Suggestions for improving home network bandwidth

[bits]

I am looking for suggestions on how to improve my home network bandwidth.

The problem is that when streaming a single BD over a wired connection for example; my network is at 80-99%. My router is 10/100, my cable modem is 10/100, my connected PCs are 10/100/1000. I also have a 10/100/1000 switch in the mix. Does everything in my network need to be 10/100/1000, including my cable modem, to get 10/100/1000? Will that actually help?

[Helheim]

Make sure you have a good router. I've had problems with various ones in the past. Right now I'm on an EnGenius ESR9850 as it has some of the best throughput for the price.

[Spectrum]

Having a 10/100/1000 cable modem is not necessary. I guarantee you don't have a > 100Mbit connection to the Internet (and if I am wrong who is your ISP ) via a cable modem. Using a switch built into a router can cause performance degredation, but probably not to the level you are experiencing. What does your network topology look like? What type of network cards are in the mix? What is the switch involved? Are your cards set to autosense the connection? etc, etc. There are a LOT of variables when troubleshooting a networking issue and just knowing that both machine A and B have gbit cards is just not enough info.

[bits]

Originally Posted by Helheim

Make sure you have a good router. I've had problems with various ones in the past. Right now I'm on an EnGenius ESR9850 as it has some of the best throughput for the price.

As I think about this, the 80-90% usage I am reporting I think is for the network adapter in my PC and not necessarily for the 'network'. I know that LAN connection is Gigabit but my ignorance of networks suspects that down stream stuff like the router may affect that. I wonder if I should plug directly into the Gigabit switch instead of the router?

I will take your suggestion and look at routers.

[bits]

Originally Posted by Spectrum

Having a 10/100/1000 cable modem is not necessary. I guarantee you don't have a > 100Mbit connection to the Internet (and if I am wrong who is your ISP ) via a cable modem. Using a switch built into a router can cause performance degredation, but probably not to the level you are experiencing. What does your network topology look like? What type of network cards are in the mix? What is the switch involved? Are your cards set to autosense the connection? etc, etc. There are a LOT of variables when troubleshooting a networking issue and just knowing that both machine A and B have gbit cards is just not enough info.

The router is a Netgear WGR614 v4

Switch is a Netgear with 8 LAN connections - I can not get to it to see the model number but it is Gigabit

The server PC has two Marvel Yukon 88E8056 Gigabit Ethernet Controllers. Controller 1 goes to the router and controller 2 is used strictly for the HDHR. Speed and Duplex is set to Auto navigation.

[GKusnick]

If you have a gigabit switch, then everything should be plugged into that, and the only thing plugged into the LAN side of the router should be the switch. You do not want your local LAN traffic going through the router if you can avoid it. So basically:

Intenet <---> modem <---> router <---> switch <---> everything else

That way the router comes into play only for Internet traffic and will not affect your network bandwidth for local traffic.

[bits]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

If you have a gigabit switch, then everything should be plugged into that, and the only thing plugged into the LAN side of the router should be the switch. You do not want your local LAN traffic going through the router if you can avoid it. So basically:

Intenet <---> modem <---> router <---> switch <---> everything else

That way the router comes into play only for Internet traffic and will not affect your network bandwidth for local traffic.

I will give that a try, thank you.

[Brent94Z]

I'm not an expert but I don't think you need a different router so long as it is plugged into your switch.

I do, however, remember reading that some switches can go down to the lowest connected device for all devices. I know my D-Link Gigabit switches do not do this but if you have an older switch you might want to just verify this isn't happening to you.

[Spectrum]

The router itself should only be an issue if you are using it's integrated switch; they are notoriously poor Another thing to look for would be network loops, ie more than one connection between switches. Most consumer grade equipment is not smart enough to use spanning tree effectively and packets can get lost going from switch to switch.

You may be running into an auto-negotiation problem where one card is in half duplex and that can tank your throughput. Easy fix is to try manually setting the card to 1Gb/full duplex and not relying on auto-negotiation.

Another possibility if the boxen are on different network segments is the switches are not throttling/choking effectively between different speeds and the Gb connection is flooding the 100Mbit connection. As before, without knowing the topology of the network these are only GUESSES. We can provide better guesses if you draw us a diagram of the network. It doesn't have to be pretty, something done in paint is fine as long as it's legible

[bits]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

If you have a gigabit switch, then everything should be plugged into that, and the only thing plugged into the LAN side of the router should be the switch. You do not want your local LAN traffic going through the router if you can avoid it. So basically:

Intenet <---> modem <---> router <---> switch <---> everything else

That way the router comes into play only for Internet traffic and will not affect your network bandwidth for local traffic.

I did as you suggested and that seems to have made a big difference. I have not tried a BD yet but prior to your suggestion 25-30% for a SD commercial DVD and now 1.5%.

[Brent94Z]

Probably a dumb question but what program are you using that shows your % network bandwidth?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Brent94Z

Probably a dumb question but what program are you using that shows your % network bandwidth?

Windows Task Manager has a Networking tab that shows stats like that.

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Windows Task Manager has a Networking tab that shows stats like that.

Will check that out. Thanks!