SOHO Network setup

[cbs1]

I'm planning on redoing the network in my home/office from fast ethernet to gigabit - there's three floors, plus I want to run a feed to an outbuilding - planning for several years out, I'm guessing about 20 feeds should suffice.

I have a Surfboard (Docsis 3, 6121??) now that I'm feeding to an Asus RT-AC66U wireless router, and I'm considering the purchase of an Asus GX-D1241 24 port switch (unmanaged) to add to my RT-AC66U.

I have several questions that I'd appreciate some info on:

Question 1): would I connect the RT-AC66U to the GX-D1241, or instead
connect the GX-D1241 to the RT-ACC66U, i.e.: --modem/RT-AC66U/GX-D1241; or --modem/GX-D1241/RT-AC66U?

I sent an e to Asus tech support, and got back a cryptic: 'connect the router to the switch' - yeah duh - but on which side?

Question 2): Is Cat 7 a cable spec I should consider, or should Cat 6 suffice?

Question 3): I'm thinking of adding a Synology 1513+ NAS; these have 4 RJ-45 ports. I'm guessing these ports can be used to obtain additional through-put, and if so, would it cause problems to feed one or two ports to the router and the others to the switch?

Thanks in advance for any info.

cbs

 

[Someone Somewhere]

The modem connects to the WAN port of your router. The switch connects to one of the LAN ports, where you would connect a computer.

Anything is fine over moderately short distances, so long as it is 4-pair. Most of my place is wired up with 5e, and that does gigabit 15m away fine. Cheapest you can get it is the case. Not sure what 10G needs, but IIRC you get 55m on cat6, 100m on cat6a. That's all nominal though, you'd probably get much more easily, and short distances on cat5.

You need a switch that supports trunking, so would have to managed. Also note that not all trunking switches work with all standards; I have a D-link DGS-1224T that worked fine with a Thecus n5200, but refuses to trunk with a QNAP ts-559 ProII. Supposedly the switch uses a proprietary method, and something random caused it to work with the Thecus.

Sometimes the ports on the NAS aren't from separate NICs; it's just a five-port switch with one going to the NAS.

 

[cbs1]

Thanks for the reply. I ran several Cat 5 lines in my house some 18+ years ago, and in fact, I'm running everything off that Asus wireless separated some 30 feet from my cable modem on one of those old lines now. I mention this because even though this is some old Cat 5, the light on the modem indicates it's connecting at gigabit speed.

Assuming for discussion purposes that the NICs on the back of that Synology can be used for additional through-put - or even if not - I wonder if the potential trunking problem could be obviated by feeding the NAS NICs through the router, i.e., ahead of the switch.

If not, any suggestions for an inexpensive managed switch? Also, am I correct in thinking the better scenario is using one large switch rather than several smaller switches hung off one another?

Again, thanks in advance for any info.

cbs

 

[cbs1]

Let me add too: the Asus RT-AC66U is on Synology's approved router list.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

There are various ways for it to trunk, but in general just plugging them in everywhere doesn't work because you end up with loops, and it kills the link instead of getting traffic going round and round in circles. You just get a larger loop.

Single switch is a good idea, though there are exceptions. Largely things like getting an 8 port PoE switch for telephony, or a lower-power switch to be run off an inverter/UPS in a power cut.

Not sure why you need an approved router list... why you have standards.

Found on the spec page that it supports link aggregation, so if you had a supported switch it would work. It's still difficult to max out GbE though, and it takes up ports on your switch.

 

[cbs1]

Home Brew, thanks again. I didn't know there was a 'looping' term but I had already envisioned some such sort of problem or even crashing of data.

The Synology 'approved' list: there's some wacky stuff on there. Sure, they approve that Asus router which is relatively new (but why, as you query), and they also list TV's for DLNA streaming - most are some brand I've never heard of then there's just one Sony which looks like it might be an older model, and just one Samsung that I did look-up, and it's a freaking 2009 model .

 

[cbs1]

Update on this thread:

When started, I mentioned that Asus had given me a ambivalent answer as to the preferred order of connecting their routers and switches to my cable modem; last night, however, they provided their clarification.

Asus states the preferred connection order is: modem to switch to the wireless router.

 

[dbhosttexas]

I'm planning on redoing the network in my home/office from fast ethernet to gigabit - there's three floors, plus I want to run a feed to an outbuilding - planning for several years out, I'm guessing about 20 feeds should suffice.

I have a Surfboard (Docsis 3, 6121??) now that I'm feeding to an Asus RT-AC66U wireless router, and I'm considering the purchase of an Asus GX-D1241 24 port switch (unmanaged) to add to my RT-AC66U.

I have several questions that I'd appreciate some info on:

Question 1): would I connect the RT-AC66U to the GX-D1241, or instead
connect the GX-D1241 to the RT-ACC66U, i.e.: --modem/RT-AC66U/GX-D1241; or --modem/GX-D1241/RT-AC66U?

I sent an e to Asus tech support, and got back a cryptic: 'connect the router to the switch' - yeah duh - but on which side?

Question 2): Is Cat 7 a cable spec I should consider, or should Cat 6 suffice?

Question 3): I'm thinking of adding a Synology 1513+ NAS; these have 4 RJ-45 ports. I'm guessing these ports can be used to obtain additional through-put, and if so, would it cause problems to feed one or two ports to the router and the others to the switch?

Thanks in advance for any info.

cbs

It should go Modem --> Router --> Switch.

Your NAS RJ45 ports are for connecting the NAS to the network, allowing you to aggregate your ethernet channels into one, so that by using 4 @ 1Gb ports, you effectively have 4Gb throughput (minus overhead for ethernet and bonding, but close enough...).

If you used all of the connections, and 20 ports total other than your storage, you would just barely make it. 4 gigabit ports on the router, + 4 gigabit ports on the switch, -2 gigabit ports to link the router to the switch means a total of 26 available ports. 20 ports going everywhere, and 4 ports going to the NAS, and you have 2 ports to spare.

This means that not everything will be on the same physical network backend. Your 24 port switch will have a 48Gb non blocking backplane, meaning all ports can tall full speed without blocking each other. Assuming that you have DD-WRT enabled on the router (I do not believe the AC model is supported yet) and you have the router channel bound so you are - 4 ports for uplink to the router, you would have a maximum theoretical throughput to the router of 2Gbps. Chances are you will likely only uplink with one cable / port so communication to the router is at 1Gbps.

You would want to put your lowest priority devices as far as access to the NAS storage is concerned, on the router, and everything else, including the NAS, on the switch.

 

[cbs1]

Thanks, ddhosttexas - as Socrates is alleged to have said, 'True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.' The more I'm reading about this, the more I realize how little I know.

First, what you and Home Brew say, i.e.: modem/router/switch is what seemed to me to make the most sense, and not the opposite (modem/switch/router) as suggested by the Asus tech.

Second, DD-WRT - looking at the documentation, there are three Asus AC models supported, including the RT-AC66U, but what does DD-WRT do, or rather, what settings would one tweak in DD-WRT to improve a setup such as I'm contemplating?

Thanks again.

CBS

 

[Someone Somewhere]

FYI: My pseudonym is "Someone Somewhere" - "Home Brew veteran++ (Legacy)" is the name of a badge carried over from the old forums.

Yeah, highest-bandwidth stuff direct to your main switch. Cascade other stuff to other switches as necessary (to continue earlier example, your VoIP would all be on one switch). Minimum backbone connections possible.

 

[dbhosttexas]

The advantage of using DD-WRT over stock firmware all depends on the hardware platform it is running on. But simply put, it allows you to fully utilize the capability of the hardware itself. Although the router I own came from the factory with DD-WRT installed (several Asus models have it as well) I opted for the latest community release to get newer features. It basically turns rather milquetoast hardware into a pretty decent router, and turns good router hardware into the robust network backbone it should be out of the box.

My Buffalo router is lower spec than that Asus, (Wireless N600, not Wireless AC). However that was my choice. I am quite uncomfortable with the AC standard at this time as it is not a finalized standard, and can change at any time, leaving you with non standard hardware that may or may not work with future wireless AC devices. It's a gamble I wasn't willing to take. All of my devices, with WiFi have wireless N600 or below. I updated pre N stuff to either N, or wired ethernet to keep from bogging my network down. (WiFi can only talk as fast as its slowest member).
There is a proprietary firmware from Buffalo for my router, and the capability between the two is striking. With DD-WRT I am able to do much finer grained security, assign vlans, support much larger NAS disks, integrated DNLA server, integrated SAMBA server, integrated OpenVPN server etc...

While you are contemplating that 20 drop network, with a NAS, consider that let's assume you have 16 client workstations, plus let's just say between mobile devices, WiFi printers, and whatnot, another 20 devices, many of which go on and off the network frequently. It is a simple matter to set up the DNS and DHCP servers such that when a client is configured by DHCP, your internal DNS is updated. So say you have files on your phone you have assigned a name of phone1 to, but you never know what IP it is going to grab from DHCP, what do you do? If your DHCP is configured to update DNS, once it gets an IP, assuming you have a SAMBA server running on that phone, you just browse to \\phone1\sharenanme and get your file... (from a windows box of course). The DD-WRT wiki will actually give you a good idea of what do to, how to set it up etc... Pretty much there is very little that DD-WRT can do that the Asus N66u, or AC66u can't do...

 

[cbs1]

Thanks for the info on DD-WRT. Your Buffalo N600 speed beats my Asus N450 speed. I went with the AC model knowing there was no settled standard, but assuming they would be able to roll out firmware to address that problem once it's established, and once devices start rolling out.

But in my estimation, until that standard is released, AC is largely a gimmick, and practically pointless because as you note, the network is going to slow down to the lowest common denominator, so unless you're running all AC, you'll never get into AC mode. I don't know what DD-WRT has for settings, but I can tell you on my Asus, there's no "AC Only" selection like there is for the 'N' protocol.

However, Apple probably just fast-tracked the release of an AC standard to occur 2 weeks ago by rolling out an AC router and time capsule along with a new Air line, which likely means that everything IOS and Mac will soon roll out AC compliant. IOS7 is due out in late August/September, which means an iphone 5s or 6 to come at the same time, and everything else they have that is wireless will soon follow - perfect selling opportunity to get everyone to upgrade to take advantage of AC.

 

[dbhosttexas]

Yeah, probably. I am not likely to upgrade all my WiFi stuff for a few years yet... There are devices, such as WiFi printers, game consoles and such, that I sure wish would just use something like USB 3.0 and use a standards compliant WiFi dongle so you can just swap out the adapter and upgrade from B, to G, to N, to AC etc... I know not going to happen. But to give you an example. I have 3 printers, 2 Photosmart 7520 E printers, and a Deskjet 3050. Combine that with things like wireless cameras, game consoles, phones, tablets and the like, you can see where shifting standards can be a problem if you can't upgrade the network adapter in the device...

Not having that Asus router, I believe there is an N only mode for it with DD-WRT (yeah I am peeking at the documentation for that model...). Should be pretty easy to optimize it for whatever standard you are using. And yeah, I suspect that even when they finalize, it will probably be what is out there now with no real changes. Probably a couple of lines of code to change in the firmware, re-flash it and you are good to go. IF your vendor supports it fully. (Or you go with an OSS project like DD-WRT).