Router or Gigabit switch ?

[Carnagerover]

Hi all,

I currently use a Netgear DG824GT for my ADSL connection, however on bulk transfers or when under fire from alot of users it gets a little overwhelmed.

I have just re-wired my home with cat5e so i would like to get a Gigabit router or switch to take advantage of the speed.

I was looking at this for the switch;

http://www.netgear.co.uk/gigabit_net...itch_gs105.php

Or just getting a D-link DIR-655 which also has a gigabit switch, however it does not support jumbo frames, i'm not sure how important Jumbo frames are in everyday file transfers over the network so i'm un-sure what to do about that.

I have noticed with the Netgear DG834GT that it drops packets sometimes also becomes unresponsive when the CPU is taking a beating.

This is why i am looking at a DIR-655, if i put my Netgear DG834GT into bridge only mode it will passthrough the adsl signal to the DIR-655, so that can route all the information, and i assume that is all the Netgear would do, so i would take that out of the routing equation all together.

So is the DIR-655 up to the job when it comes to a gigabit switch or should i go with a Netgear Prosafe gigabit switch with Jumbo frames and the like ?

I think the DIR-655 is the best option to take over the routing from the Netgear but it depends on how good it is as a gigabit switch.

 

[thiggins]

What do you mean "overwhelmed"? What is your Internet connection speed and what are you doing when you are "overwhelmed"?

If you are trying to use more bandwidth than your Internet connection supports, then a gigabit switch isn't going to help.

If your problem is trying to use to much bandwidth on your LAN, then a gigabit switch might help.

Jumbo frames will help only if devices at both ends of the connection support it.

 

[Carnagerover]

My internet connection is 20mbps, although my router can support this, however when downloading with say 20 concurrent connections as well as transferring files on the network, whilst someone is browsing the net on the laptop.

That sort of usage drags the netgear down, my computer has two gigabit cards in there with jumbo frames support, however my other devices don't have jumbo frames so i suppose that is now redundant ?

I normally put a speed limit on when i am downloading so that there is still enough bandwidth to browse the net and watch videos, although when all the tasks are combined like i said i get slowdown on the router.

I dont think the netgear is up to my level of usage requirements and i want to use gigabit to speed up my file transfers.

Looking at the router charts the Dir-655 is about the best bang for your buck, or pounds in my case.

I don't really need wireless to be anything better than 54mbps though as my important rooms are now wired and the laptop gets a signal everywhere for browsing the net and watching videos.

Also when the Netgear is in Bridge mode you can still use the wireless as long as you put a patch cable from the netgear to whatever router is there, wired or wireless, i had it working like this before, so i could go wired if there was a better solution than the DIR-655, a gigabit wired router.

 

[thiggins]

How do you know that the Netgear is being "dragged down". If its throughput is higher than 20 Mbps, then it isn't the limiting factor.

The only thing a gigabit switch will get you is faster local (LAN-to-LAN) transfers between clients with gigabit Ethernet cards. Jumbo frames won't help unless they are supported by devices at both ends of the transfer. The 655's switch automatically supports up to 9k jumbo frames.

 

[jdabbs]

I couldn't find much on the DG824GT on Google; is that the full model name? A drop-in replacement of a 655 may not solve the problem (assuming said problem is router CPU overtaxing) if it is a modem/router combo device, since the Netgear router must remain as the gateway unless another modem replaces it.

 

[Carnagerover]

This is the router;

http://www.netgear.co.uk/wireless_broadband_router_dg834gt.php

The reason i think it is the router is when i am doing all the above things at once i get web page slowdown, file transfers slowdown and the router interface itself becomes totally unresponsive.

I may only get 6MBps on file transfers when i would normally get 11MBps when nothing else is happening.

I want faster file transfers that is one of my main goals, but i also want the Wan side of things to keep up, when i am downloading with 20 concurrent connections and taxing the router, the download speed will often drop to nothing and then start back up again, this does not happen when this is the only thing happening.

If i have the Netgear device in bridge only mode and just pass the converted adsl signal to the DIR-655 i am hoping that will easily have the power to do all the above.

 

[thiggins]

The 655 might help, since it has a very fast routing section. Consider, however, that your ISP could be throttling traffic if they are detecting BitTorrent or similar sessions.

 

[Carnagerover]

Thanks for the replies,

I'm sure its not my ISP, as they don't throttle traffic at all, the only company in the UK that truly has unlimited downloads and no traffic shaping.

I cant find any wired consumer device that offers as good a feature set as the DIR - 655 so that looks like the best option.

I just hope that the DG834GT is totally bypassed in bridge mode.

There is also the DIR-825 but i have no idea when or if that will surface in the uk, seen as though the DIR-855 was a total flop.

 

[Carnagerover]

I have a problem with my Netgear that i can't seem to get to the bottom to,

I have my laptop and PC on auto sensing in there network options, when i transfer a file i get 11MBps which i would imagine is 100mbit full duplex ?

However when i put both the Laptop and PC onto 100mbps and do a file transfer i get only 250kbps or something weird like that.

What would be the reason for this not working properly ?