I need some help with my network infratructure

zulu9812 · 3 Jun 2009 at 18:25

Hello,

I am currently operating the following network setup:

Family PC, basic model, used by everyone primarily for office work and web browsing
My own PC, pretty decent build, used primarily for gaming and graphic design
A fileserver PC, built purely to house a bunch of 1TB hard drives
Linksys WRT54G wireless router (about 7 years old) - not using wireless capacity, simply running cables as all PCs are in 2 adjacent rooms

I'm currently operating on bog-standard RJ-45 ports and I was wondering if I would see any real increase in performance (particularly file access to the file server pc) if I upgraded everything to gigabit?

Additionally, do I have to purchase another router, or can I hook up my existing Linksys to a Gigabit switch? Obviously, there will be a bottleneck as it won't be a true gigabit connection, but the main idea would be to maintain fast gigabit connections between the 3 PCs whilst still having a shared internet connection.

Obviously, if I were to upgrade to gigabit I would purchase gigabit adapter cards for all PCs.

Can anyone give some insights?

zulu9812 · 4 Jun 2009 at 03:05

Thanks for the info. It's good that I don't need a new router, just a switch (it's cheaper!)

This is probably a stupid question, but here goes. My main gaming PC's motherboard is an Asus P5Q SE, which apparently has built-in "Attansic L1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Controller", and my fileserver's motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-DS2H which also seemingly has built-in gigabit connectivity. The weird thing is that I run PC Wizard (a system info tool) on both PCs, and they're telling me that the LAN ports I have on both backplates are standard RJ-45 ports. Shouldn't gigabit have a new port standard?

zulu9812 · 4 Jun 2009 at 16:57

Oh, that's pretty good - so all I need is a 4-port gigabit switch. That's good, it means switching to gigabit is much cheaper than I thought it was going to be.

zulu9812 · 5 Jun 2009 at 17:57

I've been thinking more about using my existing router with a new gigabit switch. If I plug my cable modem into my old Linksys router, plug the router into one port on the gigabit switch, and my 3 computers into the other ports on the switch (but not on the router), will that allow those 3 computers to share an internet connection?