HDHomeRun: Single or Dual LAN Connection?

[davephan]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

If the only thing plugged into the router is the switch, and everything else is plugged into the switch, then a gigabit router won't help, since all it's handling is Internet traffic.

But as Paul says, a gigabit switch is still useful for removing bottlenecks on the switch-to-server leg (assuming your server has a gigbit NIC).

I have a 8 port 100 meg router and an 8 port 100 meg switch. The SageTV computer, HDHomerun, and extenders are plugged into the switch. The switch is then plugged into the router. The other computers in the house are plugged into the router. The wireless access point is also plugged into the router.

I assumed that since the HDHomerun and extenders could only run at 100 megs, that the computer's nic would autosense down to 100 megs. Maybe I could just replace the 8 port 100 meg switch with a 8 port 1 gig switch.

Dave

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by davephan

I assumed that since the HDHomerun and extenders could only run at 100 megs, that the computer's nic would autosense down to 100 megs. Maybe I could just replace the 8 port 100 meg switch with a 8 port 1 gig switch.

That is often a mis-conception. If that were the case, there would be almost no reason to go with gigabit ethernet because on almost every network there is at least one devide that is 100mb!

[TechJunkie]

Originally Posted by valnar

A good NIC is just as important as a good switch. A dedicated Intel NIC is King.

In practice, it probably won't matter with only two HDHomeRun devices and light LAN traffic. But if the server is overloaded with other traffic (like file copies to another PC), it's possible for you to have problems. HDHR traffic is UDP based which unlike TCP traffic, does not guarantee deliver-ability. VoIP is the same way. If there is enough TCP traffic, which can handle retransmissions, it may starve the UDP queues and create glitches in the video.

[/URL]

This would make sense from what i have experienced. I can watch a video on my HD200 and HD100 at the same time. But when I watch a movie on my HD200 then send large files from my PC to my server it kills network traffic to my HD200. I run a HP gig switch with a Intel gig NIC on my server. My PC also has gig NIC.

[valnar]

Having a good switch and Intel NIC (almost) guarantees flawless delivery when there is no contention, but does nothing for QoS during congestion. So yah, you'd be a candidate for a second NIC/vlan or some QoS with a managed switch.

[nyplayer]

I added a 2nd Nic to my XP Pro Sage Server... and totally removed clients etc... from my main router.

I connnected a gigabit Switch to the NIC (CrossOver Cable if your switch does not have an uplink) and let the server handle the IP's for the HDHomeruns and clients... and internet connections of the clients.

This way I can take down my main router at anytime and not effect the clients or server as far as recording viewing etc... I share the internet connection of my server to the clients. if I take the main router down the only thing effected is online videos.

This also prevents unauthorized us of my HDHomeruns over the regular network.

[jasonl]

I agree with most everyone else, connect everything dealing with HD video to the gigabit switch. Crossover cables or uplink ports shouldn't be needed since gigabit devices should always auto-sense the need for crossover.

[Greg]

Thanks everyone for a good discussion on this topic. What I've learned is that for my useage the simple set-up, as discussed would probably suffice. If not, then I could always add a second NIC and take it from there.
I do not believe that I will be transferring files from PC to PC, so I shouldn't have this bandwidth hogging process to configure for.

I may want to learn a little more about Networking 101, because there were terms thrown around that I don't understand. I'm the kind of guy that likes to understand how things work.

Originally Posted by GKusnick

The router's WAN port should be plugged into the modem.

The router and switch should be connected together on the LAN side. With modern auto-sensing switches, there's no particular directionality to this connection; it's symmetrical.

Everything else should be plugged into the switch.

(As a side note, more people might look at your sketch if you attach it as a PNG or JPG instead of BMP.)

Thanks Greg. I did update both of the attachments to JPG..........thanks for the head-up.

Originally Posted by Clift

Looks good! here's mine for reference:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/...dc28b498_o.jpg

Nice diagram!

Originally Posted by valnar

A good NIC is just as important as a good switch. A dedicated Intel NIC is King.


Here is a great unmanaged 8-port switch.
HP ProCurve 1400-8G

and here are some good NIC's (note: If you have an onboard Realtek NIC, this may interest you)
Intel Gigabit NIC's

Thanks for the links. How does the Intel NIC compare to the Realtek NIC? The Realtek will most likely be on the motherboard that I select, as this is very common.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by Greg

... How does the Intel NIC compare to the Realtek NIC? The Realtek will most likely be on the motherboard that I select, as this is very common.

I did mine the simple way. HDHRs are on the built in one and the rest of the network on the Intel one.

[valnar]

Originally Posted by Greg

Thanks for the links. How does the Intel NIC compare to the Realtek NIC? The Realtek will most likely be on the motherboard that I select, as this is very common.

There is no comparison. I've had problems with Realtek NICs in the past. The Intel is the best available, for any platform.

[paulbeers]

While the Intel NIC's are best, you aren't going to find an AMD board with them. For simple networking Realtec's are fine. My current server has one and it is working just fine to serve my clients and receive data from my HDHomerun.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

While the Intel NIC's are best, you aren't going to find an AMD board with them. ...

Heck, even most Intel boards use the Realtek these days.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

Heck, even most Intel boards use the Realtek these days.

Not really, only the low cost ones. The good ones still have Intel PHY's. Such as my older DP35DP in my client. My server has an MSI board which does have a Realtek NIC. I disabled it and put in a PCIe Intel NIC. Works great. It's connected to a D-link (non-green) 8-port gigabit switch along with my HDHR. Haven't had any issues with that configuration. Works like a charm. I used to run dual NIC's before I upgraded my server hardware. It was originally a solution to attempt to fix a problem for which it wasn't the issue. I just ended up leaving it that way. A single gigabit NIC connected to a gigabit switch is the way to go.

[sjrx0213]

I'm using 2 HDHRs directly connected to two PCI Intel NICs in my XP server. A couple of observations:

This configuration requires a method of serving DHCP addresses to the HDHRs. I'm using http://www.magikinfo.com/dhcp.htm to do that job. It's been the easiest and most reliable server applet for me to get working, but it's got quirks: there's no way prevent it from binding to the built-in NIC, so it wants to serve IP addresses to my entire LAN. I eventually gave in and let it and disabled the DHCP server on my router. There are lots of other DHCP server apps out there (free and $$), so your milage may vary.

Big vote for Intel NICs. I can't speak as directly to Realtek, but my experience with Broadcom NICs/drivers in a professional media creation environment is that they are nowhere near as easy on DPC and ISR latency as Intel stuff. This can interrupt CPU cycles in ways that really screw up real-time processes. It might not make a difference in this environment, but it's worth keeping in mind if you get glitchy recordings or playback with your Realtek NIC.

[nyplayer]

I just let the NICS give the HDHOMERUNS the ip setup one NIC with 192.168.0.1 subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway of 192.168.0.1 and the other 169.154.5.1subnet 255.255.0.0 with a gateway of 169.154.5.1... Connect the hdhomeruns and they will get an IP. Or you can even bridge all the nics and let your router hand out the IPS.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I just let the NICS give the HDHOMERUNS the ip setup one NIC with 192.168.0.1 subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway of 192.168.0.1 and the other 169.154.5.1subnet 255.255.0.0 with a gateway of 169.154.5.1... Connect the hdhomeruns and they will get an IP. Or you can even bridge all the nics and let your router hand out the IPS.

When I had dual NIC's I tried that for a while. I ended up installing tftpd32 just for the DHCP server bit due to the fact that I run a headless server and would have to be next to the computer to reset the HDHR every time I wanted to restart the computer. Otherwise it wouldn't be recognized after the computer booted back up.