When a Router functions as Switch, does RAM and MHz matter?

[permitivity]

When a router is set to function as a switch, does the router's RAM and CPU speed matter very much? I assume that once you turn off DHCP and NAT, the router no longer does anything memory intensive, but maybe I'm wrong?

I have a Asus N12 (32MB RAM, 300MHz CPU) that is functioning as a switch. The main router, an Asus N16 (128MB RAM, 480MHz CPU), is what the N12 connects to, so the N16 does NAT and DHCP. The N12 is just a switch and AP for old 802.11G devices.

My main computer is connected to the N12. Occasionally, I use bit torrent on the main computer. I'm wondering if I would get better performance if I upgraded the N12, or if that would be a pointless upgrade. I have a Rosewill (400MHz CPU, 32MB RAM) that is being used for something else, but I could swap the N12 with the Rosewill. So that would be upgrading a 300MHz to a 400MHz, but same RAM.

 

[Beachnative]

Do you cap either the upload or download from your client?

 

[COLGeek]

The only time more memory or processor speed really matters on a router is if you are using some of the routers more advanced features (like white/black listing and other content filtering) or are maxing out the number of users.

For the vast majority of cases, adding to either does little or nothing to improve networking performance and the switch function is not affected either way.

Save your money on your router unless you have a specific need to change. Good luck!

 

[permitivity]

Do you cap either the upload or download from your client?

Yes, I cap the torrent upload and download to something sane, so other traffic can pass through. I also have QoS on the N16 router, although the QoS settings I got were from google searching, not something I actually understand well or have tested.

 

[Beachnative]

Are there performance issues? Read this:


http://support.asus.com/FAQ/Detail.aspx?SLanguage=en&no=A96BF68D-98C9-9D26-129A-3D5E596D3073&p=11&m=RT-N16

"The logic of QoS:
If there are only one network application, it can occupy all network bandwidth.
If there are more than two network applications, the application which is defined in the rule table would follow the defined priority and the application not in the rule list would automatically have lower priority.
Because of this logic, user only needs to defined the application which needs the high priority in generic network usage. It can save your time to define the QoS rules.

The network traffic is bidirectional. Client must send a packet to server first(upload stream) then server respond to client based on client's requirement(download stream).
In the other word, the lower priority of upload stream, the lower priority download stream.
The major function of QoS is to control the upload bandwidth priority.

Take the generic network environment for example.
There are two network applications access the network at the same time (1)P2P and (2)web surf (use HTTP at 80 port and HTTPS at 443 port).
If there are no QoS mechanism, the P2P will occupy almost all upload bandwidth to ask peers(upload stream) to transfer data to your PC.
Because the upload bandwidth is occupied by P2P, you web application cannot send out the upload packet.
The web server does not receive your web requests so it does not response to you.
That's why you feel the web speed is very slow when there is a P2P application access the internet at the same time. The lower upload speed caused the lower web surf speed.

After applied the QoS rules, the router will check all network packets from LAN to WAN.
There are two kinds of packek, web packets(use HTTP at 80 port) and P2P packets(use other port) which want to go to the WAN.
Because the HTTP at 80 port is already in QoS rules table, this packets have the highest priority to the WAN.
On the other side, there is no P2P rule in the QoS rules table, the P2P packets have lower priority.
The P2P packets must wait for the HTTP packets to WAN. Your web surfing would not be influenced by P2P.
"