Newbie Question, using both 10/100 + 10/1000 ?

[adamzx3]

In a small network I would like to upgrade 5 machines to gigabyte. All machines have gigabyte NIC's. The router is a 4 port gigabyte. Now the only bottleneck is the 24 port 10/100 switch networking all the copiers, office pc's and such.

Can I hookup a 10/1000 switch to the router and have full gigabyte speed or will it slow it down to the 10/100 because the 24 port switch is also hooked into the router?

The 2 workstations and servers send large files daily and do so pretty slow. ( four 750mb tiff files min, sometimes 32 of those tiffs at a time) So gigabyte would be great.

Any recommendations for a router under $80-100 that will be better for transferring large files? Newegg has some rackmounts for $60

[hmmfe]

You can do that. The one port on your router will negotiate to 100M but the other ports will still be 1000M.

I really can't help with your purchase question as I don't use consumer grade stuff even at home. I guess that is a perk of being in the networking biz. I am sure you will find others who will chime in with their favorites.

[casperghst42]

If speed is a big problem then look into trunking - you use multible 100mb/s drops to increase the speed (not for the single workstation, but for the network as a whole).

Most switches can do it - if they are a tiny bit intelligent.

Casper

[contitego]

In a small network I would like to upgrade 5 machines to gigabyte. All machines have gigabyte NIC's. The router is a 4 port gigabyte. Now the only bottleneck is the 24 port 10/100 switch networking all the copiers, office pc's and such.

Can I hookup a 10/1000 switch to the router and have full gigabyte speed or will it slow it down to the 10/100 because the 24 port switch is also hooked into the router?

The 2 workstations and servers send large files daily and do so pretty slow. ( four 750mb tiff files min, sometimes 32 of those tiffs at a time) So gigabyte would be great.

Any recommendations for a router under $80-100 that will be better for transferring large files? Newegg has some rackmounts for $60

You can hook up four different switches, or as many ports as you have lan jacks on the router.

If you are connected 1 gigabyte to 1 gigabyte, it will function at 1 gigabyte. If you are connected 1 gigabyte to 100mb, it will slow down to the slower one. For example, if the printer is on a 100mb connection, it will communicate at 100 since that's the fastest it will function at. Why you would put a printer on a gb port is beyond me.

[adamzx3]

Thanks for the help guys. I'll definitely pick up a decent gigabit switch then, I wish they would invest more in a business grade model.

I'll look into trunking, but from what I can dig up, there's too much configuring to do, especially considering the rip server is $40,000 and the other server is driving the DI printing press which costs several hundred thousand. ;)

The only reason to hook a printer to gigabyte would to speed up transfer/print times....our proofer runs a 24" roll of paper and accepts 1bit tiff image seperations consisting of several gigabytes.......now the secretary's desktop printer.....thats a different story! :D

[contitego]

Thanks for the help guys. I'll definitely pick up a decent gigabit switch then, I wish they would invest more in a business grade model.

I'll look into trunking, but from what I can dig up, there's too much configuring to do, especially considering the rip server is $40,000 and the other server is driving the DI printing press which costs several hundred thousand. ;)

The only reason to hook a printer to gigabyte would to speed up transfer/print times....our proofer runs a 24" roll of paper and accepts 1bit tiff image seperations consisting of several gigabytes.......now the secretary's desktop printer.....thats a different story! :D

I was implying the secretary's printer:D No need to hookup the laserjet to a speedy connection.