Gigabit Network Misunderstanding

[shad0w88]

Hi,

Just registered here cause I thought this was the most resourceful and information website regarding networking.

I am in a bit of a conundrum regarding setting up a GigaBit Network. Here are my questions :

1. Do all wired devices need to be Gigabit for the network to operate at Gigabit speeds. All computers are gigabit, but print servers and IP cameras are not gigabit. If I install Gigabit routers/switches will the network work at Gigabit speeds?
2. Does a Gigabit network improve the latency? e.g. I have set up Windows file sharing, when opening the share on a Wired Computer it takes a while to open, will using a gigbit network improve this. The computers sharing the files are snappy and using SSD's so I doubt that the computer is the reason for the lag.

 

[chadster766]

Hi,

Just registered here cause I thought this was the most resourceful and information website regarding networking.

I am in a bit of a conundrum regarding setting up a GigaBit Network. Here are my questions :

1. Do all wired devices need to be Gigabit for the network to operate at Gigabit speeds. All computers are gigabit, but print servers and IP cameras are not gigabit. If I install Gigabit routers/switches will the network work at Gigabit speeds? Yes each port on the switch is independent and will run at the speed of the device attached.
2. Does a Gigabit network improve the latency? e.g. I have set up Windows file sharing, when opening the share on a Wired Computer it takes a while to open, will using a gigbit network improve this. The computers sharing the files are snappy and using SSD's so I doubt that the computer is the reason for the lag. Yes quite a bit of improvement in this case.

Comment Above:

 

[shad0w88]

Thanks

So the setup I have currently is such,

3G Wireless USB Dongle connected to TL-WR703N for converting the wireless dongle to LAN and set as the main router aswell.

TL-WR703N to WRT54GSv7.2 mainly used for wireless networking only.

WRT54GSv7.2 to TL-WR711N acting as a switch for 3 computers connected wired.

I mainly need to improve speeds between the 3 computers, should I install a Gigabit Router in the place of the TL-WR711N? Or should I change the WRT54GSv7.2 as well?

 

[chadster766]

Thanks

So the setup I have currently is such,

3G Wireless USB Dongle connected to TL-WR703N for converting the wireless dongle to LAN and set as the main router aswell.

TL-WR703N to WRT54GSv7.2 mainly used for wireless networking only.

WRT54GSv7.2 to TL-WR711N acting as a switch for 3 computers connected wired.

I mainly need to improve speeds between the 3 computers, should I install a Gigabit Router in the place of the TL-WR711N? Or should I change the WRT54GSv7.2 as well?

I can't find any specs on the TL-WR711N but if the LAN ports are Gigabit than you are good as is. If not then you could replace the TL-WR711N with a gigabit switch or add a gigabit switch after it.

 

[shad0w88]

My mistake it's actually a TL-WR741ND, it's not Gigabit, would it make a difference between changing the router with a gigabit one and just installing a gigabit switch?

 

[htismaqe]

Just from looking at the TP-Link website, that devices is probably in their N150 product line, all of which only have 10/100 ports.

If you just need improved performance between the 3 PCs, buy a gigabit switch and insert it between the PCs and the TL-WR711N.

 

[chadster766]

My mistake it's actually a TL-WR741ND, it's not Gigabit, would it make a difference between changing the router with a gigabit one and just installing a gigabit switch?

I would just add a switch. A Gigabit switch will get you the best transfer performance between computers on the LAN.

 

[shad0w88]

Just from looking at the TP-Link website, that devices is probably in their N150 product line, all of which only have 10/100 ports.

If you just need improved performance between the 3 PCs, buy a gigabit switch and insert it between the PCs and the TL-WR711N.

Thanks, will do! You have been very helpful.

 

[stevech]

Computers using ethernet cable / wired connection.
Each computer has to have a gigE capable interface, of course.
Each connects to a gigE switch.
Some WiFi routers have a built-in gigE switch on the 4 LAN ports. Some claim to have a real switch, but do not.

I suggest spending $30 to get a decent gigE switch. Use that for the PCs. Then run one ethernet cable from the switch to the router. This removes the doubt about the goodness of the LAN ports of the router.

Of course, WiFi devices aren't, in reality, able to get near the wired speeds of gigE, after all the overhead of WiFi is considered. The raw WiFi connection speed doesn't reveal what net throughput it would have for real TCP/IP packet data.

 

[shad0w88]

Will be going for either
http://www.dlink.com.au/home-solutions/8-port-gigabit-desktop-switch

or

http://www.tp-link.com/lk/products/details/?model=TL-SG1008D

which one would be more preferable, the tp link is $5 cheaper

 

[htismaqe]

They look pretty comparable. Both support auto-MDIX which is a good feature to have.

I'd go with the cheaper one all things considered.

 

[shad0w88]

Ok will get the tp link tomorrow.

Any recommended software to benchmark wired transfer speeds and latency?

 

[chadster766]

Ok will get the tp link tomorrow.

Any recommended software to benchmark wired transfer speeds and latency?

I suggest "iPerf" or "Microsoft TCP Test Tool". There are many to choose from.

When you do your testing, if you notice your transfer rates aren't 900MBit/s plus reply back. We would have suggestions on how to get those kinds of transfer rates.

 

[azazel1024]

To clear up, not everything has to be gigabit, but anything that isn't only moves as fast as it can. Each end point that you want to run at gigabit speeds has to be capable of gigabit and everything in the middle has to be gigabit. Other end points can be 10/100 and it doesn't matter (except that those end points can only to 10/100Mbps).

For latency. Yes/no.

It reduces latency by a factor of 10 with most common switch gear, as most common types are store and forward (they fill a small buffer, then send the packets on to the exit port). HOWEVER, the buffers we are talking about are very small. Its likely the difference between 100us and 10us of latency between a 100Mbps switch and a 1,000Mbps switch.

You have to have a very latency sensitive application for you to see a difference with that.

As for things like network shares taking a long time to open, are the drives spun up on your server? Because if the drive head has parked/idled to sleep it can take 5-10s for the drive to spin up again when you try to access the network share.

*edit* as a point of clarification I just looked over several common gigabit and fast ethernet switches. It looks like around 256kb is a rough standard buffer size per gigabit port and 128-256 on fast ethernet switches (just looking at new stuff and a glance at 4-5 different models of each). That means a fast ethernet switch would induce between 125-250us of latency and a gigabit switch would induce about 25us of latency. Still small fractions of a milisecond in either case.

 

[thiggins]

Any recommended software to benchmark wired transfer speeds and latency?

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