Unmanaged switch assistance - slow network

[maniac91]

Hi

I require guidance. Recently started at a new company as the previous IT Guy left. Basically in the morning between 8:30 to 10:30, everyone would access the relevant applications that is hosted on a local server. I have wired up the new office connected to the main switch with a Gigabit network switch in the new office, All the other switches are 10-100mbps switches, The gigabit switch that I have connected has no issues at all with the applications that is on the server. When everyone on the 10-100mbps (4switches all connected to one another) switches tries to access the applications in the morning, the apps takes extremely long to load where on the gigabit switch, the applications runs at perfect speeds. I was thinking of replacing all the switches with gigabit switches but will this increase performance and remove the bottleneck?

I would really appreciate the help, the company is running only on Ethernet, no wireless networks, CAT5E cables.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

Reliable networking is paramount when every host needs to access a shared resource, particularly if they all connect at the same time.

Unmanaged switches simply push network traffic everywhere; there's no routing, QoS or bandwidth monitoring of any kind, and when you have multiple unmanaged switches daisy-chained off one another, the network traffic will be all over the place.

Ditch the unmanaged switches and put everyone on a managed gigabit switch. These types of switches also have dedicated uplink ports so you can daisy-chain multiple switches without interfering with the hosts.

You need a network engineer to survey the office and install CAT5 ports at everyone's desk. These ports then terminate in your server room and you connect them to the managed switch(es).

 

[maniac91]

Reliable networking is paramount when every host needs to access a shared resource, particularly if they all connect at the same time.

Unmanaged switches simply push network traffic everywhere; there's no routing, QoS or bandwidth monitoring of any kind, and when you have multiple unmanaged switches daisy-chained off one another, the network traffic will be all over the place.

Ditch the unmanaged switches and put everyone on a managed gigabit switch. These types of switches also have dedicated uplink ports so you can daisy-chain multiple switches without interfering with the hosts.

You need a network engineer to survey the office and install CAT5 ports at everyone's desk. These ports then terminate in your server room and you connect them to the managed switch(es).

The managed switches would assist yes by being able to give priority to certain devices but cost more than unmanaged switches, this is a small business, the ports on the switches are 16 ports. I found this morning that only on the 1 fast Ethernet switch, all devices that were connected onto this switch basically had slow connectivity, removed the power from the switch then added the power again, network speed was back to normal. So only the 1 10-100 switch was having this issue. Could this be because the switch is running out of bandwidth? If I replace this switch with a gigabit switch, will it remove the bottleneck?

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

The unmanaged switches are blindly pushing network traffic everywhere, and because there are several of them daisy-chained together, it's creating loopbacks. To get the best performance, each host needs to be connected to its own port on the managed switch(es).

The speed of the switch is a small factor, but the fact that it's unmanaged is the real problem.

 

[jsmithepa]

It maybe a simple matter of re-arranging your current topology. In CISCO, it's taught to place switches in layers, so the top layer is your backbone switch which should be the fastest, to the distribution switches, which should be closest to the clients, and don't necessarily need to be the speediest. Post a diagram if u can.

 

[maniac91]

It maybe a simple matter of re-arranging your current topology. In CISCO, it's taught to place switches in layers, so the top layer is your backbone switch which should be the fastest, to the distribution switches, which should be closest to the clients, and don't necessarily need to be the speediest. Post a diagram if u can.

As mentioned before, the previous IT Guy left and I have now taken his place, at a later stage I will be doing the entire network over where all servers, routers and switches would be placed in a server room with a server rack. At this point I will defiantly only be using managed switches. No 1 can basically tell me which switch is connected to which switch as the previous IT Guy did everything on his own not informing anyone or doing any plans.

I just need to get the network running stable or at least get the network to stop slowing down on this 1 switch therefore my question, If I add a 16-Port Unmanaged Gigabit Switch ,DGS-1016A, to replace the current fast Ethernet Planet 16 Port 802.3af PoE Switch ,FNSW-1600P , would this allow the network to run stable so that I can concentrate on doing a floor plan with the new network layout?

Thanks again for replying

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

If you're planning to reconfigure the network with managed switches, then I don't see the point in buying an unmanaged switch to try and tie things over. Just buy the managed switches now.

 

[bill001g]

Its hard to say if it would fix your problem since even 100m is pretty fast for most business type application.

In general it will not make it worse to put a 16 port gig switch in place of a 16 port 10/100 switch. The only concern I would have is from your description the 10/100 switch is a PoE switch and the switch you are replacing it with does not have that ability. If you are not using that feature then it does not matter.

The main concern I would have is if you can convince your management that this is a short term only solution and you may have to discard these new switches if they do not fit with your final design. If you only get 1 chance to buy things you best know what your final solution is and make sure what you buy will fit that design.

 

[jsmithepa]

Dumb gigabit switches are cheap enough, go for it. I cannot guarantee that will solve the problem 100%, but it can only help.

 

[maniac91]

thanks everyone for answering, what I will be trying as a short term fix without buying any new hardware would be to swop the gigabit switch with the fast Ethernet switch. The gigabit switch only currently has 4 devices connected to it where the fast Ethernet is full. The gigabit switch obviously has more bandwidth therefore should theoretically provide a slight performance increase to reduce the bottleneck or at least make it a bit faster so that the slow downs would not be as bad as with the fast Ethernet switch. I will try this quick fix but will have to get a power point for the gigabit switch fist as the power cables are different. Will let you guys know the outcome.

 

[maniac91]

The Bottle kneck is resolved, I installed 1 24port D-link Gigabit web managed switch, and a 16port Dlink Gigabit unmannaged switch. So we have 2 Dlink Gigabit Web Managed switches with 2 16port unmannaged switches. Network speeds are all running at Gigabit speeds, improved speed and stability with applications running from a shared space. Thanks for the help, no more complaints from inhouse staff with regards to network speeds