Will adding a switch slow down my NAS local transfers?

[Kashif Tasneem]

Hi. I have run out of ethernet ports on my router. So, I am planning to purchase an unmanaged gigabit switch. I will connect 1 port of switch to one of the ethernet ports of the router and then connect remaining ethernet ports of the switch to the clients. Correct? So, switch will be connected to the router with a 1Gbps link. When I connect clients to the switch, they will are share this 1 Gbps bandwidth. However, if I connect clients directly to the router they can have a dedicated 1 Gbps link each (because of link aggregation enabled on both router and NAS). Is my assumption correct that this will reduce the overall bandwidth of clients connected to the switch? Can I bypass it? For example, connect 2 ethernet ports of router and switch together to create a 2Gbps link?

 

[degrub]

Buy a switch large enough for all of your clients and devices including the NAS. Then have only a single cable between the switch and one of the router’s switch ports ( lan ports). All local communication will run at close to line speed.

If the router has wireless, then yes, that portion will share local access across the router lan port to the switch port. All devices on the switch will share internet (router WAN) with the router wireless clients as well. Likely not an issue as wireless is usually slower and internet communication is “bursty”.

Do not connect two cables between the switch and router lan ports unless both support port aggregation (LAG). It won’t help anyway as the router will be a choke point or the internet connection will be a choke point. The main use for LAG is between two devices with many users using one device simultaneously, typically a server. For single client at one time typical of home use, no advantage.

it pretty difficult to saturate a gigabit connection.