop setup as a LAG connection. I was just curious if I ran the connection coming from the cable modem into a switch first instead of the wireless router, and then connect my wireless router to the switch, along with my other switches, if there would be any benefit to my internal LAN speed. I wasn't sure if the ports on the wireless router had the same speed and functionality as the ports on a managed switch.

I know most routers have lots of functionality, but I wasn't sure if I had every client on my network running through my wireless router in some way if it would be the same as having all my wired traffic segregated from my wireless traffic by using a switch. For example, if I was streaming video on my LAN, let's say from my NAS to one of my smart TVs or media player, would that traffic have any effect on the traffic of a different client if it was downloading, or streaming, something on a laptop from the Internet using a wireless AC connection (one client streaming a 4K video file from a NAS on the LAN while another client, a wireless client, was watching something on Netflix)?

I hope I'm making sense.

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If you use one port on your router all the internet traffic is going to have to go through that one port.

If your devices are heavily using the internet or you are sensitive to how responsive the 'net is even while your local LAN is used heavily, then I would connect each LAN port on the router to a switch and then further divide, sort and match the devices within a single switch so that when the maximum LAN and WAN activity is placed on your network, the devices are physically and logically connected to provide the most efficient use of the LAN for all.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/still-confused-about-switches.20955/#post-152143

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/still-confused-about-switches.20955/#post-152238


The links above may further clarify the quick points I'm trying to make here.
 
Ok, I finally had an opportunity to read through those threads, a few times, and all of it is good info. Only question I have is if would make any kind of performance difference if I had my incoming internet plugged into a managed switch first then ran the switch to my other locations (bypassing the router) and plugged my RT-AC87R into the switch as well for all my wireless devices to connect to. My main system supports LAG, along with the switch it's connected to, but would the ports on my router have the same speeds, functionality, etc, or would running the WAN connection into my router first, and then branch out to the level 2 switches be a better topology?

Lastly, how would setting up my desktop LAN adapters to a team, and setting up my current switch to support LAG be beneficial if it's only going into 1 port on my router? Wouldn't that create a bottleneck? I currently have a lot of movies, music, etc that can be streamed across my LAN to a smart TV, media player, etc, but I've been looking for a new NAS for my network, because the WD My Drive, or whatever it's called, is 90% full. Once I figure out what NAS to replace my WD drive with, I'd like for it to be able to store all this data and be used as a media server. I'd like to get one that has 2-4 LAN ports that can be teamed or get one that supports 10GBe. Once I find something like this, will running everything through my router create a bottleneck? Also, my new Nvidia Shield Android TV should be shipping this week, and I'd like to be able to stream some games from my desktop to my TV in 4K and 60fps.

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in terms of performance technically it makes no difference attaching your internet cable to your switch however you will need to isolate traffic on your internet ports from everything else. By doing this you make your switch the center point of your network and you also use more network cables. Usually this kind of thing is done if you have multiple ISPs but non consumer routers have enough ports and configurability that this isnt needed.

If you use VLANs and such you could reduce the total number of network cables used by having only 1 physical cable to each device but you reduce the maximum bandwidth you can use for internet. If your internet is above 500Mb/s and you use gigabit ethernet than you will want to avoid this.

You really should plan your network first. port teaming on windows only work with intel NICs through their drivers whereas on the switch there isnt any specific setting to LAGG, you just enable it if you are going to do teaming on the client. Some routers support LAGG while many dont. I remember there is a thread in merlin firmware about port teaming on asus routers. Draw out your network using lines to represent every link and put down what bandwidths those link has. It will help you find any bottlenecks.

When connecting switches together use faster links or LAGG if you dont want any bottlenecks. With all the hardware you have im surprised you're not using a non consumer router. I use a very high end mikrotik router and asus router as my wifi AP. If you want to connect your internet cable to your switch than make sure your internal traffic doesnt bleed out to the internet and vice versa.
 
AFAIK, it is necessary for the router to be connected to the cable/DSL modem in order for the ISP to assign you a WAN address. The router then handles assigning all your local devices a local IP address via its DHCP function. If you put the cable modem directly into a switch and bypassed the router, the modem would likely assign a WAN address to one of your local devices at random. Which local device got the IP address would strictly depend on which one got there first. However, if your internet service was set to assign you multiple WAN addresses, your scheme would work for up to the number of addresses you could get from the ISP.

You need the router, or something equivalent, to see the cable modem, get a WAN address, and then via NAT be able to give all your local devices access to the WAN.

Using a quality switch with one port directly connected to a router port and local devices on the other switch ports will allow faster LAN traffic, as the switch usually has more power to move data from one port to another than the router does.

I would connect your current switches together so that all LAN traffic passes through the switches and only one port on the switch array goes to the router and on to the cable modem. That way the router has minimum loading and should handle that load at top speed.
 
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