1000base-tx AND 100base-tx?

hi, i have a home network with a wireless 4 port router, one desktop is connected wirelessly and i have 2 desktops connected wired, i have put my disk drives on the network using nas devices, so i dont need my main pc on to access the files, the nas device is sata2 500GB with gigabit ethernet, my modem router is not gigabit, so i wondered if i plugged the two wired desktops into a gigabit switch so they have the higher speed , but then plug my modemrouter into the gigaswitch so the two gigabit desktops can access the internet, i wondered if plugging a 100baset router into a 1000base-t switch would force the switch to run at the lower speed? if it will, then that idea is out of the window, so do you have any other ideas? the hardware is as follows:
linksys wag354g v2
buffalo linkstation 500GB ls500gl
and a plain old gigaswitch,
gigabit network cards are already available in the desktops!

thankyou........ :major i-CONICA :major

 

I take it youre using the router for the DCHP on the ports. If not, you might be better off just using your router for your wireless AP and just plug your cables into the switch. With wireless, i dont think youre going to get more than 54MbPS anyway.

if your switch is going to the router and youre using the router as a switch for your other computers on the wired, you wont get the gig speeds your cat5e/cat6 cables or your gig switch support. if you have everything connected in a star on your switch, youll get your wireless at 54MbPS and your wired should be at gig speed.



i hope thats right and i dont sound stupid. im in college for this stuff.

 

hi thankyou for your response, i am using the router for dhcp, because when i plug the networked hdd into my pc directly to try to take advantage of the gigabit capability it doesnt work, even thought the pc is set to use dhcp it doesnt work, so its plugged into my router for that, when i get the giga switch i think that every device on the gigabit network needs to support that speed, so i thought that plugging my gigaswitch into my router that only supports 100base-t would slow the entire netork down to that speed? ive attached a rough sketch of the plan! thanks! :major i-CONCIA :major

 

are you using a cable internet connection?

Well, unfortunatly using a router for the dhcp kind of limits your capabilities for speed on your network. as your said, youll only get the speed the device youre plugging into supports, reguardless of how fast of speeds your nic can support. also what would be a pretty good idea for your network, because it seems like you use it quite often as you have a seperate file server type thing going on. you might want to consider(if you have the spare computer. dosnt have to be a great comp, just one it can run a linux dhcp server on) something like IP Cop. its a free Linux firewall that works as multiple services. DHCP DNS Proxy IDS VPN and a whole lot more cool features. what this will enable you to do is have your cloud connection going into one nic on the IP Cop machine then having another nic on the ipcop box plug into your switch. that would provide you with the gig speeds for your file access with excellent(in the opinion of someone who is half way thru networking in college) security for your network. also providing your devices on the network with dhcp. ill attach the little sketch but i think you may have the idea.

 

No, using a router won't limit your gigbit type speeds unless you hook machines to it. Setup all your machines plugged into the gigbit switch, with a crossover running to the router, the router does dhcp for all machines, then your gig switch handles the switching, yes folks its that simple. I was running a similer setup until i got a gigbit router.

 

thankyou again, just one more thing, if i have 5 desktops with 1000base-tx nics, and one desktop with a 100base-tx nic running through a 8 port gigabit switch will that one slow nic slow the entire connection? or will the switch just run that connection slower but the rest if full speed? :major i-CONICA :major

 

The only port that would be slow in that situation is the one single port running @ 100 meg, the rest would still transfer at gigbit.

 

sure thing. i had some of my facts messed up but coleman corrected them i think. if youre not trying to do the whole ipcop thing, go with what he said. i wasnt aware that a router would still give out ips thru a switch so...yeah. thats why i threw that on the table.

hope your network works out well

 

thanks guys, i have it all a lot clearer now, i do have a spare pc old pc and i will check out ip cop just for the sake of it, but i wont be doing that, cos the reason for the netdisks in the first place is so i dont need a file server to be on all the time, but thanks for the idea! i figured that my modemrouter will still assign ips useing dhcp through a switch which is good for me, but can switches assign ips with dhcp or not? if not then aslong as some bit of kit on the network is assigning ips with dhcp then that fine?
heres a new network plan, think this will work? :major i-CONICA :major

 

no switches alone wont do dhcp. not that im aware of anyway.

 

if a switch could hand out dhcp, it wouldn't be a switch, but a router. What happens is a dhcp echo request goes until it finds something on the network that can hand out dhcp, it will travel to the switch up the crossover to your router grab an ip and go back to the pc through the switch.

 

you sure know what your talking about, and you explain well,
before i splash out on a gigabit switch i wanted to know what sort of differance it makes to my file transfers, so bypassing the slower 100mb router i plugged my gigabit nas drive directly into my pcs gigabit nic, the device requires dhcp, so i set all the network settings to "get automaticly" this told me that dhcp was enabled in the "details" page of network connections, but the drive didnt work, i tryed to assign a random ip within its subnet range manually but still didnt work, it only works when its connected to the router in some way, through hubs switches or directly, why didnt it work connected directly to the pc?
:major i-CONICA :major

 

because your more then likely not using a crossover cable.

 

it needs a x-over cable, whoa i didnt think of that, i dont have one but i have the kit to make one, ill get right on it, i think thats about everything i could have possilbley wanted to know, thanks alot, colemanguy and steveking...... :major i-CONICA :major