Network Topology Question

[11Blade]

Dear Networking Guru's,

A network topology question.

I just had my house network installed and lit up with a Dell Powerconnect 24 port Gigabit Switch.

In my office in the house I have an 8 port HP Procurve Gigabit switch. The cable modem is in my office as is the wireless router.

On the 8 port switch in the office is a multifunction laser, office NAS, 4 computers, and a Boxeebox. (last port to the router)

in rough ascii terms - I have setup the network as follows

cable-modem -> Asus RT16 router (ddWRT) - also serves as WAP for entire house

plugged into the router is the VOIP interface box, Music/Video/Itunes SynologyNAS and 8 port switch

the router is also connected to the house network via the cat6 port in
the wall which goes to my powerconnect 24 in the basement lighting up
cat 6 ports in various rooms.


1. Am I better off plugging the house network switch and office switch and NAS
all into the router

2. Or plugging the NAS and house network switch into the office switch and
plugging that into the router since NAS traffic will all be local so why involve
the router?

3. if I make the house switch 192.168.2.1 and it is not the DHCP
server, will everything behind that switch be 192.168.2.x or
the DHCP server (router) will choose the numbers? and the subnet 2.x
doesn't matter?

4. does data take the shortest route or everything has to go to the router
first? are the switches smart enough to use shortest route if they are
cascaded together? (switch into switch into router)

i'd like to keep the in-house traffic from congesting the router while I
am using the internet to do productive work as the kids/wife use
the NAS for their music/video/photos etc.

I appreciate all your comments

option 1.

cable modem ->> RT16 router ->> 1 .office switch
2. house switch
3. BigNAS
4. VOIP interface
5. MFP Printer

option 2.

cable modem ->> router ->> 1. office switch ->> house switch
2. BigNAS
3. VOIP
4. MFP

 

[kevnich2]

In your office, how many wall ports do you have that go down and plug into your 24 port switch? If you only have one, then connect your 8 port switch to that and then connect everything in your office to the 8 port switch. If you have more than 1, connect your 8 port switch to one and your NAS box to the other one. The only thing I would connect directly to your LAN ports on your router are your VOIP box, that's it. That way the only traffic that's going to that is traffic that's destined for the internet.

The setup you have right now is pretty good except that you have your NAS also plugged into your router so any traffic that goes to your NAS is going through the switch in your router...and those switches aren't the best in the world. As far as how traffic goes from switch to switch - if you have one collision domain, traffic is sent from device A to device B, and to whatever switch happens to be connecting these two. Traffic only goes to your router for internet based traffic (internet gateway) and for traffic that's destined for devices directly connected to one of your LAN ports on your router.

Again, since your NAS is connected directly to your router right now, it could potentially be getting a decent amount of traffic. HP procurve are decent switches, that'll handle alot of traffic.

What model number is your dell powerconnect 24 port?

 

[11Blade]

Kevin,

My house switch is a Dell PowerConnect 2824.
I only have one port in the wall so the House Switch either goes into the router
or the office switch. Since NAS traffic is local it makes sense to plug it into the
office switch rather than router.

I guess for people to use the internet around the house, it will be 2 hops to
the router (House switch to office switch to router) but since my Internet
bandwidth does not approach GigE this should be ok?

Thanks again!

 

[TheSlamma]

Each port in a switch is it's own collision domain.

Leave it plugged into the HP, the switching capacity of those is more than you will ever use.