Comcast Cable network, network speeds

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Yowsers

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Jun 7, 2004
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Greetings,

I currently have five ips from Comcast. I have an old trendware hub now. I also have a router that I use for two computers to gain Internet access while behind the routers firewall. What I want to accomplish is getting rid of the router enabling every computer to be in front of the router. In other words, all computers have valid IPs on the Internet.

As of now, with the ips pulled from two of my computers, they are able to transmit at LAN speeds even though they are both on the Comcast network and even on different segments of the network, I checked the ip address and subnet masks myself (I have two year background in CCNA.)

However, not all of the computers transfer at LAN speeds. It seems only a few want to transfer at lan speeds, the rest I get the same old crap upload speed of cable providers at like 30KB a second.

My question is, if I replaced this HUB, with a SWITCH, will that help the packets find there way on the LAN? Or will I still get that crap 30KB a second from some of the computers? Now I understand that switches don't route, thats IPs job and routers, and switches operate at layer 2 using MAC addresses, but throw me a bone here.

Basically my question is, I want to be able to have a public ip address, but still get LAN speeds between all five of my computers here at the house. What is the best option for me? Thanks.
 
Well a switch (which is what most modern home networking routers employ for multiple ports) transmitts directly to the computer for which the message is intended and, unless I'm mistaken, this means they can send packets between each other and to/from the net at the same time. :D
Unfortunately, with a router, you will be sharing bandwidth so the bandwidth may be more evenly distributed, but your total bandwidth will drop to the same as one IP address. You can however keep a computer connected to the hub for one of the IP addresses so that one will get full speed and then connect the rest to the hub through the router. You'll lose any ability to communicate between the computers behind the router and computer on the hub, but if you have something you need fast, the exposed PC can get it and you can just switch the cable from the hub to the router for a quick transfer. :cool:
 
I want to be able to communicate with all the computers at LAN speeds, but still have everyone have an external IP address. Therefore, having one computer in front of the router and the rest behind it would not allow me to reach this goal.
 
you either need enough IPs for every computer to have one, or put everything behind the router. Those are the only ways to do it. Why do you want your computers to have public IP addresses?
 
yea i agree, why do you want all those public IP addresses. I work for comcast and having an aditional IP address does not give you additonal bandwidth at all. we send you a boot file that determines your acccess speeds, and then from there the ammount of IP's the mdm is allowed to give out. your paying 6.95 per IP address but your still only getting the 3300/256 trasmition speed via all the ip addresses. now of course if you have all 5 online but you are not using the bandwidth on any of the computers then that one computer will get all the bandwidth. your better off saving the 24 dollars extra a month and going all router. then you could do the thing i listed below for 10 bucks and get some more bandwidth for internet access. if your looking for network access speeds and not internet access speeds then you might want to look into a ?gigabit? local area network. as long as all the devices you are using are using this standard then you will have a theoretical bandwidth between each computer of 1000mb/s. i just bought a new computer that has a NIC card in this format so its available now i assume.

good news is we did recently start a new program where for an additional 10 dollars per month you can upgrade your speeds to 4300/385. if its worth it for you you might want to give comcast a call. we are not currently advertising this yet but rate codes and everything are in place tho atleast here on the east coast.

dont quote me on this but toward the end of the summer we have "intentions" to double our bandwidth again. that would be 6000/512. so maybe this too gives you something to look forward too. (did i mention no additonal cost?)

i was a little confused with the switch definition. A switch is suppose to be exactly what the name implies? you switch from 1 computer or the other, you cant use them at the same time? correct me if im wrong, ive never used one but this is what ive always thought.
 
I know i will not get LAN speeds on the Internet.

All I'm asking is if I have a switch, and I connect all my computers that each have public ips from comcast, will I be able to transmit at LAN speeds within my computers at home? It seems that I am doing this with a few computers already on a hub, but then again a few other computers can not transmit to each other at LAN speeds. Im asking if a switch would make this happen, and not a hub.

Thanks for all your responses. I live in the Dallas Ft worth area and I hope what you said about our transmissions speeds getting boosted at the end of the summer is correct. That would rock!

I guess the easiest thing for me to do is just borrow a switch, hook it all up, and see what happens. lol. oh well. keep the replies coming, thanks!
 
the only result is that each machine have a lan path to each other that does not involve the comcast network. You would have to install a second NIC in each machine and wire them into a switch. Then use internal IPs for machines when doing LAN activity. I don't think a switch will work because you will be putting all of the machines on the IP addresses you are getting from the comcast network. Therefore whenever you try to reach one machine from another you go through the comcast network and thus their upload limitation.
 
heres my issue. if he uses a router even if his bandwidth was 50/2 (.25k up) it shouldnt matter. thats just for uploading from his computer to the internet. He should through the router be able to transfer at 10/100 speeds reguardless of his connection speed back and fourth between all the computers on his network. that is assuming all his hardware is 10/100 speed rated. im kinda lost as to the problem.

take the cable modem out of the equation all together. can you have a network without a cable mdm via a router? answer is yes. so put the cable mdm back into the equation, does anything change? no.
 
heres my issue. if he uses a router even if his bandwidth was 50/2 (.25k up) it shouldnt matter. thats just for uploading from his computer to the internet. He should through the router be able to transfer at 10/100 speeds reguardless of his connection speed back and fourth between all the computers on his network. that is assuming all his hardware is 10/100 speed rated. im kinda lost as to the problem.
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That would not enable me to have public IPs. I would have private network ips, 192.168, 10., etc.

the only result is that each machine have a lan path to each other that does not involve the comcast network. You would have to install a second NIC in each machine and wire them into a switch. Then use internal IPs for machines when doing LAN activity. I don't think a switch will work because you will be putting all of the machines on the IP addresses you are getting from the comcast network. Therefore whenever you try to reach one machine from another you go through the comcast network and thus their upload limitation.
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This is the best explanation as of yet, however, it still doesn't explain why I was able to get LAN speeds on my two other computers, even though they were on different networks? oh well. I'm just going to try it on a switch and let you guys know the results. Thanks!
 
Okay, I misunderstood what you were trying to do earlier. With a hub your computers are broadcasting their local transmissions over every connection to the hub, thus, if the local Comcast node is not switched, your transmissions are being broadcast to the neighbors as well. This is moot as it's a security issue and not a speed isssue.

A switch will not help speed unless you purchase an expensive one that can do multiple simultaneous multidirectional transfers. Consumer level switches can only transmit unidirectional transfers on a per packet basis but can broadcast broadcast-packets correctly. In other words, consumer level switches only transmit one packet at a time; so the only speed benefit is that 10/100 connections can go full speed with 10 connections present. The only other benefit is increased security; no packets will be sent out to the node.

More likely there is a packet scheduling error on your system. For XP, look up QoS Packet Scheduler. It might be the same (Quality of Service Packet Scheduler) for Linux, but I'm no guru there.
 
well i guess im still stuck on why you want all public ip addresses?
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My parents use special software that need three certain ports forwarded to their computer, if we are all behind a router, I can not forward specific ports to more than one computer, you must remember I have a simple SOHO router. But I still want to keep connectivity, LAN speed connectivity, with the other computers. If I had my parents in front of the router, then myself and the other computers behind the router, we would not have that LAN speed connectivity, but that would solve the problem with the forwarding of ports.

Okay, I misunderstood what you were trying to do earlier. With a hub your computers are broadcasting their local transmissions over every connection to the hub, thus, if the local Comcast node is not switched, your transmissions are being broadcast to the neighbors as well. This is moot as it's a security issue and not a speed isssue.
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I'm sure Comcast uses a fully switched network. However, I would not be getting the switch for just "speed" issues, but more for its layer 2 capabilities of transfering based on MAC address. I suppose the root of my question is whether or not the switch (if I get a good one) can distinguish that I want to send files to my dads computer, but instead of using layer 3 ip, use his MAC address so it wont have to go through the comcast ip network?

Hope that clears things up a bit. Keep the replies coming, gives me something to do at work!!! :)
 
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