Moving data on my network killing it

Andybtsn · 10 Oct 2021 at 21:12

Hi all,

Trying to work out if this is my router and lack of qos or if I have some dodgy switches.

If I move some files from my PC (upstairs) to my NAS (downstairs) the network will die to the point no one can use the internet until the data has moved.

I also just put a Sky Q mini box upstairs, if we rewind/fast forward, my PS5 will lag a lot. The main Sky box again is downstairs.

Where do you think the issue lies?

I just use a tplink vdsl router, it doesn't appear to have qos

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Oct 2021 at 21:54

need more information, models of all devices data passes through from connection to connection.

Andybtsn · 10 Oct 2021 at 22:20

TP-Link TD-W9970 router
Quite a lengthy cat5 around the house to ensure every device physically connected.
Around 3 1gb switches on the network
NAS is a WD MY Cloud if you needed to know

Upstairs connected to the switch is a PC, 2 x PS5s, Work Laptop, Sky Q mini box.
I never suffer lag from poor internet for the record, I play only online games and its perfectly fine UNLESS I move data from my PC downstairs, or like I mentioned start rewinding/fast forwarding on the Sky Q mini box where its communicating with the main box in the lounge downstairs.

Hope that is enough info

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Oct 2021 at 22:28

Look in your router settings, look for bandwidth control. If it hasn't got QOS it's literally sucking your whole connection so it will slow everything else on the network to a halt.

Quartz · 10 Oct 2021 at 22:33

What are the switching bandwidths of your router and of your switch?

Andybtsn · 10 Oct 2021 at 22:35

Bouton Aide said:
Look in your router settings, look for bandwidth control. If it hasn't got QOS it's literally sucking your whole connection so it will slow everything else on the network to a halt.

Yeah been looking in there, just no idea what numbers to put in!

Andybtsn · 10 Oct 2021 at 22:35

Quartz said:
What are the switching bandwidths of your router and of your switch?

How do I find this?

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Oct 2021 at 22:37

Andybtsn said:
Yeah been looking in there, just no idea what numbers to put in!

This router only does 10/100 but there might be other options in the router as well that might help. I'm just looking/reading the manual see if I can see anything.

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Oct 2021 at 22:45

Andybtsn said:
How do I find this?

How many ports does each switch have? What's the models of each switch? Are they managed switches or unmanaged switches?

Switching bandwidth is the aggregate input and output bandwidth of all ports. So a 48 port gigabit switch would have 48Gbp/s and 48Gbp/s out, that leaves us with only 96Gbps and apparently, 80GBps would likely be the stacking port rate.

VersionMonkey · 10 Oct 2021 at 22:57

Could also do with knowing how things are connected.

In particular, are the gigabit switches each connected individually to the router? If they are then any traffic from a device on one switch to a device on a different switch will be limited to the 100Mb/s of the router switch ports.

PC to NAS could easily saturate a 100Mb switch.

Any QoS rules in the router would likely only apply to the WAN (internet) link and wouldn't apply to traffic just going across the switch.

Andybtsn · 10 Oct 2021 at 22:59

Bouton Aide said:
How many ports does each switch have? What's the models of each switch? Are they managed switches or unmanaged switches?

Switching bandwidth is the aggregate input and output bandwidth of all ports. So a 48 port gigabit switch would have 48Gbp/s and 48Gbp/s out, that leaves us with only 96Gbps and apparently, 80GBps would likely be the stacking port rate.

Ah well these are just small unmanaged switches, probably around 6 ports at best. 30 quid jobbies. Because the internet connection had always been good I've always managed to get away with them. If I plan on keeping the Sky box up here is it worth upgrading them? Or the router?

fezster · 10 Oct 2021 at 23:04

Andybtsn said:
Upstairs connected to the switch is a PC, 2 x PS5s, Work Laptop, Sky Q mini box.

<snip>

UNLESS I move data from my PC downstairs,

Sounds like you have 2 switches connected together, with PCs on either end. This means you will saturate that 1gb link when you transfer data from your upstairs PC to whatever is on the other end. This will leave no bandwidth for your other upstairs devices.

Andybtsn · 10 Oct 2021 at 23:19

fezster said:
Sounds like you have 2 switches connected together, with PCs on either end. This means you will saturate that 1gb link when you transfer data from your upstairs PC to whatever is on the other end. This will leave no bandwidth for your other upstairs devices.

I'm not sure on the solution, we have so many devices that need to be on the network and in a big house with many rooms, the switches allow that

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Oct 2021 at 23:48

Andybtsn said:
I'm not sure on the solution, we have so many devices that need to be on the network and in a big house with many rooms, the switches allow that

You would pull a couple cables from each room to a central point in a cab where 1 switch/router would be. From here you would add Wireless APs if you want an additional 100% hotspot coverage. That might be the only real solution if you are daisy chaining switches.

ChrisD. · 11 Oct 2021 at 07:19

There’s a lot of misinformation in this thread.

OP can you post a diagram? And what exact make and model are the switches?

Rroff · 11 Oct 2021 at 07:32

Generally if moving large files is pulling the whole network down I'd suspect faulty cables or failing switch - might be worth pulling everything unnecessary to see if it still happens and putting things back into the network one at a time to try and find the problem.

A switch isn't a hub so high levels of traffic between 2 ports shouldn't impact the others, unless the contention is on the uplink between switches, neither should the speed of any links not in the data path.

Deleted member 77746 · 11 Oct 2021 at 08:36

ChrisD. said:
There’s a lot of misinformation in this thread.

OP can you post a diagram? And what exact make and model are the switches?

ChrisD the networking God to the rescue. I already asked that.

ChrisD. · 11 Oct 2021 at 08:47

Swapping the router out with one which has Gigabit ports will almost certainly solve the issue.

fezster · 11 Oct 2021 at 08:47

Bouton Aide said:
You would pull a couple cables from each room to a central point in a cab where 1 switch/router would be. From here you would add Wireless APs if you want an additional 100% hotspot coverage. That might be the only real solution if you are daisy chaining switches.

This is the easiest solution. You can get switches with 10GB uplinks to interconnect, but they are prohibitively expensive.

Depending on your usage, the only computers likely to be talking with heavy traffic in what you've described, are your PC's to your NAS. Therefore, at the very least, your NAS should not be sharing any uplink with your internet facing router. That way, even if your NAS uplink is saturated, other PCs can continue to talk to one another and to the WAN without contention.

EDIT - forgot to add, if your Sky Q is able to use Wifi, let it do so. If you have to use wired, then again, the main box and mini may be quite chatty, so ideally they should have a separate connection, rather than sharing a single uplink from downstairs to upstairs.

Deleted member 77746 · 11 Oct 2021 at 08:49

fezster said:
This is the easiest solution.

Probably one of the most expensive though. Could be we worth it in the long run though. Even if it's 1 cable per room where the devices are for the most important devices first then slowly each month run few more cables if money is tight.

ChrisD. said:
Swapping the router out with one which has Gigabit ports will almost certainly solve the issue.

Would you like to bet your job that this is the solution? I would be tempted to loan one before buying one if possible.

I would be about 80% sure this would fix it. Something with QOS.