Connecting Switches to Router

Danger Phoenix · 8 Nov 2016 at 11:05

Dooksy said:
Thanks. What's the CPU usage when you do this? Any AV running? Anything in particular that isn't Defender?

Can you browse normal internet sites? Is it just the router you can't get? Can you browse to the NAS?

CPU usage tends to be around 20%. I only bought a OcUK Tech Labs Haswell-E X99 Pro Gaming PC last November (~£2000) so it will take almost anything you throw at it.

I can browse other websites fine. NAS's UI becomes a bit sluggish but at least it opens up.

Danger Phoenix · 8 Nov 2016 at 11:07

bledd said:
150Mbit internet, maybe an Edgerouter isn't such a bad idea, they're made for gigabit connections

Well I've got 200Mbit down, but then the disks can't keep it

ChrisD. · 8 Nov 2016 at 11:07

And AV?

I think something is throttling/bottlenecking.

Orcvader · 8 Nov 2016 at 11:10

Is the Synology acting as NVR also used for anything else? I would suggest connecting that to the Dlink switch as well.

Danger Phoenix · 8 Nov 2016 at 11:11

Dooksy said:
And AV?

I think something is throttling/bottlenecking.

Sorry Mate... really ought to go to bed soon! Running ESET with most things turned off. I don't run any firewalls or the rubbish that's built into Windows.

I checked all those things first, and when I noticed I couldn't open the router page from another device on the LAN or from the WAN, I started looking elsewhere on the network.

Danger Phoenix · 8 Nov 2016 at 11:13

Orcvader said:
Is the Synology acting as NVR also used for anything else? I would suggest connecting that to the Dlink switch as well.

Yep, it holds all the media and I have a Plex Server running on my PC. That was not being used and was not doing any scanning etc when I saw these issues.

ChrisD. · 8 Nov 2016 at 12:45

Danger Phoenix said:
Sorry Mate... really ought to go to bed soon! Running ESET with most things turned off. I don't run any firewalls or the rubbish that's built into Windows.

I checked all those things first, and when I noticed I couldn't open the router page from another device on the LAN or from the WAN, I started looking elsewhere on the network.

The 'rubbish' that's built into Windows is better than most of the stuff people put on instead.

Maybe try a Linux live CD to rule out the PC/OS being at fault then look at the network.

Danger Phoenix · 8 Nov 2016 at 12:54

Dooksy said:
The 'rubbish' that's built into Windows is better than most of the stuff people put on instead.

Maybe try a Linux live CD to rule out the PC/OS being at fault then look at the network.

If it was the PC then surely I should be able to access the router fine from other LAN/WAN devices?

I ran the bare minimum on my own PC because unlike other members of my family, I don't go clicking on random things

ChrisD. · 8 Nov 2016 at 12:57

Ah, so it's when you connect from other devices as well, I hadn't read that.

bledd · 8 Nov 2016 at 13:05

Just run everything through the switch instead of the router, she be 'reet.

ov_sjo · 8 Nov 2016 at 13:33

Danger Phoenix said:
I've not slept since I woke up on Sunday morning so definitely wasn't intentional.

1) Yep

2) I have and nothing obvious that I can see

3) I haven't done any proper tests, just noticed things grind to a halt if I am downloading something at ~150Mbit from the internet, whilst copying 200GB from the PC to the main NAS (download location and source of the copy are on different drives... one is a M.2 and the other a WD Black). When this is going on, I cannot even access the router's admin page from any device either on the LAN or WAN access.

Regarding your answer 2 which is a bit ambiguous, is the error count zero or above zero for the switch ports in question?

Re. 3, you say your downloads and file copies are on different spindles, but are they in the same NAS unit? If so have you monitored CPU usage on the NAS during these operations?

Danger Phoenix · 8 Nov 2016 at 14:16

ov_sjo said:
Regarding your answer 2 which is a bit ambiguous, is the error count zero or above zero for the switch ports in question?

Re. 3, you say your downloads and file copies are on different spindles, but are they in the same NAS unit? If so have you monitored CPU usage on the NAS during these operations?

For the ports that the two NASs are on, the errored packet count is 0. For my PC this count is on 3. I assume these counts are from when the switch was last rebooted so covers just under 34 days.

If I'm downloading on my PC then the data is going to the C: drive which is the M.2. Copying data from my PC tends to be on the D: and that then goes to the NAS.

The NAS's CPU utilisation only spikes when Plex is doing a rescan... other than that it hovers around the 30% mark.

Steveocee · 8 Nov 2016 at 14:32

bledd said:
Just run everything through the switch instead of the router, she be 'reet.

This.

Quartz · 8 Nov 2016 at 14:43

If you need to access the cameras from outside, would it be worth plugging the DLink into your router and setting up that port as the DMZ?

ov_sjo · 8 Nov 2016 at 14:48

Quartz said:
If you need to access the cameras from outside, would it be worth plugging the DLink into your router and setting up that port as the DMZ?

Only if you are trying to protect against leapfrog attacks.

bledd · 8 Nov 2016 at 15:35

Quartz said:
If you need to access the cameras from outside, would it be worth plugging the DLink into your router and setting up that port as the DMZ?

No.

DMZ is a ridiculous idea for 99.9% of the time that people turn it on.

VPN or at a push, port forward.

zoomee · 8 Nov 2016 at 15:44

You sound like a bit of a techie - forget all them consumer grade routers and get somat custom sorted.

Best bit of advice I can give you is to buy a decent router solution. The Asus routers can easily get bogged down when you have stuff like AiProtection, Qos, Traffic Monitor etc switched on.

I have a similar setup to you - albiet only one NAS, here's what I did recently:
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/pf...-rmerlin-is-there-any-reason-to-change.35229/

Helped LOADS with security (I was able to put the NAS behind the web protection service and in turn I see very little access to it now whereas before I had all sorts of issues with hax0rs).

In turn - use the AC-66U as just an access point. The setup I now have over the previous AC-88U router setup is far more optimised, controllable and secure. Took me a couple of days to set it all up but was well worth it. Will NEVER go back to consumer grade routers now. hth - if you do decide to go this route drop me a pm and I'll send you some more info

PS - The DSCam app works perfect through the proxy server - no need for vpn man

ChrisD. · 8 Nov 2016 at 16:04

I must admit that my connection is far more stable since I bought an EdgeRouter Lite over the previous RT-N66U.

bremen1874 · 8 Nov 2016 at 16:12

More stable? In what way?

If you assume that they're both connecting via the same VDSL modem the stability of the WAN connection should be identical. All the router has to do is raise a PPPoE connection.

ChrisD. · 8 Nov 2016 at 16:15

bremen1874 said:
More stable? In what way?

If you assume that they're both connecting via the same VDSL modem the stability of the WAN connection should be identical. All the router has to do is raise a PPPoE connection.

Because since installing it I've never had to log onto it or reboot it. Something I had to do with the old ASUS quite often. My internet has been flawless actually, no slow downs or anything since I bought it.

Same setup, separate wifi AP and Vigor 130 as my modem.