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SpellowHouse

SpellowHouse

SpellowHouse

Soldato
Joined
31 Jan 2022
Posts
2,940
Location
UK
Forgive my network stupidity. I thought I would ask this question because often things are not as obvious as they seem to be...
Does a router affect anything on the network other than the broadband? If I have a switch that is 2.5g and all my PC's are 2.5g. My ISP is 1g. Should the connection between the switch and the router be 1g or 2.5g?
 
If you have two PCs that both have 2.5Gb network cards and your switch is 2.5Gb, you can transfer files between them at up to 2.5Gb speeds. However, your internet connection will only max out at 1Gb. As said, ISP speed, switch and network card speeds do not have to match but they should be, at minimum, the same speed as your ISP speed otherwise you will not get full speed.

TLDR: as long as switch and PC are at min 1Gb, it's fine.
 
I just upgraded two of my PC's and now all the PC's can manage 2.5g. I don't really have anything that can make use of that, it's still mostly limited by disk speeds, but the day is getting closer when I will consider a new switch. I was just curious as to whether the link to the router was just based on the ISP speed or whether it needed to be the highest on network... not being 100% certain of all the functions of a router.
 
In the simplest terms, if 2.5Gb clients communicate on a 2.5Gb switch, that will be at upto 2.5Gb, if any part of that communication needs to go via a 1Gb port such as an uplink or WAN, then you are limited to 1Gb or whatever WAN is limited to. Personally I quite like the cheap 2.5Gb and 10Gb SFP+ switches, for £25-45 depending on if you wait a week from China, they offer incredible value. The down side is you then start thinking about 10Gb and thats a rabbit hole that can and does get expensive at scale.
 
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Work out the route between the two points data is moving from and to and it'll go at the speed of the weakest link. Remember that could also be your disk speed as the limiting factor if one of the end points is spinning rust on a local computer and you have 2.5Gbps and up network bandwidth. If one of the end points is somewhere on the internet it could be anything between your home and the destination; poor routing, overloaded server etc.

I know this isn't the question being asked but it is the principle which means nine times out of ten when someone says to me, "My internet is slow and I'm not getting the speeds I'm paying for, what ISP do you recommend instead?" my answer invariably is, "swap out the ancient 802.11n router you're using for something that can cope" or , "run an ethernet cable since you're four rooms away from your router and WiFi can't break the laws of physics"
 
I wonder why the big manufacturers are so slow picking up on 2.5g? There are a ton of unknown makes for 2.5g switches, but almost nothing from the main manufacturers, apart from some rather out of date stuff at inflated prices.

In particular, I need a smart or managed switch, because some of my devices use aggregation. There is little point in moving to 2.5g without it. Yet, I am limited to some weird make to get it (at less than stupid money).
 
SpellowHouse said:
I wonder why the big manufacturers are so slow picking up on 2.5g? There are a ton of unknown makes for 2.5g switches, but almost nothing from the main manufacturers, apart from some rather out of date stuff at inflated prices.

In particular, I need a smart or managed switch, because some of my devices use aggregation. There is little point in moving to 2.5g without it. Yet, I am limited to some weird make to get it (at less than stupid money).
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If it wasn’t that you have stated you want to run LAG on a managed switch, I’d swear you were brand new to this and needed me to explain how different OEM’s charge a premium for ‘new’ despite using the same switch controller chipsets and the actual costs being comparatively low. There are quite a lot of non no-name Chinese options, but they are much more obviously aimed at SMB, not retail. Retail doesn’t generally get managed switches as the market is tiny.

TBH if you need speed/management SFP+ is where I would think you may be better looking, that’s where my servers ‘live’ because cards are £10-20 and DAC’s are cheap. It only gets mildly more expensive to go OM3 or 4, but be prepared to be laughed at and told SMF is what you should use because 400Gb/s is obviously going to be a bottleneck within 10 years outside of a commercial enviroment.
 
Avalon said:
If it wasn’t that you have stated you want to run LAG on a managed switch, I’d swear you were brand new to this and needed me to explain how different OEM’s charge a premium for ‘new’ despite using the same switch controller chipsets and the actual costs being comparatively low. There are quite a lot of non no-name Chinese options, but they are much more obviously aimed at SMB, not retail. Retail doesn’t generally get managed switches as the market is tiny.

TBH if you need speed/management SFP+ is where I would think you may be better looking, that’s where my servers ‘live’ because cards are £10-20 and DAC’s are cheap. It only gets mildly more expensive to go OM3 or 4, but be prepared to be laughed at and told SMF is what you should use because 400Gb/s is obviously going to be a bottleneck within 10 years outside of a commercial enviroment.
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I am brand new to this. I am a network idiot. I have little or no clue. But, I do realise that I need aggregation, and that 2.5g switches that support it are nearly all cheap Chinese imports.

These imports seem to be selling well, as many home PC's are 2.5g now, and it really seems to me that the main companies are very slow to respond to that.

Course, I could be wrong. Certainly, the sales figures are higher in the states. Maybe they just aren't high enough to justify releasing a product in the UK.
 
SpellowHouse said:
I am brand new to this. I am a network idiot. I have little or no clue. But, I do realise that I need aggregation, and that 2.5g switches that support it are nearly all cheap Chinese imports.

These imports seem to be selling well, as many home PC's are 2.5g now, and it really seems to me that the main companies are very slow to respond to that.

Course, I could be wrong. Certainly, the sales figures are higher in the states. Maybe they just aren't high enough to justify releasing a product in the UK.
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That explains the other threads ASUS comment

NBASE-T (2.5/5G) is the standard nobody really needed who didn’t stand to make 2-3 sales off the back of selling you 2.5Gb, 5Gb and then 10Gb products when we already had a well proven 10Gb path. Again, market segmentation to maximise sales revenue/protect the premium levels for longer.

My first question is what are you doing and why? Outside of very specific circumstances LAG is largely pointless in domestic situations. VLAN is slightly more useful, but if it’s just AP use to keep IoT segregated then other options often exist (guest network or Unifi separated networks via the controller). If you need speed, you have 10Gb options and outside of Ubiquiti and PoE failure, ports don’t tend to die that often.

The UK gets everything everywhere else tends to get, production is geared towards a worldwide market and and other than a few regional exclusives (some of the China only stuff is interesting), that’s how it’s been for a long time.
 
Avalon said:
VLAN is slightly more useful,
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VLANs are hugely useful if you have bandwidth shaping. For example, you can have a guest VLAN (wired & wireless) with restricted internet bandwidth, and an IoT VLAN with very restricted internet bandwidth. All the while your main LAN has unrestricted bandwidth.
 
Avalon said:
That explains the other threads ASUS comment

NBASE-T (2.5/5G) is the standard nobody really needed who didn’t stand to make 2-3 sales off the back of selling you 2.5Gb, 5Gb and then 10Gb products when we already had a well proven 10Gb path. Again, market segmentation to maximise sales revenue/protect the premium levels for longer.

My first question is what are you doing and why? Outside of very specific circumstances LAG is largely pointless in domestic situations. VLAN is slightly more useful, but if it’s just AP use to keep IoT segregated then other options often exist (guest network or Unifi separated networks via the controller). If you need speed, you have 10Gb options and outside of Ubiquiti and PoE failure, ports don’t tend to die that often.

The UK gets everything everywhere else tends to get, production is geared towards a worldwide market and and other than a few regional exclusives (some of the China only stuff is interesting), that’s how it’s been for a long time.
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After your first comment, I don't want your advice. I mean, really, there is no need for the constant attacks because I don't agree with you on a product range. Go away. Bother someone else.
 
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SpellowHouse said:
After your first comment, I don't want your advice. I mean, really, there is no need for the constant attacks because I don't agree with you on a product range. Go away. Bother someone else.
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Is everything OK? You described yourself as a networking idiot with little or no clue, if saying that explains your other silly comment offends you, then you only have yourself to blame. Good luck :D
 
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SpellowHouse said:
I just upgraded two of my PC's and now all the PC's can manage 2.5g. I don't really have anything that can make use of that, it's still mostly limited by disk speeds, but the day is getting closer when I will consider a new switch.
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I transfer stuff from my PC to my plex server using 2.5gb and it's very nice
Sits there at 269MB/s which is pretty good considering it's filling a standard 18TB WD drive the other side. It slows down a bit after the first 15GB or so, but stays above 200MB/s the whole time :)
 
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