Network Configuration

[humblewarfare]

I wanted to get opinion on possible network setup.

Downstairs -

2 HD Homerun Prime devices
XBox 360
PlayStation 4
Cable Modem
Old wireless router

All Connect to ASUS AC66U router
One cable connects from router to upstairs ASUS N66 router

Upstairs -

Media PC
BlueRay Player
Router
Linksys Powerline
Chromecast

Upstairs bedroom -
Portable wifi router connected via Powerline
Chromecast

Given the configuration, my question is this: How much throughput would I lose if I replaced the old router with an 8 port gig switch. All downstairs devices would connect to switch including the Powerline 200 from upstairs to downstairs.

Im trying to consolidate the number of routers/hot spots and connect as much of the house as I can with wired network. Running cables in the walls or ceiling isnt an option.

 

[System Error Message]

it is better to adopt a star based network topology, that means you should try connecting your router to switch than switch to ac66u and n66u and devices to switch however your router has good wireless so i dont see the point in having 2 wireless routers active at the same time. Because you dont have switch stacking or 10Gb ports you should put low bandwidth devices on the n66u.

If you have STP on the switches and routers you can than you can connect all of them together and get more bandwidth. You wont necessarily lose bandwidth but you should know that if devices from the n66u are communicating with devices on switch at full gigabit link and a device behind n66u wants to access internet it will suffer. by using STP and connecting them in a triangle this wont happen. Only managed switches have STP. and you may need merlin firmware for STP.

 

[humblewarfare]

Thanks. I wanted to add http://tinyw.in/tIA0 as the switch but Im a little uncertain about the configuration you mention.

Downstairs
Comcast Cable > Modem
Modem > Router
Cable from one of 4 ports on router to ANY port > switch.
All other devices > switch

Upstairs
Cable from downstairs router > N66 router (AP mode)
Blueray > N66 Router
Media Player > N66 Router

Does that sound about right? There is an STP option most likely on the switch?

 

[System Error Message]

not right. by 10Gb/s i mean
modem --- ac66u ==== switch ----- devices
................(wifi) |====n66u ----- devices

This would be an ideal config. = denotes multi-link or 10Gb/s link.

An alternative configuration would be
..................(wifi)
modem ---ac66u-------switch-------devices
................|---n66u------|
.......................|--devices

This configuration requires the switch and 66us to support STP. If you want to use an 8 port switch it must have 16Gb/s of non blocking bandwidth not 10Gb/s from the link you showed assuming the 8 ports are 1Gb/s. Only managed switches have STP.

Only managed switches can combine ports. I think tplink have cheap managed switches. Managed switches are always better as long as they have wirespeed non blocking.

The examples i showed are ideal configs that stand up to heavy full link use, they may not be necessary but that depends on your use of network.

 

[humblewarfare]

Network is used for light gaming, windows media center for TV and additional streaming from three TVs (one downstairs, two upstairs)

Other switch options:
http://goo.gl/dPCkxy
http://goo.gl/FKsP7q

Also on the 200Mb powerline, which is the best device to connect to?

Thanks again for your help I do appreciate you taking the time to educate me!

 

[System Error Message]

you should connect powerline to devices that arent bandwidth intensive. For example would be the xbox360 because it is only 100Mb/s. All your other devices seem like they can communicate with each other. MediaPC, chromecast, ps4, bluray player, etc all seem like they can stream from each other. The blu ray player is only a streamer so it doesnt need much bandwidth. You should use wire for gaming. Chromecast can use wireless if it has it because it is a streamer but with more features and capabilities than a bluray player assuming it supports wireless N at least.

I would recommend the zyxel because they usually make better products than tp-link but to make a proper choice you should compare them by specification and features. These are smart switches so they are semi managed and lack the features a fully managed switch has but as long as they support STP variants/loop detection and combining ports if you ever need the bandwidth.


One thing you could do to make your network better is to use the n66u as the main router and ac66u as wireless AP assuming the n66u is fast enough for your internet. STP is only needed for a ring or bus network topology. If you can use a star network topology with the switch as the center. WIth managed switch you can use QoS to reduce bandwidth issues if your network is heavily used. The uses you mentioned will only be heavy if you transfer files on LAN or have all devices stream from your media server simultaneously. In this case connecting the clients to the same switch as the server would be better. The xbox360 can be connected to the 2nd 66u or even powerline because it is not very network capable and mainly uses the network for internet. Infact you can connect it to the router instead.

The PS4 can stream but it really depends on what you use it for. If it is purely gaming it will only need the bandwidth for updates and gaming but unless you have a few hundred Mb/s internet there wont be any port contention.

The bluray player can be connected to the 2nd 66u because it is not bandwidth intensive and blu ray doesnt exceed 100Mb/s in streaming. If you find your streaming is laggy than switch them to the main switch.

 

[humblewarfare]

I never thought about the N56U, actually, being the primary router. The connection comes into the bottom of the house and the bedroom is one floor up at the other end of the house. I used the ac66 because I thought the wieless would reach for tablets/smartphones. But I now have a tiny travel router connected to the other end of the powerline in the bedroom.

The input for the powerline comes from the N56 router upstairs that gets a feed from the ac66u router (80 ft or so). I wanted to remove the old router(Netgear WNR3500) from downstairs and replace the portable router upstairs in the bedroom so I can add a roku or similar device if I want.

 

[System Error Message]

i suggest you connect your media center and ps4 to the main switch and any other gaming device except xbox. a 1Gb/s link can support 5 streamers without any issues but not 5 file transfers at the same time if you are transmitting large files. You can connect your streamers to both the switch and the wifi router you place upstairs but if you do use wireless you cant use too many at the same time for streaming on wireless. 1 or 2 clients streaming on wireless N works fine. Wireless AC adds more bandwidth to that.