placement of 10gb router, and effect on AirportExpress

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Level 3

999 points

placement of 10gb router, and effect on AirportExpress

I have cable internet. In one room, I have the cable modem, and next to the modem, is an older 10Gb 4-port router. No problem.

In another room, I have 3 macs, a 100Gb NAS, and an old 10Gb airport express.

So, I ran a cable from the 10Gb router in one room, to an 8-port 10/100Gb Switch in the other room. I hooked all the 100Gb macs and the NAS to the switch. I also hooked the AEX to the switch.

It's been this way for years.

My thought was I only need the 100Gb speed for file transfers among the macs and nas, so putting the switch in the same room and connecting everything that is 100Gb to it, would be correct.

My question:

Is the 10G router ONLY affecting the internet speed that comes to the switch via the one cable? Or is a router more important and is controlling the speed of everything since the switch is connected to the router?

I'm thinking of getting a new AEX with 100Gb capability, and want to make sure I shouldn't just buy a new wireless router.

But if the router only affects the internet/modem, then I'm fine with my old 10Gb one, because the internet is plenty fast now.

Does that make sense?

Posted on Oct 18, 2011 9:04 AM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

158,208 points

Oct 18, 2011 9:43 AM in response to SynterX

I have cable internet. In one room, I have the cable modem, and next to the modem, is an older 10Gb 4-port router. No problem.

I assume in all of your references where you mention Gb, that you actually mean Mbps ... correct? 10 Gbps networking devices are rare and quite costly. So, in this statement, I assume that your older 4-port router supports 10 Mbps Ethernet connections.

In another room, I have 3 macs, a 100Gb NAS, and an old 10Gb airport express.

FYI ... The older 802.11g AirPort Express Base Station's (AX) Ethernet port supports BOTH 10 & 100 Mbps Ethernet connections.

Is the 10G router ONLY affecting the internet speed that comes to the switch via the one cable? Or is a router more important and is controlling the speed of everything since the switch is connected to the router?

The 10 Mbps router has an effect on both its WAN & LAN ports by limiting those to a maximum bandwidth of 10 Mbps. For the WAN port, this connection would be also limited to what the cable modem's LAN port supports. If the modem has a 10 Mbps port, then upping the bandwidth on the router's WAN port will not buy you anything.

It is important to understand that unless your ISP is providing you with better than 10 Mbps of Internet bandwidth, then any bandwidth improvements that you make on the local network behind this router will only be beneficial to traffic on the local network.

On the other hand, if your ISP does provide you with greater than 10 Mbps service, then (ideally) you will want all of your networking equipment to be upgraded appropriately ... and that includes the modem.

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Answer 2

SynterX Author

Level 3

999 points

Oct 18, 2011 10:06 AM in response to Tesserax

The original AEX are 10/100? I never knew that.

Oops, you are right, it should be 10Mbs...

I'm not worried about slowing down my internet speed, don't even know what I have.

I'm worried that having the 4 100Mbs devices not communicating to each other at 100 speeds. I assumed since all 4 were connected to a single 100Mbs switch, that they were. Now, that one switch is connected to a 10Mbs router.

So, I've been under the assumption that when I'm copying to the NAS, I'm at 100mbs speed. When I surf the web, I'd be surfing at no greater than 10Mbs, because that's what the router is.

In other words, the old router only comes into play when I'm surfing and using the internet/modem.

Do you think that's true? Or does every single network action have to go back to the router, then back out to the other devices on the switch?

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

158,208 points

Oct 18, 2011 10:07 AM in response to SynterX

You can easily verify data transfer speeds between devices by using a utility like, AJA System Test ... or you can simply create a 1 GB file and move it to the NAS from your computer and time it.

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