Gigabit LAN

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Anybody here using gigabit LAN setups fro their home networks?

I'm thinking of switching over as most of my machines support gigabit speeds and I do all my backups on the networked file server.

Your thoughts?

[Screw_Michigan]

Do you really need that much bandwidth just to download Guess Who videos?

[Dinsdale]

Fast Ethernet is... pretty fast.

Don't need it at home. Used to work on a small business network with gig switches, since all the machines had gig adapters, and in the corporate environment, upgrading to gig switches wasn't a big deal. It didn't really do much in that application, since it was spread over several adjacent buildings, which were quite unfortunately linked via wireless bridges.


OK... that's all I got.

But when files do go over the homenet, 100mb seems to rip along pretty good.

[Goober McTuber]

Do you really need that much bandwidth just to download Guess Who videos?

He’s probably hosting a website for the Canadian Communist Party with its corresponding Red Board forums.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Guys, the gigabit network is for internal purposes (large file transfers on the home network and streaming media to my home theatre), not necessarily for internet access.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

He’s probably hosting a website for the Canadian Communist Party with its corresponding Red Board forums.

[Dinsdale]

Guys, the gigabit network is for internal purposes (large file transfers on the home network and streaming media to my home theatre), not necessarily for internet access.

You felt the need to respond to people that didn't realize that you can't get gigabit internet, even with OSWhatever connection?

[ElTaco]

I doubt I would spend the money on a gigabit network at home, but I guess if you happen to get a gig-e switch or you find one very cheap, it can't hurt.

I don't think you'll get as much out of it as you think. Sure, it may speed things up if you actually use a file server or you stream media from your media server/desktop to your TV/PS3/etc... but honestly I doubt that you have multiple people simultaneously stream files/music/video over your network.

Consider this, you can stream HD content from netflix/hulu/youtube on a 5mbps line. I've done it on much less and even if you and your kids are simultanously streaming to multiple devices, it shouldn't come close to using up your 100mbps network.

As far as your backups are concerned, how much are you really backing up on a daily or weekly basis? If you do your work from home, unless you are doing some really heavy media oriented work, I doubt your data changes much in the course of a week and I wouldn't do a full backup more then once a week or even as much as once a month unless you have a lot of changes that happen each day/week.

So I guess the question is, how much will it cost you to pick up a Gig-e Switch (or replace your wireless router with a 4 port gig-e switch) and will you feel ripped off if you really don't see any changes.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

As far as your backups are concerned, how much are you really backing up on a daily or weekly basis?

Full drive imaging weekly. Drives range from 160 GB to 640 GB. Laptop, netbook and two desktops backed up to the server with Acronis.

So I guess the question is, how much will it cost you to pick up a Gig-e Switch (or replace your wireless router with a 4 port gig-e switch) and will you feel ripped off if you really don't see any changes.

A gigabit router is about $70-$80.

[Dinsdale]

I would think that transferring that much data, you'd see a big difference with gigabit.

But if you're going to be simultaneously uploading that much to a single server (which I'm assuming is on the LAN, not remote), I'm guessing the bottleneck would be the HD in the server (unless you're running a crazy RAID), not the switch/NIC setup...

But you knew that.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

I use a Western Digital 1.5 TB Caviar "Green" for drive image storage on the server.

They don't benchmark as high as the Blacks, but they are cool and quiet.

Honestly, I thought about RAID, but decided it was overkill.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

...and here's a pic of the server, sitting in a closet in the basement...

[PSUFAN]

what...no discarded spank socks draped over it?

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

what...no discarded spank socks draped over it?

Dude, it's just the server.

You should see the client machines...

[Dinsdale]

Honestly, I thought about RAID, but decided it was overkill.

BTW -- just a thought... does your server box support onboard RAID?

Even a simple RAID 0 running dual SATAs is a pretty fast setup, and lots of newer MB's support it without any external shit.

If your WD 1.5T is SATA, you might think about getting another one (when striping, it's definitely best to go with 2 identical drives).

If it's a USB drive -- throw it away. Just way too freaking slow. OK, maybe don't chuck it... use it as a backup to your massive amounts of data you're transferring.