Silly networking ideas

Mercutio · 7 May 2016 at 10:56

Has anyone run a few of the USB3 to ethernet ports through a hub back to a host machine and then hammered them a bit to check throughput?

I'm just spitballing here but the idea amused me:

8 x USB3 to ethernet adapters
2x 4 port powered USB3 hubs
8/9/10 port gigabit switch (if at least a 9 you could run the spare port to a router with DHCP to save having to set the 8 ports up each side).

Windows 10 each end.

Am I out of my tiny mind or do we think that might work? That's a 370MB/sec network between 2 computers if it works. Considering all that would cost about... £70 compared to pricing for 10Gbe/fiber. I wouldn't want to run anything even remotely important over it but for a bit of messing with homebrew NAS/etc...

lude1962 · 7 May 2016 at 11:15

but wouldn't a single file transfer only use 1 connection so.....

Caged · 7 May 2016 at 11:22

Unless you have to use USB you could just get a quad-port Intel NIC for each side.

mrkev · 7 May 2016 at 12:34

If your concerned about throughout don't get USB3 adapters. They stuck. Most I've ever got out of one is 625mbps which is going to be about 70MB/s. Go for an Intel quad card. Also only one connection will be used anyway for each file transfer although you might have some success trying to force use of smb3.

Armageus · 7 May 2016 at 12:59

Mercutio said:
Considering all that would cost about... £70 compared to pricing for 10Gbe/fiber.

Intel X520 10gb cards can be had for around £40, and a direct attach Cable for about £15.

So for not much more you could have a proper solution that will perform better.