My Gig network :D

[Rakeesh]

Just transferred a blu-ray from my main PC to my server. From here to there it traverses three switches, all three of which are gigabit speed. Getting some good speeds:



Theoretical limit should be 125MByte/sec. I suspect I don't reach that speed due not only to overhead from both layer 2 and 3, but also SMB (aka windows file sharing) has a bit of overhead on its own.

I've enabled jumbo frames, as all devices on my network support it, but I doubt SMB will transmit packets with an MTU that size. If it did, I'd probably see another 10MByte increase.



At the center of my network is one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...1&Tpk=TEG-S80g

Very cheap but VERY good; not only does jumbo frames but has a 16 gig backplane. This thing outperforms the name brand switches that cost easily twice as much. As an added bonus, it uses such little power that it runs cool to the touch even during peak usage.

At each end of the network is an Asus RT-N16, serving as the main router, switch, and access point, and Netgear WNR3500L serving as a secondary access point and switch. Both run tomato firmware and support jumbo frames, 802.11n 300Mbit 40Mhz. I do this because wifi doesn't quite work across the entire house with just one access point.

I trudged through the attic and ran Cat5e and RG6 wire to every room in the house, cleanly installing it as an ethernet/coax jack on the walls:



EDIT: Internet pipe:

[ViN86]

Nice!

I think theoretical is closer to 119MBps, which means you're doing even better.

How does that green-net thing work? I'm weary of those power saving features because sometimes they can affect performance.

Those wall jacks look great.

[Rakeesh]

Originally Posted by ViN86

Nice!

I think theoretical is closer to 119MBps, which means you're doing even better.

How does that green-net thing work? I'm weary of those power saving features because sometimes they can affect performance.

Those wall jacks look great.

It's working pretty good for me, I have 5 devices connected to it no problem. Even on the newegg page it has 5 eggs, pretty rare for any switch.

[Q]

I've also got Cat6 and coax wired throughout the home. Twenty drops total. I've got a decent-ish D-Link 24 port switch...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ink-_-17111031

I've had mixed success with Jumbo Frames at home and at work. I actually abstain from using Jumbo Frames for iSCSI since I'm dealing with much smaller files, typically.

I see 80 on average at home with peaks from 90-125. Of course, part of that is Windows caching with Vista/7. Regardless, VERY nice setup, Rakeesh. I really like TRENDnet equipment - I've got a cheap Wireless N AP with from them.

[Rakeesh]

Originally Posted by Q

I've also got Cat6 and coax wired throughout the home. Twenty drops total. I've got a decent-ish D-Link 24 port switch...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ink-_-17111031

I've had mixed success with Jumbo Frames at home and at work. I actually abstain from using Jumbo Frames for iSCSI since I'm dealing with much smaller files, typically.

I see 80 on average at home with peaks from 90-125. Of course, part of that is Windows caching with Vista/7. Regardless, VERY nice setup, Rakeesh. I really like TRENDnet equipment - I've got a cheap Wireless N AP with from them.

I was considering doing Cat6 but I talked to a pretty good network engineer I know who said the performance difference between 6 and 5e on gigabit is around 1%. I recently bought a 1000 foot spool of 5e for $50 at home depot, pretty good deal actually. The cat6 was almost double that though, so I just went with the 5e.

I've heard cat6 *might* be necessary for 10Gb ethernet (some say Cat6a will be) but just a NIC alone costs about $250 at the cheapest. That's probably about what I spent on my entire network. Besides, my hard disks can't even transfer at those speeds

Funny you mention that switch though, I just recently setup a pediatric clinic using that exact d-link model.

[Q]

Originally Posted by Rakeesh

I was considering doing Cat6 but I talked to a pretty good network engineer I know who said the performance difference between 6 and 5e on gigabit is around 1%. I recently bought a 1000 foot spool of 5e for $50 at home depot, pretty good deal actually. The cat6 was almost double that though, so I just went with the 5e.

I've heard cat6 *might* be necessary for 10Gb ethernet (some say Cat6a will be) but just a NIC alone costs about $250 at the cheapest. That's probably about what I spent on my entire network. Besides, my hard disks can't even transfer at those speeds

I did Cat6 just because I had a good deal when I bought it.

[Rakeesh]

Originally Posted by Q

I did Cat6 just because I had a good deal when I bought it.

Yeah in any case it's nice having your whole house wired. Everywhere I've lived wifi has been sort of hit or miss when I have too many devices on the network (right now I have about 21 devices)

This is the third house I've been in where I've run a wired network, only this is the first time I've done all GbE equipment and needed two access points.

One thing to add - The Asus RT-N16 is a very beefy router for what you pay for it.

[Rakeesh]

Internet speeds btw:



Not the best in the world, but decent for what I pay for it.

[Bman212121]

Originally Posted by Q

I've also got Cat6 and coax wired throughout the home. Twenty drops total. I've got a decent-ish D-Link 24 port switch...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ink-_-17111031

I've had mixed success with Jumbo Frames at home and at work. I actually abstain from using Jumbo Frames for iSCSI since I'm dealing with much smaller files, typically.

I see 80 on average at home with peaks from 90-125. Of course, part of that is Windows caching with Vista/7. Regardless, VERY nice setup, Rakeesh. I really like TRENDnet equipment - I've got a cheap Wireless N AP with from them.

I have one of those switches as well. Between a pair of W7 clients I can hit 99% usage on the graph on large file transfers. I'd say average is around 80MBs as well depending upon what the server is doing. Also no jumbo frames here either as it doesn't really make a difference for a lot of usage.

Nice setup Rakeesh! I used to have a Trendnet router back in the day, but unfortunately it didn't have the power to handle connections and kept locking up. Nice to see some of their newer stuff works well. Not sure if your routers support largers antennas as that would be one easy way to get a bit more coverage. The other thing you can do is use the windsurfer mod to turn them into directional antennas. http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/ Might look a bit silly but I've heard it works quite well.

The one good thing about having 2 aps and low power is that you should be able to get more bandwidth that way. I've done a lot of playing around with AP stuff recently and came away disappointed. Even with 2 x 2 MIMO 40mhz SG the best I could get for a single stream was around 12MBps. Add a 2nd client into the mix and both of them will slow down below 10MBps total bandwidth. Realistically most of my devices are single antenna so it's just easier to plug in when you need to move data.

[Dr.Nick]

hard drives play a major role when transferring over gb networks as well and it seems like yours are no slouches Nice setup