[SOLVED] Help setting up this network switch

[Victel]

My router is this:
https://www.amazon.com/802-11a-Wireless-ax-Integrated-Residential-Replaces/dp/B08PCRYJPW

I need to connect my two NAS and my PC to a network switch capable of 10g fiber internet so I found this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LFKGP1L/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1DZ2KWUETHME0&psc=1

People on Amazon told me I need these as well:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B85XQCK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=AE2OZG2NN3099&psc=1

I'm confused though because they tell me I need to connect fiber to my switch. In theory, couldnt I just buy the switch and RJ45 SFPs to connect everything to the switch and be good to go? This setup would be one lan cord from router to switch connected by SFP, then 3 more RJ45 SFPs connecting the two NAS and PC to the switch, everything connected by LAN and RJ45 SFP. Would this work or how would I set this up? My main goal is to have everything in my office rather than sitting in my hallway next to my router. I'm hoping to run one LAN cord to my office and branching off to everything using the switch in my office. Thanks

 

[kanewolf]

My router is this:
https://www.amazon.com/802-11a-Wireless-ax-Integrated-Residential-Replaces/dp/B08PCRYJPW

I need to connect my two NAS and my PC to a network switch capable of 10g fiber internet so I found this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LFKGP1L/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1DZ2KWUETHME0&psc=1

People on Amazon told me I need these as well:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B85XQCK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=AE2OZG2NN3099&psc=1

I'm confused though because they tell me I need to connect fiber to my switch. In theory, couldnt I just buy the switch and RJ45 SFPs to connect everything to the switch and be good to go? This setup would be one lan cord from router to switch connected by SFP, then 3 more RJ45 SFPs connecting the two NAS and PC to the switch, everything connected by LAN and RJ45 SFP. Would this work or how would I set this up? My main goal is to have everything in my office rather than sitting in my hallway next to my router. I'm hoping to run one LAN cord to my office and branching off to everything using the switch in my office. Thanks

You could. MikroTik makes copper SFP+ -- https://mikrotik.com/product/s_rj10 I would always recommend using the same brand SFP as the switch to ensure compatibility.
You would then use cat6a cable.
The user's manual for the router shows that LAN port1 can run multi-gig. You can run a single cable from LAN port 1 to the 10GE switch and get a 5GE link.

 

[bill001g]

Why do you need fiber.

Fiber is only really used when you have a distance greater than 100 meters.

It is likely going to be cheaper to just buy a switch with 5 or 8 10gbit copper ports

 

[Victel]

Why do you need fiber.

Fiber is only really used when you have a distance greater than 100 meters.

It is likely going to be cheaper to just buy a switch with 5 or 8 10gbit copper ports

Yeah, it didn't make sense to me either why they said I needed to run fiber to my network switch. You're suggesting a switch with RJ45 ports in? Whoich do oyu recommend? I was having problems finding them capable of 10g. Thanks

You could. MikroTik makes copper SFP+ -- https://mikrotik.com/product/s_rj10 I would always recommend using the same brand SFP as the switch to ensure compatibility.
You would then use cat6a cable.
The user's manual for the router shows that LAN port1 can run multi-gig. You can run a single cable from LAN port 1 to the 10GE switch and get a 5GE link.

I have cat8, I'm guessing those would be fine? After I run the single cable to the switch I can then branch off 3 ways with three separate lan cords to my pc and two NAS?

 

[kanewolf]

Yeah, it didn't make sense to me either why they said I needed to run fiber to my network switch. You're suggesting a switch with RJ45 ports in? Whoich do oyu recommend? I was having problems finding them capable of 10g. Thanks





I have cat8, I'm guessing those would be fine? After I run the single cable to the switch I can then branch off 3 ways with three separate lan cords to my pc and two NAS?

I would not trust "cat 8". It is probably garbage wire with a bunch of hype. Cat6a is the standard cable for 10GE. Buy 100% copper 22 - 26 GA round cat6a. -- https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=5898 for example.

 

[Victel]

I would not trust "cat 8". It is probably garbage wire with a bunch of hype. Cat6a is the standard cable for 10GE. Buy 100% copper 22 - 26 GA round cat6a. -- https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=5898 for example.

Looks good. All that being the case, I'm guessing I purchase the MikroTik SFPs with the matching switch and cat6 cables you recommend and that should be all I need? The setup would be running one cat6 line to my switch in my office from my router and branching off separate lines to my PC and NAS using the appropriate RJ45 SFPs?

 

[kanewolf]

Looks good. All that being the case, I'm guessing I purchase the MikroTik SFPs with the matching switch and cat6 cables you recommend and that should be all I need? The setup would be running one cat6 line to my switch in my office from my router and branching off separate lines to my PC and NAS using the appropriate RJ45 SFPs?

You haven't identified what 10GE NICs you have in your PC / NAS. Are they SFP+ or RJ45? But assuming you have proper NICs, that should be all that is required. You mzy have to set port speed on the switch for the 5GE uplink.

 

[Victel]

You haven't identified what 10GE NICs you have in your PC / NAS. Are they SFP+ or RJ45? But assuming you have proper NICs, that should be all that is required. You mzy have to set port speed on the switch for the 5GE uplink.

My PC has a lan port as do both of my NAS and my router has the lan ports and one fiber that's plugged into the fiber coming out of my wall. I had thought the sfp was that insert with an rj45 port to be plugged into the switch so my PC and NAS can be plugged into the switch.

 

[kanewolf]

My PC has a lan port as do both of my NAS and my router has the lan ports and one fiber that's plugged into the fiber coming out of my wall. I had thought the sfp was that insert with an rj45 port to be plugged into the switch so my PC and NAS can be plugged into the switch.

Most PCs & NAS don't have 10GE ports. Are you sure your devices have 10GE? What model motherboard and NAS units?

 

[bill001g]

Microtik can be strange sometimes. They make good product for the price but I am not sure why they don't sell a switch with all copper 10gbit ports.

Other vendors do. If you actually needed all 5 port it would be more expensive to buy microtik. I have not looked at this stuff in a while I have no need for 10g and I have a old cisco commercial switch in the garage someplace if I would need it.

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanaged-Rackmount-Protection/dp/B075Q5C3Z4/

 

[Victel]

Microtik can be strange sometimes. They make good product for the price but I am not sure why they don't sell a switch with all copper 10gbit ports.

Other vendors do. If you actually needed all 5 port it would be more expensive to buy microtik. I have not looked at this stuff in a while I have no need for 10g and I have a old cisco commercial switch in the garage someplace if I would need it.

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanaged-Rackmount-Protection/dp/B075Q5C3Z4/

Is that a better route for me then the one I have picked? Or what are the advantages? It's $100 more.

 

[Victel]

Most PCs & NAS don't have 10GE ports. Are you sure your devices have 10GE? What model motherboard and NAS units?

Motherboard is z590 Xtreme waterforce. I was having issues getting it to go over 3g speed but that's a different issue I think. My NAS is ds220j

 

[kanewolf]

Motherboard is z590 Xtreme waterforce. I was having issues getting it to go over 3g speed but that's a different issue I think. My NAS is ds220j

A DS220j does NOT have an option for 10G
Your motherboard does have a 2.5 and 10GE port. Apparently Aquantia is a part of Marvel now. I am not familiar with the Aquantia specifics.
Without 10GE support on your NAS, you won't benefit from a 10GE infrastructure.

 

[bill001g]

So kanewolf asked the more important questions. You have to be very careful you are not putting racing tires on your economy car. You have to look at the whole picture to see the true performance.

Many times the disk systems can not transfer as fast as the network. It also depends on the application. Something like a database sending very small chunks of data or coping many small files performs very differently than say a large file copy.
In a lot of cases you need really fast SSD drives on both ends to get even close to 10gbit. Many common single drive magnetic drives are lucky if they can even fully use a 1gbit.

These are the specs for the NAS units. If you multiple the rates by 8 to get the mbit rates you will see the NAS is limited to 1gbit. Now this may be because it only has a 1gbit port.

Performance | Synology Inc.

Compare the performance of all Synology NAS models and find the product that best suits your needs.

www.synology.com

.

So I think you need to go back and figure out what exactly you are needing to do and if you will see any advantage to doing this.

The switch I linked is cheaper if you consider all 5 ports are fully function. If you were to buy 4 interface modules the microtek is more expensive. This is just a example I found, I do not need really fast network stuff in my house so I have not kept up on the tech. If you want recommendations for commercial stuff that I know but most that stuff is thousands of dollars.

 

[Victel]

So kanewolf asked the more important questions. You have to be very careful you are not putting racing tires on your economy car. You have to look at the whole picture to see the true performance.

Many times the disk systems can not transfer as fast as the network. It also depends on the application. Something like a database sending very small chunks of data or coping many small files performs very differently than say a large file copy.
In a lot of cases you need really fast SSD drives on both ends to get even close to 10gbit. Many common single drive magnetic drives are lucky if they can even fully use a 1gbit.

These are the specs for the NAS units. If you multiple the rates by 8 to get the mbit rates you will see the NAS is limited to 1gbit. Now this may be because it only has a 1gbit port.

Performance | Synology Inc.

Compare the performance of all Synology NAS models and find the product that best suits your needs.

www.synology.com

.

So I think you need to go back and figure out what exactly you are needing to do and if you will see any advantage to doing this.

The switch I linked is cheaper if you consider all 5 ports are fully function. If you were to buy 4 interface modules the microtek is more expensive. This is just a example I found, I do not need really fast network stuff in my house so I have not kept up on the tech. If you want recommendations for commercial stuff that I know but most that stuff is thousands of dollars.

My main concern is my PC being capable of the speeds I'm paying for. I wouldn't want to be bottlenecked by my switch. At the moment without the switch my PC isn't getting 5g for some strange reason. Uverse said it wasn't on their end but this is a separate problem. My operating system is on an m.2 mp600 pro. The reason I want a switch is so I can put my stuff in my office rather than running three separate cords from my hallway.

My NAS isn't connected to the internet and only transfer files between my PC and it's hard drive. Does my internet speed matter in this situation?

 

[Victel]

So kanewolf asked the more important questions. You have to be very careful you are not putting racing tires on your economy car. You have to look at the whole picture to see the true performance.

Many times the disk systems can not transfer as fast as the network. It also depends on the application. Something like a database sending very small chunks of data or coping many small files performs very differently than say a large file copy.
In a lot of cases you need really fast SSD drives on both ends to get even close to 10gbit. Many common single drive magnetic drives are lucky if they can even fully use a 1gbit.

These are the specs for the NAS units. If you multiple the rates by 8 to get the mbit rates you will see the NAS is limited to 1gbit. Now this may be because it only has a 1gbit port.

Performance | Synology Inc.

Compare the performance of all Synology NAS models and find the product that best suits your needs.

www.synology.com

.

So I think you need to go back and figure out what exactly you are needing to do and if you will see any advantage to doing this.

The switch I linked is cheaper if you consider all 5 ports are fully function. If you were to buy 4 interface modules the microtek is more expensive. This is just a example I found, I do not need really fast network stuff in my house so I have not kept up on the tech. If you want recommendations for commercial stuff that I know but most that stuff is thousands of dollars.

I wasn't expecting my NAS to utilize 10g, I just need my PC to not be bottlenecked by the switch. Because my NAS are only capable of 1g, what about this switch which has a couple 10g ports and 8 1g and it's much cheaper. Wouldn't this be better for me since my network storage can't utilize 10g anyways?

NETGEAR 10-Port Gigabit/10G Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS110MX) - with 8 x 1G, 2 x 10G/Multi-gig, Desktop, Wall or Rackmount, and Limited Lifetime Protection https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076642YP...t_i_1XSTT49JZQJ23ACBJY92?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[bill001g]

ATT does not offer more than 1gbit internet so I can't see where you see a 1gbit switch is the limit. There is talk about them offering more but you will quickly find out what everyone else does that gets fast internet. Speedtest etc will show the really fast speeds but actual sites that you download data from many times
will not run at the full speed. Sometimes it is hard to say why, steam for example will download different games at very different rates most well under 100MBYTE which is the max you get a on a 1gbit connection. Other download sites you get far less. Some of this is because the sites have artificial limits to prevent a small number of users with high speed internet from impacting people with slower connections. The only site I know you can get more than 1gbit is on microsoft sites but it is inconsistent I think because it depends on what data center you download from.

If you are not running fast stuff to your NAS I do not see why you think you need a 10g connection to your PC. It is not going to do anything that you go 10g into the switch and then 1gbit out to the nas or the internet you are still only running 1gbit.

Even a $20 5 port gigabit switch can pass 1gbit in and 1gbit out on every port at the same time. Modern switches are never a bottleneck. It is only on a switch with 10g ports you have to read the specs some of those can not run all ports at full speed in and out simultaneously. Lately though even those run full speed.

 

[Victel]

ATT does not offer more than 1gbit internet so I can't see where you see a 1gbit switch is the limit. There is talk about them offering more but you will quickly find out what everyone else does that gets fast internet. Speedtest etc will show the really fast speeds but actual sites that you download data from many times
will not run at the full speed. Sometimes it is hard to say why, steam for example will download different games at very different rates most well under 100MBYTE which is the max you get a on a 1gbit connection. Other download sites you get far less. Some of this is because the sites have artificial limits to prevent a small number of users with high speed internet from impacting people with slower connections. The only site I know you can get more than 1gbit is on microsoft sites but it is inconsistent I think because it depends on what data center you download from.

If you are not running fast stuff to your NAS I do not see why you think you need a 10g connection to your PC. It is not going to do anything that you go 10g into the switch and then 1gbit out to the nas or the internet you are still only running 1gbit.

Even a $20 5 port gigabit switch can pass 1gbit in and 1gbit out on every port at the same time. Modern switches are never a bottleneck. It is only on a switch with 10g ports you have to read the specs some of those can not run all ports at full speed in and out simultaneously. Lately though even those run full speed.

Uverse offers 5g internet. Paying for the 2g I get what I'm paying for. My PC is oddly not capable of hitting the 5g so I downgraded it to 2g. I think the others are correct when they talk about the different bottlenecks which seem to be impacting my PC which is according to speed test.net I'm only able to get 3 of the 5. I really have no idea why when I speed test on all my fast hardware with everything seemingly correct being the m.2, latest cat8 cords and utilizing my 10g eth port that I can't get the full amount I'm paying for.

I think I got the advice I came here for, some great recommendations on switches I need and how to set them up. I just need to know of the latest one I linked will be good enough since it looks to have two 10g ports and the rest are 1g since my NAS devices only require 1g

 

[bill001g]

You must be in one of their test networks I don't think they offer it all area even the ones they upgraded to the newer gpon.

You have to be even more careful when you are dealing with 2.5 and 5g ports. 10g has been around for years but these other ports seem to still have strange issues from time to time connecting between different brands of equipment. I really don't understand why they even exist the cost of 10g ports is not that much more.

Your best raw test of speed is to use a tool called IPERF. Since this does not use disk, memory, and not a lot of cpu it is your best bet to get close to 10gbit tests. It only tests between 2 devices in your house. Still when you get that fast you quickly start finding out about the overhead in the frames and why
data storage networks are generally running jumbo frames.

In the end I think other than seeing bigger numbers on the speedtest screens you will not see much difference in actual performance compared to using 1gbit. Other than for large download most people do not need more than 100mbps.

 

[Victel]

You must be in one of their test networks I don't think they offer it all area even the ones they upgraded to the newer gpon.

You have to be even more careful when you are dealing with 2.5 and 5g ports. 10g has been around for years but these other ports seem to still have strange issues from time to time connecting between different brands of equipment. I really don't understand why they even exist the cost of 10g ports is not that much more.

Your best raw test of speed is to use a tool called IPERF. Since this does not use disk, memory, and not a lot of cpu it is your best bet to get close to 10gbit tests. It only tests between 2 devices in your house. Still when you get that fast you quickly start finding out about the overhead in the frames and why
data storage networks are generally running jumbo frames.

In the end I think other than seeing bigger numbers on the speedtest screens you will not see much difference in actual performance compared to using 1gbit. Other than for large download most people do not need more than 100mbps.

Depending on the sites I get about 300 megabytes per second which is pretty good. I can download 3gbs of files in 20 seconds on most sites I use at least. Do you think that Netgear I linked will work? I'm only trying to put my NAS in my office with my PC so I can run my connection to the office

 

[bill001g]

I would suspect it will work. You can never tell for some reason things do not auto negotitate the 2.5 and 5g rates well. Your pc should be fine it is the router and the switch I would be concerned about and you likely can not do much if it decides to pick slower rates.

I have not looked up the specs on the switch but I doubt the switch itself will bottleneck your traffic. You would have to look up the maximum backplace speed but I suspect it is above you needs. To be true wire speed it would have to be 56gbit

 

[Victel]

Microtik can be strange sometimes. They make good product for the price but I am not sure why they don't sell a switch with all copper 10gbit ports.

Other vendors do. If you actually needed all 5 port it would be more expensive to buy microtik. I have not looked at this stuff in a while I have no need for 10g and I have a old cisco commercial switch in the garage someplace if I would need it.

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Ethernet-Unmanaged-Rackmount-Protection/dp/B075Q5C3Z4/

I've chosen this as the best answer. I purchased the:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076642YPN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Which was most similar to what you suggested but only with two 10g ports.

Thank you everyone for the very good information. I'll be referencing this thread for fixing my network bottleneck