Home Router/Switch vs router/router Latency(details inside)

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xFuryofFivex

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I currently added a steam link to my network. I ran a 25ft cat6 cable through my basement into my living room to give it a wired connection(wireless wasn't cutting it). I'm currently using a Netgear R6300v1 router. Well i had an old 10/100 router(Netgear wnr2000v2) lying around and wanted to also add wired connectivity to my xbox one for streaming to Win10 devices.(same room as steam link)
I plugged the long cable from router 1 into port 1 on router 2. Disabled DHCP and set a static IP address. But i noticed a slight latency when streaming games. Nothing extreme, but more latency on top of the normal latency wasn't desired.

To the question!
I would prefer to not have to buy another networking device, so would setting up QOS on the routers maybe alleviate some latency?
Someone I work with suggested i get another router, but for the price of gigabit routers, i opted to look into switches. I was able to find gigabit switches under $20. Would a switch be better than daisy chaining routers?
Thanks for any help :)
 
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I am trying to understand why you hooked up an extra device in between your main router and your XB1.

Can't you just hook up your XB1 directly to your R6300v1?
 
If I understand you correctly, on your old router you are using ports 1 and 2 and have nothing plugged into the "wan" port, or the port that is separate from the other 4. If that is the case you are only using the switch part of the router, so if you trying to ping the gateway on the R6300 it should be <1ms. If it's not then yes, something funny is still going on with that old router, but otherwise it's unlikely that is causing your latency problems. No need to buy a gig switch unless you really need more than 100mbit of traffic.

You only need a router for the times where you are crossing from one network to another. An example would be your home network is 192.168.1.0/24 with devices on 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc. If you had another network in your home or on the internet that is not inside of the network, or to say if an ip is not between 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.254 then it needs send that request to a device that knows how to leave the network. So if you wanted to talk to a computer that has an ip of 10.1.1.1 your computer wouldn't know how to talk to it. So it send that request to your router which knows about both your 192 network, but also knows how to get to the 10 network and will pass traffic back and forth for you. A basic switch on the other hand cannot do this, and simply takes the information that is coming in one port and determines which port to send it out without knowing the ip information.

What all of that means is that you only need 1 router in your house, and the rest of the time you need to extend your network you want to use a switch, not a router. What you are doing with your old router is disabling the routing portion of it, to utilize just the switch that is built in. So you could spend more money getting a router, then turn off most of its capabilities, but in reality you only need a switch so that is what you would want to buy.


@Cyclone3d: That is actually an even better question, didn't even cross my mind that he didn't say he had other devices hooked to the second router. As long as there are open ports on the R6300 he would want to use those up before having to expand the network by adding another device.
 
let me edit the original post, sorry for the confusion. I understand what functions of the devices. I missed clarifying words in the my post :(

I have a single cable running from my router to another room. In the 2nd room i have two devices id like to have network access. So i initially tried to daisy chain the two routers, but the latency for the steam link was higher than i'd like.
 
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xFuryofFivex said:
let me edit the original post, sorry for the confusion. I understand what functions of the devices. I missed clarifying words in the my post :(

I have a single cable running from my router to another room. In the 2nd room i have two devices id like to have network access. So i initially tried to daisy chain the two routers, but the latency for the steam link was higher than i'd like.
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Gotcha. In that case just get a Gigabit switch.

My personal favorite for small switches is Netgear Prosafe line. For a 5 port, the model number is GS105.

Lifetime warranty and of the 40+ I have bought I have never had a single problem.

I did get a DOA 16 port once a few years ago, but the replacement is still up and running.
 
cyclone3d said:
Gotcha. In that case just get a Gigabit switch.

My personal favorite for small switches is Netgear Prosafe line. For a 5 port, the model number is GS105.

Lifetime warranty and of the 40+ I have bought I have never had a single problem.

I did get a DOA 16 port once a few years ago, but the replacement is still up and running.
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Thanks, is that the same as (GS105NA). thats the one i was looking at.
 
Have you had experience with TP-Link? I was trying to keep cost low, so i was also looking at TP-LINK TL-SG105. I was reading about the switches that have power-saving. They throttle speeds with in power-saving mode.
 
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xFuryofFivex said:
Have you had experience with TP-Link? I was trying to keep cost low, so i was also looking at TP-LINK TL-SG105. I was reading about the switches that have power-saving. They throttle speeds with in power-saving mode.
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I don't have any experience with TP-Link.

You can always get a used Netgear off of Ebay though.

Here is a GS105 for $17 shipped.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NetGear-ProSafe-GS105-5-Ports-Gigabit-External-Ethernet-Switch-Free-Shipping-/272022854996?hash=item3f55d35d54:g:sawAAOSw14xWJqh9
 
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I've purchased a 5 port TP-Link switches for some of our offices for printer stations that didn't have quad-jacks. We had some weird issues with printers going offline. We swapped it out for a netgear GS105 that was found later in a box and the problem seemed to go away. Since then we'd stayed away from TP-Link.
 
Chimay said:
I've purchased a 5 port TP-Link switches for some of our offices for printer stations that didn't have quad-jacks. We had some weird issues with printers going offline. We swapped it out for a netgear GS105 that was found later in a box and the problem seemed to go away. Since then we'd stayed away from TP-Link.
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i bought a tp-link wireless router once. the performance was not that good. i think i returned that device.
 
So i grabbed a LINKSYS LGS105. My co-worker had a 50% promo code and newegg sent me a $10 voucher off. so got it for $10. Id like to think it was a coincidence.
 
xFuryofFivex said:
So i grabbed a LINKSYS LGS105. My co-worker had a 50% promo code and newegg sent me a $10 voucher off. so got it for $10. Id like to think it was a coincidence.
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Nice. Should work just fine.

I like how the model number is the same as the Netgear one except for an L at the beginning.
 
cyclone3d said:
Nice. Should work just fine.

I like how the model number is the same as the Netgear one except for an L at the beginning.
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Update :

Switch came in, plugged wires in, no setup required. Works as expected and can now use the xbox one streaming to my Win10 laptop.(wireless for that was wonky as well.)
 
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