Adding NAS to my Home Network ?

[aquous]

Right, here's the situation.

I have an internet connection provided by NTL, which comes through their modem. The NTL modem is connected to a Dlink cable modem/router, though it is only used as a router. The router has 1 wired connection to my xbox360, 1 wired connection to my PC and a wireless connection active for when I use my laptop.

Now, I want to add 3 Buffalo Terastation 1TB drives, which will mainly act as a file repository. I want to connect these up to the router so any computer in the house can access files off them, even through wireless. Mainly though, I want them connected to my the main PC (which has a wired connection to the router) as that is where all of the files will be transferred regularly onto the drives.

I know the Terastation drives are gigabit capable, and so is my PC, but the router is only 10/100Mbps and not gigabit.

My question is, would I need to get a separate gigabit cable router/modem to connect all the stuff up or can I just connect a gigabit switch to the router I have ? What will be the best performing solution ?

Any advice appreciated

 

[noxidjkram@hotm]

Your network will bottleneck at the slowest point.

Your PCs will likely only have 10/100 NICs, so that will bottleneck anyway - also if traffic travels thorugh the modem/router then it will bottle neck there too.

If you have 3 gigabit drives attached to a gigabit switch then they *MAY* transfer data between each other at gigabit speeds, but that woudl depend upon a few factors.

Personally I would doubt you would ever have the need to transfer any data at gigabit speeds (for storage or retrieval) - it's only really useful when you are transferring LOTS of files concurrently through the same physical pathways.

M