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Flashheart

Flashheart

Flashheart

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Joined
23 Oct 2010
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618
Location
Telford, Shropshire
After a little advise, if anybody is able!

Basically, I'm on sky fibre. Obviously the Sky SR102 only has 10/100 ethernet ports.

I'm in between to minds wether to buy a new router, or just get a couple of gigabit switches and run the network through those with one plugged into the router.

Will this work? I'm getting into steam in home streaming so want the quickest qired connection i can get within the house.
 
You'll still be limited to 10/100 even of you use a gigabit switch as the router ports themselves only max out at 100Mb.

Best to get a different router if possible.
 
Nymins said:
You'll still be limited to 10/100 even of you use a gigabit switch as the router ports themselves only max out at 100Mb.

Best to get a different router if possible.
Click to expand...

If you get GB switches you will hit gb speeds aslong as all your Tech is plugged into the switches and then just have 1 line out of your switches to the router for internet access. This should give you a nice solid 1gbps in house and 100mb to the outside world (more than enough for todays fibre).
 
Exactly the answers I was looking for, thanks guys! I only need a few ports, so the 5 port switch should be plenty.

I'll order a couple of switches from here and give them a whirl tomorow
 
meandu229 said:
If you get GB switches you will hit gb speeds aslong as all your Tech is plugged into the switches and then just have 1 line out of your switches to the router for internet access. This should give you a nice solid 1gbps in house and 100mb to the outside world (more than enough for todays fibre).
Click to expand...

Ah yes thats right sorry. I was only talking about the internet speed which will still be limited to 100Mb, so depending on the internet connection speeds in the future it could be an issue (although no doubt Sky will release a better router by then).
 
I hope Sky do release a better router, they are so far behind other ISP's it's unreal.

Made worse by the fact that they don't "officially" allow 3rd party routers. So anybody none savvy is forced to put up with their crap.
 
Flashheart said:
After a little advise, if anybody is able!

Basically, I'm on sky fibre. Obviously the Sky SR102 only has 10/100 ethernet ports.

I'm in between to minds wether to buy a new router, or just get a couple of gigabit switches and run the network through those with one plugged into the router.

Will this work? I'm getting into steam in home streaming so want the quickest qired connection i can get within the house.
Click to expand...

From a Network Engineers' point of view - Get a separate switch. One of the reasons for this is you can choose from a much larger variety of switches than you can for Routers (With Modems in-built).

The second reason is many Routers/Modems are built to support a particular service and at the port speed specified. So if you're downloading data from the internet on one PC and doing a file transfer on another to another PC, you'll likely see some effect on the throughput on the one downloading.

By using a separate switch, the Router/Modem will only be used for what it does best - Routing & Modulating/Demodulating your internet connection.

You may also find that using separate switches is:

  • Neater - You can route just one cable to the Modem and put the switch in a good location where you can route lots of cables all over your property
  • Expandable - If you want to expand in the future you'll either have to buy another new router (If you go down the router path). This is expensive
  • Cheap - Buying switches is 99% of the time MUCH cheaper than buying an equivalent modem/router. You can get 16-port Gigabit Switches for way under £100! Most good routers cost over £100

So yeah I suggest you go with a separate switch.
 
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