Gigabit Switches
 

If I bought a gigabit switch, what speeds would I be able to transfer files across my network?

I have 2 laptops (wireless - 54mp/s and wired gigabit) and 2 computers, which have gigbit network cards.

The computers are upstairs, connected to a 10/100 switch, which connects wired to the router downstairs.

Providing I bought gigabit network cables, what speeds am I looking at transferring files between the two computers upstairs using the switch?

Hope that made sense.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

For best results everything needs to be passed directly through the gigabit switch so that is the junction box to your network:

router <> switch
computer #1 <> switch
computer #2 <> switch

and so on.

Anything connected via the router would be limited to the 10/100 speed ports of the router or the 54mpbs of the wireless via the router.

With the above layout, effectively replacing the 10/100 switch with the gigabit switch you'd get the faster speeds between the upstairs computers only.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Yeah, unless I connected the laptops directly hard wired the laptops into the switch.

When I transfer on my 10/100 switch, using 100mb/s cables and gigabit network cards, Vista shows I transfer at 10-11mb/s. How come it's so slow? And is there a way of making it faster? Also, what MB/s speeds would I be looking at on a gigabit network?

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

I have got a Gigabit router and when i transfer files from my Diskstaion to my PC by FTP its maxes at around 7 MB/sec

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Have you got gigabit network cables and network cards though?

Because I get 10/11MB on my 100MB network.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Yeah i think so

When i check the Status in the networking centre it is connected at 1Gbps

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

You're not confusing MByte/sec with MBit/sec are you? Your switch is 100Mbit/sec, IE in Vista shows file download speeds in MByte/sec. 10MByte/sec is about spot on for a 100MBit connection.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Yeah, I probably am getting them confused. Always have. -_-

How long would it take to transfer a 700mb AVI film over a gigabit LAN, as opposed to the 3-4 mins it takes on a 10/100 LAN?

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

About 1min 5sec at 10Mb/sec

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Is it worth the extra £25 quid for a basic D-Link gigabit switch, and the extra couple of quid for the cables?

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

I'm curious what mileage other people get out of their gigabit switches. So far I've only ever got slightly higher than 100mb. I'm probably hitting the hard disk speed limit.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Well i am now a bit confused!!

Does anyone know if it is running at the correct speed ? or is mine slow??

Cheers

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Gigabit's speed (theoretical maximum) is about 118 Megabytes per second with ideal conditions. If you're just doing a copy + paste in Explorer, ditch that idea and use a proper copy tool like TeraCopy.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Hit about 18MB/s over LAN.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Similar to mine though I do get faster speeds between certain machines, I'm guessing its a driver/hardware combination thing. My two HP Evos can do about 30MB/s between each other yet my laptop and my other machine (Both with Gig NICs) only achieve between 16MB/s - 20MB/s to any of the other machines including the Evos.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

I'm using Cat5, not even Cat5e, which is where i believe the problem lies, that and one machine is using Vista ;)
My cable run is sub 2m. :)

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

I think my slower speeds are probably also related to the cheap switch I'm using. I didn't want full gigabit speeds anyway as I only want it for media streaming to my HTPC so those speeds work for me.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Yup, i find it surprising how low spec you can go before video will not stream. I recall using an old 54g router that connected at 11Mbps due to the distance we were connecting at, it still streamed video perfectly well :)

Think i'm dragging this thread off-topic mind.

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

well i am not sure whjat is causing my slow speeds i am using CAT 5e and have a D link DIR 655 with cable lenght of about 1.5 meters!!

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

cat5 won't let the NIC run at 1Gbps. Found this out myself when I got a gigabit switch the other day, only to find out the hard wired network in the house is cat5 and not cat5e :mad: So I can never have 1Gbps unless I upgrade the wiring and I wasted £30 on a gigabit switch...

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Mine defo is Cat5. Not Cat5 Enhanced, maybe it has to do with the short cable length?

Re: Gigabit Switches
 

Hmm well whenever I try through the house wiring, max the NIC goes to is 100Mbps, yet I try direct into the switch with a 1m or 5m cable and it works at 1Gbps... A friend of mine even confirmed thats the issue.