Hi there, So Ive always had a trillion hard disks in my gaming rig and internet comes to it via a g class wireless router. This has served me well as my archos 605 wifi barely even uses the g class speeds and the 10/100 ports on the switch have been more than enough to pipe internet to the mother in laws room. Now things have changed. I have moved out this year to a new three storey flat with gf and friends. I now have the need to make the following talk to each other: 1. Laptop on ground floor (prefer if could cap internet speed) 2. Desktop on ground floor (prefer if could cap internet speed) 3. Gaming rig on third floor (On board gigabit and wireless G) 4. HTPC on second floor (Onboard gigabit) 5. Laptop on second floor (wireless G card) 6. File/download server on second floor (will have gigabit NIC) 7. Virgin broadband access point on second floor. Basically I would like wireless throughout the house. I have a G class router I could use for this as speed is not important for downstairs users (getting net for sod all). However the server, HTPC and gaming rig need a high bandwidth low latency network between them. I have various options. I could just buy a wireless n class router with built in gigabit, let downstairs buy some g class access cards and have gigabit speeds upstairs. Expensive though at best part of £100. I could use the g class router. Problem is no gigabit upstairs. If I got hold of a gigbit switch (only about £30 now) could I somehow get net access to these machines. Im guessing not else it would be a gigabit router and not a switch! Can a pc have two network connections and use one solely for LAN and one solely for NET? Help? Dean.
easiest way to do it: Code: > Gigabit switch > desktops requireing highspeed Internet> Wireless G router > Wireless forced to 11mbps for leeching housemates.
This seems to be the best plan. Only how do I uplink the gigabit switch (this one) to the router (this one) so that all gigabit connected machines also have internet access as I dont see how you could without buying a gigabit router? Help! Thanks
Just plug one of the gigabit switch ports into the router. Job done. You only need one router on your network - the one that's plugged into the WAN.
The gigabit switch will automaticly drop the port speed to 100mbps on the router connection. Basically, all the computers on the gigabit switch will be able to exchange data at 1gbps, while port connected to the router is running at 100mbps, which is faster than your internet connection, so there will be no bottleneck.
Note this will not cap the internet connection speed/bandwidth for the downstairs systems, unless you have some proper fast internet connection. Not sure if you can force it to anything lower?
Hrmm.. You could grab a Linksys WRT 350N router. It comes with a built-in 4 port Gbe switch. Flash it to the DD-WRT Mega Firmware thereafter and use the QoS function to prevent the leechers from soaking up your bandwidth. Basically, you do not need to hard-cap the laptops at all. You simply need to set your QoS such that the Gaming rig, fileservers etc. are exempted or on highest priority in your QoS. Do this via the mac addresses rather than IPs. Allocate the remainder of traffic to a lower priority (there's a function for this: Catch-all) and you're done. Whenever you're not using the net, the laptops below (even those of guests) can have full speed access. Once you start your downloads/ surfing/ gaming, their connection speeds drop to make allowance for you.
OK so makes sense to me now modem to router to switch fine done. I dont know what I was confused about really, just seemed as though the switch wouldnt spread the net accross it as thought need a router to do so. The router I have is thus http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?origin=gbase13.4&prodID=1136421 Any ideas on how to control wifi net speeds appreciated! Class B limit is option at the moment which will cap to 11mbit if Im correct. This may slow things a tad but will still will rinse the net connection (which will be virgin media 10mb) Suggestions welcome, have a p4 server can rope into equation if needed? Dean.
The WRT54GL supports DD-WRT too. You'll need the standard version rather than the mega firmware though.
802.11b can rarely break 5mbps in the real data thoughoput, so that should be sufficient to cap the housemates. There should be an option to set the max rate even lower, now that I think about it (as low as 1mbps IIRC)
Thanks for all the replies, it has really helped me work out where on earth this mini netowrk is headed. What the hell is DD-WRT and what can I use it to do here? Thanks, Dean.
It's a 3rd party firmware for routers (Mostly Linksys) that allows for much more features. Key highlights would include advanced Quality of Service (HFSC), increased number of connection states, OpenVPN daemon, SNMP etc. The QoS would be useful for your usage since you can always set your gaming/ htpc machines to have the highest priority (via MAC address/ IP address). The other users can leech all the bandwidth they want when your machines aren't doing anything but once you require the bandwidth, the router will throttle the rest of the network in favour of your rigs.
