Sorting out "Giga" vs. Non-Giga Routers

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HK - 10 May 2008 13:15 GMT

I have an eight-port Linksys router hooked up to my cable modem and
attached to that router are a couple of printers, a home server, three
couple of PCs, and a Mac. Everything seems to get along fine.

I also have a Linksys wireless G 4router, which, when my wife and I want
to use our laptops wireless in the house, I plug in to the eight-port
unit. It works ok with her PC laptop and my Macbook Pro.

My PC, my Mac, and my home server have gigabit ports. I transfer files,
sometimes big ones between my PC and my home server, and sometimes, but
rarely, between my PC and my Mac. My wife only uses the server to backup
her laptop.

So, I'm thinking...why don't I get an Apple Airport Extreme Router and
hopefully increase the throughout between several devices? If I hook the
Airport Extreme to my cable modem, and then use two of the three Gigabit
ports to connect my PC, and my home server, and the third Gigabit port
to connect my existing Linksys eight port, wouldn't the throughput
between my PC and my home server increase?

Another choice is the Linksys dual band wireless router...handles "N"
and "G" separately, and has FOUR Gigabit ports in addition to the port
for my cable mode. About the same price as the Apple product, but
seemingly more utility.

Have I inhaled too much funny smoke here?

Are my assumptions correct? Anyone foresee problems here?

Appreciate comments.

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Kadin2048 - 26 May 2008 21:21 GMT

> [...]
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> to connect my existing Linksys eight port, wouldn't the throughput
> between my PC and my home server increase?

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. You'll get GigE speeds between the
devices connected directly to the APE, but only 10/100 between stuff on
the Linksys router/switch.

There are a couple thoughts that come to mind:

1) You need to disable NAT on the Linksys, since that function will be
handled by the APE in your new configuration. If you don't do this,
devices attached to the Linksys will be behind two layers of NAT, and
you'll generally have a routing mess. You want to switch off all the
brains, so that the Linksys acts like a switch, or at best a router.
(For least hassle, I'd try to make it just act like a switch, then you
avoid getting into routing, which may not be very configurable on either
device.)

2) Since the Linksys' uplink port is (presumably) only 100MB/s, there's
a possibly-serious bottleneck between devices on the Linksys and devices
on the APE. That may be perfectly fine judging by what you're trying to
do, it's just something you need to keep in mind.

> Another choice is the Linksys dual band wireless router...handles "N"
> and "G" separately, and has FOUR Gigabit ports in addition to the port
> for my cable mode. About the same price as the Apple product, but
> seemingly more utility.

This is basically a personal choice; you need to weigh the extra GigE
port against the ease of configuration and maintenance that the APE
offers. I'm not sure there's a "right" answer there.

> Have I inhaled too much funny smoke here?

Nope, sounds like you're on the right track.

> Are my assumptions correct? Anyone foresee problems here?
>
> Appreciate comments.

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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / May 2008

Sorting out "Giga" vs. Non-Giga Routers