Non-gigabit speed is 100Mb. As of right now, no consumer wireless protocol has a theoretical bandwidth that exceeds 100Mb. If you're going to be running wireless traffic only, a gigabit switch is a waste of hope. The only good reason for a gigabit switch these days is for wired traffic within the home, between your own computers or other devices, such as video, file sharing, backups, and so on. They don't speed up your connection to the outside world (unless you have a >100Mb connection to the outside world, which few people do), and they don't speed up wireless traffic.
On Jul 2, 2012, at 8:08 AM, Neil Laubenthal wrote: > I have a question about whether upgrading to a gigabit switch makes sense for > my situation; googling indicates that while at least in theory 802.11n is > faster than 100 MB ethernet it's not likely true in real use, other arguments > say that upgrading the switch makes sense from a throughput standpoint. > Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of moving from our house into our RV for > full time living, hence my network is in disarray and I can't really do any > testing to figure it out myself. > > Here's the setup as it will be in the RV. > > Router will be a WiFiRanger Pro (required since I need multiple WAN inputs, > wifi, cellular card, cable from campground, ethernet from campground, etc). > The router has 10/100 ethernet ports. I'm not concerned with increasing > internet bandwidth as this is fixed by whatever connection method I happen to > be using; but I am concerned about internal RV LAN throughput, hence the > question. > > On the LAN I have a Mac Mini file server (gigabit capable) connected via > RJ-45. > > Daily drivers are iPad 1's, iPhone 4's, and two MacBook Pros. All will > normally connect via 802.11n provided by the WiFiRanger Pro. I do have an > Airport Extreme base station that I can toss into the mix if need be but it's > the older non-gigabit one so it's only got 10/100 network ports. > > I was planning on using the router's 802.11n for everything wireless and my > existing 10/100 switch…but then I got to thinking about ways to improve > performance between the two laptops and the file server which serves data > files and is also the Time Machine backup destination for the laptops. > > Options I have considered: > > -have two wireless points, using the 2.4 GHz only WiFi for the i devices and > using the Airport Extreme in 5 GHz mode for the laptops > -upgrading to the new Airport Express in bridge mode to get simultaneous dual > band > -using the existing switch 10/100 off of the router and plugging the server, > 10/100 capable TV, 10/100 printer, and possibly the Airport Extreme or new > Express off of the 10/100 switch > -buying a new gigabit switch and hooking everything else up as above. > > Which of these upgrades make sense? I hate to buy either the gigabit capable > dual band Airport Express or the gigabit switch if there won't be a > noticeable improvement but am willing to do so if there will be. Since I have > to use the WiFiRanger Pro as the router for multiple WAN purposes…although I > guess I could get the new dual band gigabit Airport Extreme instead and go > with a dual router configuration where the WiFi Ranger only feeds the input > to the Airport Extreme and it serves as the router for the LAN…my best > judgement without actually doing anything is that the gigabit switch and/or > Airport Express won't result in much improvement at all and that my best > approach would be the dual 802.11n wifi networks; the 2.4 GHz from the > WiFiRanger Pro for iDevices and the Airport Extreme in 5 GHz mode for the > laptops. > > Have I correctly muddled my way through this or would any of the possible > upgrades make an appreciable difference in LAN performance? > > Thanks. > > ----------------------------------------------- > There are only three kinds of stress; your basic nuclear stress, cooking > stress, and A$$hole stress. The key to their relationship is Jello. > > neil > > > > _______________________________________________ > MacOSX-talk mailing list > MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com > http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk -- Macs R We -- Personal Macintosh Service and Support in the Wickenburg and far Northwest Valley Areas. http://macsrwe.com _______________________________________________ MacOSX-talk mailing list MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk
