Home/Office Network Upgrades - LACP, Dedicated Router, New AP's and NAS Questions

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webby88

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I finally pulled the trigger on a new Synology 1813 - which comes with 4 internal network adapters - and I think it is time for me to invest in a proper managed (layer 2) switch.

The devices I have been looking into is the 24-port variants of the HP Procurve 1810 and Dell PowerConnect 2824 - haven't decided which and am hoping some of you can chime in on this.

I currently run a Linksys e4200 as my router and primary WiFi access point and a HP Procurve 1410 as my main switch. The router has been getting overwhelmed lately and crapping out and I have always had issues with wireless dead spots.

To remedy this I have decided to switch to Ubiquities EdgeRouter Lite with a set of their UAP access points (three of them).

Some info on the network, all the wiring is brand new CAT6 terminated into CAT6 panals and patched with proper cords into the switch. There are 9 networked (non-WiFi) computers in the network, along with littany of WiFi devices including a few tablets, even more cellphones along with a few laptops. Also, there are 4 servers in the closet along with an older Linksys NAS serving video files.

In light of all this what do you guys think of this set up, and my ideas for upgrades?

One more - and sort of unrelated - question, should I consider an Intel dual NIC PCIe card for my main computer and use LACP for better connection to the new NAS?
 
Until SMB3 becomes the standard, as diizzy said, LACP is irrelevant. That being said, are you planning on VLAN-ing off traffic in your network?

The ERL should perform admirably in this scenario. Unless you are dead set on brand new gear, check out eBay of the [H] ForSale forums for some good deals on gear. Both the HP 1810 and the Zyxel that dizzy mentioned are great performers, and the Dell that you mentioned will to, but its GUI is a bit funky.
 
If you run that 1813 iscsi, throw all 4 ports on a vlan and use the dual nics to access that vlan. Ideally through a file server/cluster accessing the volumes and route users through that. iscsi is chatty, so it runs best off your main lan.
 
I use 2 Dell 2824s as the main switches in my network and provide wireless with some refurbished linksys routers running DD-WRT. I also have an 8 port netgear smart switch to do snmp up stairs.
If you're not doing VLANs, then pick whichever interface looks nice to use. I skip webguis and use commandline when possible... The ubiquitis are good and can handle that many devices.

I use HP Procurves at work now and Dell Powerconnects preiously... haven't used the zyxel but they shoud all work for you want.
 
Pick up an 1810, it has a lifetime warranty. I have a friend that uses ERL and loves it, but I use pfSense and would never use anything else. You'll be happy with the UAP's. I just run pfSense and my other servers in ESXi.
 
diizzy said:
Switch, I would by far go for the Zyxel GS1910 over the 1810. It has much better WebUI and features overall. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181232&cm_re=gs1910-_-33-181-232-_-Product

As for router, I'd take a TP-Link/WD My Net N600/N750 and run OpenWRT (trunk) on it instead of the ERL. You can still use the APs as you wish.

SMB is single-threaded so LACP wont help you.
//Danne
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Never heard of the Zyxel option, I will look into it - but it all comes down to cost in the end as I am on a tight budget.

Also, I am not so proficient in many of the advanced networking concepts, I know the basics and kinda make it work. Link Aggregation sounded cool and that it would improve bandwidth, allowing for better transfer rates etc... Any chance you can elaborate more on the benefits/needs of such a thing?

schizrade said:
If you run that 1813 iscsi, throw all 4 ports on a vlan and use the dual nics to access that vlan. Ideally through a file server/cluster accessing the volumes and route users through that. iscsi is chatty, so it runs best off your main lan.
Click to expand...

A few web searches gave me an idea of what iSCSI is - the ability to deploy a NAS volume as if it were a physical disk on just one computer. From what I read that Windows 7 is limited to 2TB and my volume is 32TB before any RAID.

The main purpose of the NAS is to store over 10TB of photos (I am a freelance photojournalist) and mange meta and exif data, as well as absorb my future photos in a neat and organized fashion. I access the photos over two 'editing' computers on the network and from the little that I read it seems that iSCSI doesn't share.

I also use the NAS to upload the data into a cloud backup (crashplan) and will be building an exact copy of this system for local replication (three copies of all data).

Thoughts?
 
Forget the HP 1810. The Zyxel GS1910-24 wins in terms of software features.
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Nate7311 said:
Until SMB3 becomes the standard, as diizzy said, LACP is irrelevant.
Click to expand...

LACP is only irrelevant if his LAN has only a single user with just file sharing running on the server. Otherwise it will help. SMB3 just eliminates the need for LACP since SMB3 is multi-path aware.
 
But still, it'll most likely give you more bang for the buck depending on what you value.
//Danne
 
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