Will this upgrade increase internet speed or just local network bandwith capabilities?

azibux1

azibux1

azibux1

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UK
Hi,

I've mentioned this before but forgot about it and now want to actually upgrade the network

I have a wired network system installed in the house by the previous owner, with a patch panel and switch in a cupboard and wall jacks in each room

I have a NAS and the transfer speeds to an from it are a bit slow and could be quicker as the switch is not a gigabit switch

Few questions:

1. I am fairly sure that upgrading the switch to a gigabit switch, connecting gigabit devices like my PC and PS3 to the switch and connecting the NAS to the switch will increase transfer speeds to and from the NAS on the local network ... Can someone confirm this? I know it won't increase speed for remote access as the non-gigabit router (BT Homehub 2) will limit it

2. Would I just need a wireless access point to connect to the switch to give wireless devices the increased 'to and from the NAS' transfer speeds? Would there be much of a difference for wireless devices or not?

3. Would this upgrade increase internet speed to my PC / wired laptop?? As currently the non-gigabit switch may be limiting the speed or not? Will it only affect local network traffic?

Thanks! :)
 
1: Yes, a gigabit switch would increase speed to and from the NAS on the local network, assuming that you can read and write to the NAS at speeds higher than 12.5 MB/s. Some NAS's have really slow throughput, as the hardware internally is not up to much. Perhaps if you list your NAS make and model.

2: Yes, you could attach a wireless access point in this way. But the bottleneck then may become the LAN/WAN port you use on the wireless access point to connect to the switch. i.e. The wireless access point you use should also have gigabit LAN/WAN ports depending on how you set it up.

3: No, it's not possible for a non gigabit switch/router to limit your internet speed currently in the UK for the majority of people, unless your internet speed is faster than 100mb/s.

If you don't understand this answer or any of the ones above, just say and I can go into more detail to make it clearer.
 
jaybee said:
1: Yes, a gigabit switch would increase speed to and from the NAS on the local network, assuming that you can read and write to the NAS at speeds higher than 12.5 MB/s. Some NAS's have really slow throughput, as the hardware internally is not up to much. Perhaps if you list your NAS make and model.

2: Yes, you could attach a wireless access point in this way. But the bottleneck then may become the LAN/WAN port you use on the wireless access point to connect to the switch. i.e. The wireless access point you use should also have gigabit LAN/WAN ports depending on how you set it up.

3: No, it's not possible for a non gigabit switch/router to limit your internet speed currently in the UK for the majority of people, unless your internet speed is faster than 100mb/s.

If you don't understand this answer or any of the ones above, just say and I can go into more detail to make it clearer.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply :)

1. The NAS is a Synology DS212J if that helps... It does have a gigabit port but are you saying it might still be restricted somehow?

2. Ahh okay ... Might not bother with that wireless access point, was just considering it. But it will work and the speeds will be improved providing the AP has a gigabit port?

3. Ahh okay ... Someone else told me that but just thought I'd check ... My internet speed is only around 10 - 18 mb/s so the switch won't be causing any restrictions to the internet speed. I'm not fussed about that anyway as the internet speed to the computers is fine anyway, just things like streaming to a Blu-Ray player and PC/laptop from the NAS sometimes keeps pausing and buffering

I still need to check if the blu-ray has a gigabit port or not, it should do though, it is a good quality Sony one (don't have the model number right now)
 
100mb is often enough to stream even high quality 1080 rips. Perhaps there is something else causing issues? Is the playback device up to the job?
If the NAS has a gigabit port that's fine, but this does not automatically mean that it will max it out. The disks inside it for a start would be a bottleneck before the gigabit port, and/or most likely the actual NAS hardware in terms of CPU throughput on the device.

A quick google shows other people having slow transfers to and from the NAS. A lot of them seem to be setup issues. Try connecting direct to the NAS with your computer and see what speed it gives, just so you can see that it is capable of high speeds. Then try it again via the router to see if 100mb is affecting it. To be honest, a gigabit switch cannot hurt in your setup and will certainly be a welcome addition for any home network when streaming to multiple devices.
 
jaybee said:
100mb is often enough to stream even high quality 1080 rips. Perhaps there is something else causing issues? Is the playback device up to the job?
If the NAS has a gigabit port that's fine, but this does not automatically mean that it will max it out. The disks inside it for a start would be a bottleneck before the gigabit port, and/or most likely the actual NAS hardware in terms of CPU throughput on the device.

A quick google shows other people having slow transfers to and from the NAS. A lot of them seem to be setup issues. Try connecting direct to the NAS with your computer and see what speed it gives, just so you can see that it is capable of high speeds. Then try it again via the router to see if 100mb is affecting it. To be honest, a gigabit switch cannot hurt in your setup and will certainly be a welcome addition for any home network when streaming to multiple devices.
Click to expand...

I would assume the Sony Blu-Ray is more than capable for the job ... Or at least I hope so anyway as it is only about 3 years old.

The NAS has one 2TB WD Caviar Green drive inside ... I did quite a bit of research and question asking before purchasing and was told that these drives would be more than suitable.

I assume that Synology don't let you do much with the CPU (and I don't want to spend that much) but I could look into more RAM for the NAS?

I think the gigabit switch will improve things though ... See below ...


I forgot to add some extra info ...

Here is some info from an old post of mine about this:

I have the gigabit one upstairs so I can connect my TV, Laptop, PS3 and PC but only use up one wall jack. So temporarily I took that downstairs and connected my PC directly to the wall jack. Went downstairs and took the cable from the corresponding patch panel port and put it in the gigabit switch. I then checked the speed on my PC and I was getting 1Gbps (meaning that the cables running through the house are Cat5e/gigabit capable?). I connected the NAS to the gigabit switch too, tested a transfer and saw the improved speeds. Then I connnected one wire from the old switch to the gigabit one, just so I could get internet to that switch. That is when I think it went to 100Mbps. I removed the cable linking the old switch and gigabit switch but still showed as 100Mbps. I will try again today and see what happens before buying a gigabit switch.
Click to expand...

So at one point I did see improved speeds and a 1Gbps connection on the network stats of my PC but then it dropped down and said 100Mbps.

Now my networking knowledge has improved I think that happened because I connected the gigabit switch and the old switch (as the internet connection was in the old switch still) and then the computer was showing the 100Mpbs connection as it always shows the slowest link?

I haven't got round to testing it again but I think / am fairly sure that if I do and providing I also move the internet connection to the gigabit switch it should work ... Just thought I'd check here as you probably know without me needing to actually disconnect and move things around

Might test it if I get a spare bit of time, quite busy with uni work at the moment
 
To be honest, a gigabit switch now here on OCUK for the cheap TPLink one 4 or 5 port, is like just over a tenner. I'd just buy a couple, make sure all cables are cat5e minimum and be done with it. Then you know your network is not a bottleneck. Well, apart from wireless access points and/or routers that might not have native gigabit ports, but I'm sure you understand this. You can hardwire your LAN equipment to all be on gigabit part of the network and only use the main router to wire into the switch to provide internet.
 
jaybee said:
To be honest, a gigabit switch now here on OCUK for the cheap TPLink one 4 or 5 port, is like just over a tenner. I'd just buy a couple, make sure all cables are cat5e minimum and be done with it. Then you know your network is not a bottleneck. Well, apart from wireless access points and/or routers that might not have native gigabit ports, but I'm sure you understand this. You can hardwire your LAN equipment to all be on gigabit part of the network and only use the main router to wire into the switch to provide internet.
Click to expand...

Yeah the one I use for my TV, Laptop, PS3 and PC is a 5 port TP Link one ... Does the job fine :D

I did make a connection (can't remember from where to where) that helped me work out if the cables running through the walls are Cat5e and suitable of gigabit speeds and they were which is good :)

And any cables I've bought since moving here have been Cat5e so I think like you say the only thing limiting me really is the switch downstairs not being gigabit

I just need to count up and see which TP Link (will most likely be TP link I get as they're good value for money I think) switch I'm going to buy ... Don't think there will be a noticeable speed difference if I have a switch connected to a switch? Maybe be slowed down by a matter of seconds, if that?

I think you've answered this when you said:

You can hardwire your LAN equipment to all be on gigabit part of the network and only use the main router to wire into the switch to provide internet.
Click to expand...

But am I right in saying that with the new setup I will be able to run one cable from the gigabit switch (where the router will be connected) to the existing switch and still provide the items on that switch with internet without restricting the devices on the new switch back to 10/100?

Hope that makes sense and thanks for your help
 
Right,

I've finally got round to doing this upgrade but something isn't working as it should

If I run a cable directly from the NAS into the gigabit switch, I see massively improved performance when transferring from my PC (also in the switch) to the NAS

But if the cable from the NAS goes through the wall plate, into the patch panel and into the switch from there ... I see standard performance, and not gigabit speeds

Any ideas why this might be? I know for definite that the cable I used from the patch panel to the switch and from the NAS to the wall jack are both Cat5e ... And I'm 99% sure the cabling from the wall jack to the patch panel is also Cat5e as once before I just connected my PC at one end, into the wall jack, then got a cable from the appropriate patch panel port into the gigabit switch and the connection status on my PC was 1.0Gbps

Any ideas why it isn't getting gigabit speeds? I'm confused

Patch panels don't have any speed rating / effect surely?
 
it might be the person who wired up the RJ45 wall points up didn't wire it up correctly or did it with sub-par Cat5e. have you took off the faceplates to try replacing the wiring possibly or get an idea of what is behind it.
 
Connect up your laptop/pc to each wall port and see what speed they report they're connecting at.. -connect the gb switch up to the other end of it.

-double check that your cable from the wall to PC can do gb speeds too.

Fix/replace the wall ports / cables.
 
Thanks for the replies

The cable from the wall to PC is a Cat5e as it works at gig speeds if I run a cable from the NAS direct to the switch... The issue is I think like sja360 says, it has possibly been wired up a bit dodgy because I have used a wall jack that the router was plugged into and it works at gigabit speed through that one. I think I'm right in saying that a Cat5e cable will only work at 100Mbps if one or two pairs are not crimped properly? I'm guessing it has been damaged or never crimped properly initially

The router / Internet speed shouldn't be affected by plugging the router into the dodgy port surely as Internet speed isn't that fast anyway? Only get about 18Mbps download

Is that right?
 
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