Enterprise gear at home?

I have a Dell 2824 in my rack at home. It's a very solid switch. Have not done anything with the management of it, though.
I also have a Cisco 2950 24 port 10/100, went to mess with the CLI last week and it's been so long that I forgot all my passwords...did a reset but still can't get in, so I just unplugged it :p
 
dandragonrage said:
Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... Woven LB4...Woven LB4...Woven LB4... mmmmmmmmmmmm
Click to expand...

Ok, we get you like the Woven LB4. A great example. Thanks for bringing it up. Good points against some of the other gear. I just picked up two Dell PowerConnect 5424 switches (24 wirespeed GbE + 4 shared SFP, 48Gbps backplane) for $180 off eBay, with lifetime support and a huge user base. They don't have 10GbE, but I still see their value, especially for their near copy of IOS and huge support offerings. I don't remember the OP saying he would only consider obscure gear with proprietary interfaces, so I think the comments about non-Woven LB4 gear are OK.
I've heard of some lucky people getting 6 series PowerConnects (24-48 GbE ports, PoE optional, 10GbE, L3) for around $100, although I wouldn't hold my breath. eBay is a huge resource for inexpensive gear if you investigate the specs and know what you need/want.

Picking up solid gear and then hacking it and chopping it... I just don't get it. If you want something quiet, I don't think you can beat the sound profile or reliability of a WRT54G running DDWRT. TP-Link gear running openWRT is also quiet and supplies GbE, Dual-Band, and they just intro's an AC router/AP, although I'm unsure of the openWRT support for it.

Personally, I think it's funny everyone is marking their territory re: switches, but no one else has even mentioned the existing network should be more than capable of transporting a couple BluRay streams. The stated problem likely has nothing to do with the switch.
 
jnick said:
So I have been re-thinking a relatives network setup. They are using an Asus RT-N66U with two 8 port gigabit switches. Their main function is to stream video files (BluRay) from their server to their Apple TV. So gigabit IS important.

On top of that, they have wireless devices up the ass. Something like 10 wireless iOS devices alone and game consoles. Typically they do have some connection issues. Luckily the upgrade from the N56U to the N66U has helped a bit.

Remembering that you can get older Cisco gear on eBay to use for labs and whatnot, I was wondering if they should invest in a Cisco router and a 24/48 port switch? I know the stability would be solid however what I don know is if these devices that you can get on ebay for about $150 hav gigabit on all ports? I was then thinking about complimenting this with Ubiquiti WiFi over time.

What do you guys think? Would the upgrade in switching gear help the buffering on streaming video to the wired devices? Would this be worth it at all or do you see it as being a waste?

I do work with 3900 series routers at work and 26xx/37xx switches so if the used gear could run iOS, I am familiar with programming them.

Any feedback is appreciated!
Click to expand...


How are the devices connected to the wired routers? If the media server/apple tv are connected to the same switch, the router never comes into play. If not, try connecting them to the same switch to rule the router out as the problem.
 
RocketTech said:
Picking up solid gear and then hacking it and chopping it... I just don't get it. If you want something quiet, I don't think you can beat the sound profile or reliability of a WRT54G running DDWRT. TP-Link gear running openWRT is also quiet and supplies GbE, Dual-Band, and they just intro's an AC router/AP, although I'm unsure of the openWRT support for it.

Personally, I think it's funny everyone is marking their territory re: switches, but no one else has even mentioned the existing network should be more than capable of transporting a couple BluRay streams. The stated problem likely has nothing to do with the switch.
Click to expand...

I've brought up the Woven LB4 a few times in this thread because I seem to get lost in the "Cisco! Cisco! CISCO CISCO CISCO Dell CISCO CISCO!" noise and I wasn't sure if anyone noticed. I do like the LB4. I don't hate Cisco or Dell or HP or Juniper either. In fact I like their products more, generally, and I don't like vxWorks a whole lot. But I haven't seen any switch from those brands on Ebay that compares to my LB4 in features and doesn't cost a lot more. And I've checked many times. But sure, maybe there are some great deals on the other brands that I just happen to miss.... but can you get 10Gbit from Cisco for $200 or less on Ebay? It'd probably cost you more for an addin 10Gbit module for Cisco than my whole switch did, even used. Of course many of us have no need for 10Gbit, and hell, I don't even use it (I was going to, but I had to switch living situations and with my current setup using it currently makes less sense), but at least I have an easy upgrade path for a while (until 10Gbase-T gets cheap and displaces CX4 almost totally).

I've had a WRT54g before. I've run DD-WRT, OpenWRT, HyperWRT, Tomato, and others. I do not believe in the quality of the WRT54g or any other consumer gear. Seen many die along with a lot of other Linksys stuff. I picked up this stupid 8 port Asus "green" switch and it's unreliable crap. I've had ports die on it within a couple months, though oddly they come back after some time so I think it might just be overheating.

I recently moved from a house (where my Woven switch was out of the way and didn't bother me) to an apartment where my Woven switch is hanging out right next to my TV. I probably wouldn't have bought it if I'd already been in an apartment. However modifying it (and I already had the heatsink plus thermal epoxy plus one of the 3 fans) was still easy and much cheaper than buying a different switch. I used to have a Procurve 1800-24G (obviously less featured, but still a great home switch) and if I'd known earlier that I'd be downsizing, I would have stuck with it as it's fanless. No 10Gbit ports on it of course, but since I have yet to end up using them, no big deal.
 
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dandragonrage said:
I've brought up the Woven LB4 a few times in this thread because I seem to get lost in the "Cisco! Cisco! CISCO CISCO CISCO Dell CISCO CISCO!" noise and I wasn't sure if anyone noticed. I do like the LB4. I don't hate Cisco or Dell or HP or Juniper either. In fact I like their products more, generally, and I don't like vxWorks a whole lot. But I haven't seen any switch from those brands on Ebay that compares to my LB4 in features and doesn't cost a lot more. And I've checked many times. But sure, maybe there are some great deals on the other brands that I just happen to miss.... but can you get 10Gbit from Cisco for $200 or less on Ebay? It'd probably cost you more for an addin 10Gbit module for Cisco than my whole switch did, even used. Of course many of us have no need for 10Gbit, and hell, I don't even use it (I was going to, but I had to switch living situations and with my current setup using it currently makes less sense), but at least I have an easy upgrade path for a while (until 10Gbase-T gets cheap and displaces CX4 almost totally).

I've had a WRT54g before. I've run DD-WRT, OpenWRT, HyperWRT, Tomato, and others. I do not believe in the quality of the WRT54g or any other consumer gear. Seen many die along with a lot of other Linksys stuff. I picked up this stupid 8 port Asus "green" switch and it's unreliable crap. I've had ports die on it within a couple months, though oddly they come back after some time so I think it might just be overheating.

I recently moved from a house (where my Woven switch was out of the way and didn't bother me) to an apartment where my Woven switch is hanging out right next to my TV. I probably wouldn't have bought it if I'd already been in an apartment. However modifying it (and I already had the heatsink plus thermal epoxy plus one of the 3 fans) was still easy and much cheaper than buying a different switch. I used to have a Procurve 1800-24G (obviously less featured, but still a great home switch) and if I'd known earlier that I'd be downsizing, I would have stuck with it as it's fanless. No 10Gbit ports on it of course, but since I have yet to end up using them, no big deal.
Click to expand...

Yep, I snagged a 24 port gigabit Allied Telesyn off eBay for $80 and it has the same features a $700-1000 used Cisco off eBay has. The CLI is a bit clunky, but you get used to it after a bit. It has dual hot swappable PSUs and everything and was brand new in the box. It's also a somewhat well known good brand.
 
There really is no benefit to any of this because your uplink (your ISP) will significantly narrow you down. Unless you're getting fiber to your house. Then Im super jealous. :)
 
mizaco said:
There really is no benefit to any of this because your uplink (your ISP) will significantly narrow you down. Unless you're getting fiber to your house. Then Im super jealous. :)
Click to expand...

A house with a NAS and/or SAN setup and multiple clients of whatever could still pull plenty of bandwidth from said server without even using the internet.
 
Wow...just wow! This has turned into quite the thread! Great information here fellas! I do want to respond to some key points and will do so in another post as I have to go through multi quote mark them now since I was away for a couple of days! Thanks for all of the info! Replies coming!
 
I skimmed the thread here...wow...

10/100 is plenty to stream.

I have at home:
2x Dell 2724 10/100/1000 web managed switches
2x unifi ap
2x file servers
3x wd tv live
1x untangle box

There are 25 devices powered up and connected to the network right now. On the wireless front I have 12+ devices when they are all up, so yeah, can have 40 devices here easily...

I'm using pretty much the same setup at work, but increased device count.
 
I personally don't like the 27/28 series Dells, but it is a nit-picking reason. I don't like how they configure .1q tagged traffic. I'm used to specifying 'switchport mode trunk', and then assigning tagged VLANs.
That being said, the 27 and 28 series are great little switches, especially for SOHO applications. Be aware the fan can be loud in a quiet environment, I know of this on the 2824 specifically. I've used the 2824 in a newspaper office, handling a ton of heavy network traffic and it was rock-solid.
 
PointandClick said:
With the knowledge that this is a relatives setup, my first thought is do you really want to be supporting it any time something goes wrong? Unless the ATV3 upgraded to gigabit, I know the 2 was only 10/100. I don't have any HD content, but my little 8 port Trendnet switch has no problem pushing videos to/from my server at 100MB/s with Realtek nics on both ends.

[snip..]

Depending on their internet service they may not even need a new router. You say the main issue is streaming from a local server. I would go with a fanless 16-24 port switch and a Unifi or 2 and just keep the Asus for now. Don't fix what ain't broken.
Click to expand...

While I totally like your way of thinking, this relative I'm referring to are my parents (mainly my dad...he's the tech guy). I'm pretty sure I'm on the hook with tech-support for life for them...since well, they did pay more than half of my college tuition and provided for me up until I moved out LOL :p.

However, this is why I'm looking for a more stable platform. I feel like every time something breaks, I recommend another consumer-grade product then a year or so later, it breaks and then it of course gets put back on me: "Yeah that POS router you recommended is dead...again. How many routers do I have to go through until....blah blah blah"

However, you are indeed correct that the ATV is 10/100.

shade91 said:
I don't know whether to laugh or cry that everyone here thinks Dell managed switches and Unify APs are 'enterprise' grade. I'd have been laughed out of the room if I recommended that to my senior director. No, your Dell/Unify/Checkpoint/Firefox/Whitebox pfSense network hardware is hardly enterprise-grade, maybe pro-sumer at best.
Click to expand...

While it may not be true "Enterprise" gear, one could only hope and conclude that any Dell switch or UniFi AP has got to be better and more solid than a D-Link 8 port $50 switch or an ASUS wireless router. Then again, maybe I'm mistaken?

rudy said:
I didn't read all the posts but...

If you really have 10 wireless devices on a single ASUS router that is a problem. From what I understand wifi cuts in half every device added. With that many devices I think you need to figure out how you can wire some of them if possible and add more WAPs.

Call it whatever you want prosumer, value enterprise, I don't care. I use an HP 2410G and it stabilized my network, unifi APs, and routerboard. Was one of the best moves I ever made. Network has run solid without any work for a very long time. And while routerboard is not that easy to learn it can do just about anything a home user would need. Between these you can make temp wifi for guests and whatever else.

[snip..]
Click to expand...

You do bring up a good point. All of the computers in the house are wired. There are ZERO laptops. The brunt of the wireless devices are iPods, iPads and iPhones. There are five iPads (everyone in the house has one), 3 iPhones and 2 iPod touches. While they of course are not all being used at the same time, they all very well may be on and connected (though idle) at the same time.

Perhaps this is where a UniFi solution with two APs may come in handy?

MurphysLaww said:
[snip..]

And the OP says he knows Cisco. Most of the Woven stuff I saw ( I don't know much about them, admittedly, I like the 10gig, "now that's a knife", though) looked like it was $200+

Just sayin... There's never just one way, contrary to what some on Hard Forums think. :p
Click to expand...

I work as a Network Administrator (one of three...I'm the newest. Was given a HUGE opportunity and was just promoted last year from the desktop crew so Networking is still new to me) at a private college. One of my biggest projects last summer was to install Cisco switches in all the residence halls. A mix of 2960s and 3750s. I got all of them deployed ahead of schedule and got huge kudos from my boss. I was sent to CCNA training and have been self studying for the CCENT (going to do it in the two-part). So I do know my way around IOS for the most part.

RocketTech said:
[snip..]

Personally, I think it's funny everyone is marking their territory re: switches, but no one else has even mentioned the existing network should be more than capable of transporting a couple BluRay streams. The stated problem likely has nothing to do with the switch.
Click to expand...

Let me clarify a bit...he CAN stream BluRay. It does work and most of the time, if buffers quick enough to where the movie is not waiting for stream to buffer. However, watching the buffering bar, IMO, it was going slow for gigabit. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that, well, ATV isn't gigabit! Which could explain it!

Though I'm not saying there isn't a problem. There are still times when I'm at their house browsing via WiFi on my iPhone and wireless will go down...completely. I then have to reboot the router to get it to work again. However as rudy pointed out, I wonder if this is because there are too many devices attached to one AP...?

Biznatch said:
How are the devices connected to the wired routers? If the media server/apple tv are connected to the same switch, the router never comes into play. If not, try connecting them to the same switch to rule the router out as the problem.
Click to expand...

I have the D-Linke and the HP 1410-8g both attached to the ASUS router in a star topology. All of the "important" devices [ie: my dads PC, server, ATV] are all connected to the 1410-8g, which goes back to the router. I thought that this would be the best and most stable setup for him.

At this point, I'm wondering if we should start by removing both the 1410-8g and DLink and replacing it with a 1410-16G. From there, possibly move towards 2 Unfi APs should the wireless issues continue? However, at that point, would it be best to replace the two 8-ports with a switch that has PoE for the APs?
 
Hmm... let's try to sum up a few things...

@ jnick

First of all, as a few people have mentioned your issues are most likely not the network itself looking at the performance. As long as your 8-port switches work as they should it wont matter if you buy an enterprise switch or not. I'd have a look at your file server

The Ralink based Asus-devices are known to have issues with wireless devices from Apple and from what I can tell they also seems to drop in performance quite a bit when you add "lots" of devices. That said, wireless networks will drop in performance with more devices connected but Ralink ones seems to sometimes drop performance more than others. That being said, mixing 11b/g/n also drags down performance compared to having only 11n devices as well as coverage (signal strength). If you have the ability try separate 5Ghz devices with 2.4Ghz only ones on different SSIDs, that may be enough to give you better performance if you already haven't done so.

If you want to try something else I'd highly suggest that you look at an Atheros based 11n (if you want 11ac wait at least til you get QCAs second rev of the silicon) such as TP-Links or similar. They work very reliable in my experience and its the same type of hardware the many "wifi"-vendors use. If you want to go this route OpenWRT (trunk) is the way to go, but you may need a serial console available sometimes...

In all honesty, the EdgeRouter Lite is a great little device but it will not improve your network performance unless you're seeing some "broken" implementations on your current router (which you apparently do not). I run a few myself but I've replaced the (in my opinion) god awful OS with FreeBSD. Sure, hw-accl doesn't work but I get a small appliance that runs stock FreeBSD which I'm much more comfortable with but it still performs 200+ mbit which is more than enough for my needs.

Speaking of streaming, what is your server? Are you trying to use the built in file sharing in the router?

@ others

The WRT54g's were good until like 2009, not a sane person would buy or deploy these today. That being said, most "consumer routers" actually do work pretty well. If they for some reason "die" its usually the PSU or something that causes the PSU to fail. If you want to run OpenWRT etc go for Atheros, they're faster and offers much more capabilities than Broadcoms not to mention a lot better community support.

//Danne
 
diizzy said:
Hmm... let's try to sum up a few things...
@ others

The WRT54g's were good until like 2009, not a sane person would buy or deploy these today. That being said, most "consumer routers" actually do work pretty well. If they for some reason "die" its usually the PSU or something that causes the PSU to fail. If you want to run OpenWRT etc go for Atheros, they're faster and offers much more capabilities than Broadcoms not to mention a lot better community support.

//Danne
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, the suggestion of the WRT54G was a bit of tongue-in-cheek hyperbole. I don't think the WRT54Gs are widely available, and for the cost of new, you could get a better-featured TP-Link. I never had one die.
Also to be clear, I highly recommend TP-Link with openWRT firmware. I deploy these to SOHOs and guarantee them against everything except theft and abuse. If I have to roll a truck for one of them, it comes straight out of my pocket- I haven't had to roll a truck yet.

When it comes to troubleshooting networks, in my experience it will come down to what was configured incorrectly, not poor hardware. Start switching out equipment to find the issue.

Start with patch cables and move from there. If you want to see whether it is your network or content server, connect the Atv and content server together- If the server has GbE, you won't need a crossover cable, but you may need to assign static IPs to both. Check performance. If it is still slow, it's not the network. Switch to an Intel card on the server and try again. Check to make sure the Atv fully supports the codec and bitrate you are feeding it.
If the preceding test is fine, connect your switch between the Atv and server, preferably using the same cable as the previous test. Work your way down the line until you find the slowdown.

If you come back with it feels slow, I'm gonna say you're impatient. This is not the [H] emotional support forum; this is the [H] Network and Security forum.

For consistent hardware failures- what is failing on your gear? What is the failure mode? Are there any consistencies between failure? Where and how is your gear mounted? Don't stack consumer gear- you're just overheating all the gear stacked on top of it. Consumer stuff has a pretty small thermal envelope- which is why hacking and modding enterprise gear to fit in the home makes no sense to me. I know it can be done, and I know some have good results- but you're trading reliability for quiet, and you just voided the warranty. If it makes too much noise, put it in a closet or under a sofa, or leave it at work. If it's just a hardware circle-jerk, so be it, but don't try and say it is a considered and expert view.

Lastly, DON'T RECOMMEND GEAR YOU DON'T HAVE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH!!! If you like to recommend shiny gear and stuff you heard about on the intarwebs, then call it that. If you recommend it, I should be able to ask 'Have you had this problem on your other gear?' And the answer is... 'My other router is a WRT54G.'
 
As a former 100% Cisco fanboy (talking home kit here not enterprise) I now have a small array of vendor neutral networking gear:

2 x Summit Extreme 400-48T's (with the 10Gbe stack ports and uplink modules) - for their age these are underrated switches I feel, they were purchased for the bargain fee of $156 delivered (2 x switches) I think you'd be hard pushed to get 2 switches with 10Gbe for that.

1 x Dell PowerConnect 5324 - L2 but still a solid switch.

The rest is Cisco:

Cisco MDS9020 Fibre switch

Cisco 2611XM Router (junk)

Cisco 3750-48 POE

Cisco 3550

Aironet:

Cisco 1252AG

Cisco 1141

Cisco 1142

I have too much network gear really! I want to run some fibre from the house to the garage outhouse (not connected directly to the house) but I need to draft proof and bug proof the garage first.
 
101001101 said:
I want to run some fibre from the house to the garage outhouse (not connected directly to the house) but I need to draft proof and bug proof the garage first.
Click to expand...

You might want to run the cable first, or else you'll be punching a new hole(s) in your recently bug-proof and draft-proof building.
 
@ RocketTech
While the TP-Links are pretty good (wifi range is so-so), I would take an ERL box anyday and stick FreeBSD on it and use a TP-Link as AP. :)

//Danne
 
RocketTech said:
You might want to run the cable first, or else you'll be punching a new hole(s) in your recently bug-proof and draft-proof building.
Click to expand...

lol this is true! Have you done this yourself? Do you have any recommendations on what to encase the fibres in and at what depth to lay them? (some flexible plastic tubing of somekind) I've never done this before so would be good to get some tips from anyone who has (including how best to route them from inside the house, I'm guessing a housing box like those supplied by ISPs for FTTH) - any tips would be greatfully appreciated.

Thanks
 
diizzy said:
@ RocketTech
While the TP-Links are pretty good (wifi range is so-so), I would take an ERL box anyday and stick FreeBSD on it and use a TP-Link as AP. :)

//Danne
Click to expand...

I already know how you feel about pfSense, so I'm not trying to start an argument, but I use TP-Link running openWRT for smaller installations.
For larger installations I've standardized on pfSense running on Dell 1U rack servers and either Dell or Cisco switches.
pfSense turns any managed, .1Q switch into essentially an L3 switch. It's a strategy that has worked well for me. If you don't use pfSense as a swiss-army edge/NAS/mail/web/PBX/whatever server, I've found it is a great tool.
Both solutions fit my strategy and customer budgets well. Other solutions may fit equally well, but I just don't have time to try them all.
You have to realize the TP-link/openWRT solution is not the only arrow in my quiver. Like I said, the solutions I do offer, I stand behind with my pocketbook.

I'd be more than happy to discuss the differences and similarities between solutions, and specifically how I use them to meet customer needs. I don't want to get in a pissing match like a couple rednecks at a NASCAR race.
 
FreeBSD != pfsense, it doesn't even run on that hardware...
The ERL does that too, with fewer ports though (3 instead of 4-5) even with the stock firmware.
I'm not saying that OpenWRT (or you) are doing anything wrong but it does leave a bit to desire and but the ERL may fit better in some scenarios especially since its about as expensive.
Oh yeah, multicast seems broken on OpenWRT on TP-links but I'll give igmpproxy a spin later today...
//Danne
 
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diizzy said:
FreeBSD != pfsense, it doesn't even run on that hardware...
The ERL does that too, with fewer ports though (3 instead of 4-5) even with the stock firmware.
I'm not saying that OpenWRT (or you) are doing anything wrong but it does leave a bit to desire and but the ERL may fit better in some scenarios especially since its about as expensive.
//Danne
Click to expand...

I wasn't suggesting pfSense be run on Edge Router Lite (ERL)- I thought I had come across some of your other posts declining use of pfSense- my apologies if I'm mistaken.
I could certainly see use cases where openWRT would fall short, but for my use cases it works fine.
pfSense on Dell Servers is used where ERL and its hardware are not sufficient. I run on Dual CPU, Redundant PS, RAID 1 (mirror) disks, hot-swappable memory, fans, hard drives, and power supplies. Massive overkill in processing power, but acceptable fault tolerance. With this setup and managed .1Q switches, I can do L3 on any port in the enterprise for comparative chump change.

Just to be clear, I don't run the above hardware at home.
 
Lots of interesting responses here, but I don't think they all serve the OP's origional request.

He has a significant number of Apple devices. So keep that in mind.

Ubiquiti APs have issues with the series 3 firmware and apple devices. You also may have some mixed mode beacon related issues.

Your current network switch is ok...at best. An upgrade can give you certain guarantees you currently don't have.

Upgrading your router can give you features you currently don't have, but if your aren't having internet related issues a router upgrade might be a secondary issue.

Just use the Asus RT-N66U as a router only until you have verifed that improving your wireless and core switch doesn't resolve the issue.


I can endorse the HP procurve 1810 series, the 1810 v2 costs a little more but sips very little power and adds a couple of compliant features instead of the HP proprietary versions. The Dell 2800 series is priced as a direct competitor to the HP 1810 series and is also another good choice. The Linksys/Cisco 200 series is supposed to play in the same sandbox but my personal experience is that the Dell and the HP switches at this level offer a better value/user experience.

If you want the best CHEAP non-managed desktop switch...look no further than the netgear E series. GS116E for example (only the E series as a crazy high MTBF). If you want something a little better with advanced replacement look at the HP1400 or 1410 series.

You might be seeing rate negotiation beacon related issues with your wireless devices. Having (2) APs with one serving wireless G and the other serving wireless N will most likely go miles towards improving the actual user experience in that house.

For APs I'd recommend either (2) Apple Airport Extremes or (2) Ubiquiti Unifi units, either std or AC versions. The Apple Airport Extreme APs will probably give you less grief in the short run but a couple fewer features. You will need to set them up a two different SSIDs on two different channels. One AP configured to "accept wireless G only" and the other "wireless N only".

A couple of suggestions by the other are bad ideas... like the Cisco 1841. Although 1941 would work. Other suggestions are overkill. Personally I like overkill, but am willing to tweak something for as long as it takes.

You can also setup Vlans and place the router into a management Vlan and setup only devices that need to configure the router into that Vlan. Then place every other device into another Vlan. At least then your intranet traffic will then not be routing towards the router so the router should have more cycles to spare.
 
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@ RocketTech
That seems heavily overkill if you'd run CARP on ERLs given that the hardware can handle the load :)
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/carp.html

@ Mackintire
I makes no sense to replace switches that most likely work fine, I would highly recommend going for the 1910 instead of 1810 if you're going for HP. I'll give some feedback when I get my Zyxel GS1910-24 which supposedly is about the same as a 1910. Unless you need VLANs etc managed switches are still overkill for most people.

It's more interesting to know what he tries to stream from and how as we dont know that yet AFAIK
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
@ RocketTech
That seems heavily overkill if you'd run CARP on ERLs given that the hardware can handle the load :)
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/carp.html

@ Mackintire
I makes no sense to replace switches that most likely work fine, I would highly recommend going for the 1910 instead of 1810 if you're going for HP. I'll give some feedback when I get my Zyxel GS1910-24 which supposedly is about the same as a 1910. Unless you need VLANs etc managed switches are still overkill for most people.

It's more interesting to know what he tries to stream from and how as we dont know that yet AFAIK
//Danne
Click to expand...

I wasn't specifically endorsing replacing his switch as he indicated that the wireless appears to be spotty. I was only suggesting that IF he wanted to replace the switch, that more expensive models would likely buy him no benefits. I was also offering my experiences as I have seen issues where local network traffic was bogging down a router which was also serving as a AP. I agree that a 10/100 apple TV unit is not going to cause this issue, but also would like to point out it is possible the number of wireless devices could be thrashing the AP portion of the router, which in turn could arise into issues seen elsewhere.
 
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sc0tty8 said:
I skimmed the thread here...wow...

10/100 is plenty to stream.

I have at home:
2x Dell 2724 10/100/1000 web managed switches
2x unifi ap
2x file servers
3x wd tv live
1x untangle box

There are 25 devices powered up and connected to the network right now. On the wireless front I have 12+ devices when they are all up, so yeah, can have 40 devices here easily...

I'm using pretty much the same setup at work, but increased device count.
Click to expand...

no 10/100 is not enough when you start streaming "real" 1080 + content over a network to 4-5 devices when a raw BR can be upwards of 35Mb.
 
MrGuvernment said:
no 10/100 is not enough when you start streaming "real" 1080 + content over a network to 4-5 devices when a raw BR can be upwards of 35Mb.
Click to expand...

A 10/100 or Fast Ethernet switch is more than enough to stream BluRay. You would want a GbE card on your content server, but FE is more than enough for BluRay.
 
diizzy said:
@ RocketTech
That seems heavily overkill if you'd run CARP on ERLs given that the hardware can handle the load :)
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/carp.html

//Danne
Click to expand...

pfSense has CARP as well; CARP doesn't work well with multi-WAN. To be clear, I'm not asking for advice on router deployments. I understand you have a hard-on for ERL- I'm happy for you. I've tried to be polite, I'm just simply not interested in a pissing match on router and switch hardware.

To Mackintire-
I'm not sure what you're attempting to accomplish by using VLANs to separate traffic from the router. How does said separated traffic now access the internet? If you say via the router, than how did you save processing time?
If your intention is to simply decrease the load of transient traffic on the router- use host files or straight IP addresses for local traffic, the switch takes care of the rest. A router is not needed for local traffic except to hand-out IP addresses and sometimes DNS.
 
I was only pointing out that if you are using the router as your switch all data/requests/everything goes through that device.

If you have a separate switch that data will only be directed to the ports that need to see it. Vlans are useful if you want to limit/segregate additional traffic and or access. (but I suspect you already know this.) We have Vlans that can not see other VLans and access the internet just fine, we have a guest network in its own Vlan for that specific reason.
 
@ RocketTech
You're missing the whole point and please lay off that attitude its far from polite. My point was that you can use cheaper hardware to accomplish redundancy hence "given that the hardware can handle the load". Which I assume is the point with dual power supplies etc. ERLs costs slightly more than a TP-Link WDR4300, if you know any way to do that in OpenWRT feel free to tell.

----------

100mbit will stream BDs fine, EOD. We can OTOH make up 1000+ different scenarios what may cause his/hers issues but as for now lets wait is feel free to do an ASCII flow chart in the meantime. :)
//Danne
 
OP mentioned he has the router connected to 2 switches with no other connections on router. If you separate the equipment from the router (gateway) using a VLAN, how do you connect to the internet? The answer is you don't. A path needs to exist from a network to the internet, and this is usually accomplished via a router. Your company may be using supernetting to separate traffic, but a path still exists to the router. Creating a VLAN to prevent access to a router in this situations is not helpful.
If you are willing to make a snap call with no investigation and say the router is over-taxed, simply placing heavy local traffic on the same subnet will do the trick. Local traffic has no need to touch the router.
 
I think I understand Mackintire's point.
It does technically touch the router but unless there's some weird filtering going on using VLANs or ipfilter it'll just work as a third switch forwarding packets without any processing involving the CPU. This kind of filtering or handling doesn't normally happen unless there's some customization going on (3rd party firmwares). That said, some routers (consumers ones) push packets through the CPU when tagging or processing VLAN-tags. I think we can safely discard that theory in this case.
//Danne
 
so apparently for the OP initial request, the solution is something expensive, and that he may have no experience with...

Ok, gotcha. I'm sure there is at least one other obscure linux-based switch/router that someone else can come up with.

If you're going to suggest a $400 1941, then you might as well go to an ME3400, something the OP may encounter at work, and which is multi-layer.

If he wants to go in new directions so be it. I was providing cost-effective suggestions on equipment he was already familiar with...

you guys crack me up. :p
 
From my previous research and hand on experience with Time Capsules, the range is actually not that great. In a 2200SqFt bi-level ranch, with the Time capsule on the first level at one end of the house and the device (MacBook Pro) on the second level at the opposite end, you get ZERO 5Ghz signal.

The server is an AMD 4850e 2.5Ghz dual core processor, 4GB ram, Realtek Gb Nic running WHS 2011.
 
jnick said:
From my previous research and hand on experience with Time Capsules, the range is actually not that great. In a 2200SqFt bi-level ranch, with the Time capsule on the first level at one end of the house and the device (MacBook Pro) on the second level at the opposite end, you get ZERO 5Ghz signal.

The server is an AMD 4850e 2.5Ghz dual core processor, 4GB ram, Realtek Gb Nic running WHS 2011.
Click to expand...

Try an Intel Gigabit Desktop CT (PCI-e) or Gigabit Desktop GT (PCI) instead. I've notice poor streaming with some Realteks.
 
Any type of Intel or Broadcom NIC will do, not have official support for WHS 2011 though. Are you trying to transcoding on that computer too as ATV doesn't support MKV etc?
//Danne
 
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