Routers, switches, et. al.

[sixdoubleo]

Originally posted by ToonGal
The problem with high LAN usage is that it affects the WAN portion of the Belkin WAN/LAN/switch/router. My thought is that a cheap 10/100 switch (which I can take out of my parents system; they just need a hub of which I have lots) would take traffic off the router/switch if a separate switch was dedicated behind it for all LAN traffic. The only time it hits the router/switch is for WAN activity (of which it has supported for years).

You are absolutely correct. And if you have the equipment available that is exactly how it should be wired. However, even if you didn't, and if everything is behaving correctly, LAN traffic should not adversely affect WAN traffic because inside that box it is a dedicated 4-port switch wired to a dedicated router. Know what I'm sayin???

Originally posted by ToonGal
PS. P2P not that insecure if you know what you are doing, IMHO. Almost six years without a single event. Worst case, they virus my TV shows... All is good in general. Thanks for the concern.

True... I run/ran Kazaa and it seems whenever I install it, it installs about 50 services and other little spyware pieces...not things I'd want running on my HTPC. What P2P do you use? I must claim ignorance when it comes to P2P these days.

[ToonGal]

Originally posted by sixdoubleo
LAN traffic should not adversely affect WAN traffic because inside that box it is a dedicated 4-port switch wired to a dedicated router. Know what I'm sayin???

Partially true. It's not that LAN directly affects WAN, per se. But these cheap routers are not built for massive volume of simultaneous transactions. Especially when I copy a file from one machine to another, my guess is that the horsepower of the router itself is overwhelmed. By frontending it with a LAN dedicated switch, the router/switch can handle all the transactions without "high CPU LAN" transactions.

I work a lot with Cisco routers (if only THEY were $30ish) and when I had one in-house for a while, I never experienced any of the problems I do now with my cheap Belkin.

True... I run/ran Kazaa and it seems whenever I install it, it installs about 50 services and other little spyware pieces...not things I'd want running on my HTPC. What P2P do you use? I must claim ignorance when it comes to P2P these days.

Kazaa=evil. The ONLY p2p I'd advise to avoid like the plague. Major p2p's of note/usage are: eMule, mIRC, WinMX, DC++ mostly. Since this is NOT an activity I bet Frey wants to be associated with, let's just say I'm easy to find in the p2p world. (Search ToonGal in Google, and you'll see.)

Thanks again for all the help on this. I was pretty sure this was the case, but it saves me a lot of wiring headaches and money, given I have the equipment available.

[robertmcox]

ToonGal,

In response to your original post, yes it will do what you expect so long as you put a switch (not a hub) in front of the router.

The switch acts as a bridge and traffic between 2 computers on the lan will not get forwarded to the router at all.

-Bert

[ToonGal]

Originally posted by robertmcox
In response to your original post, yes it will do what you expect so long as you put a switch (not a hub) in front of the router.

The switch acts as a bridge and traffic between 2 computers on the lan will not get forwarded to the router at all.

Just to be pedantic about this, I think you mean put the switch 'behind' (i.e. CO->router->switch->computers) the router, not in 'front' of... If it's just a matter of semantics, then cool. If this is not what you meant (CO->switch->router->computers), then it's back to square one...

Parents still visiting my sister in LA, so I'm at least a week away from gutting their system, to test empirically. Probably just suck it up and buy the gigabit switch, and start upgrading my network.

Thanks, robertmcox.