adding switches in a series

Crypto

Crypto

New Member
New to the forum. Lots of great information!! Many thanks to all!!
I have a linksys gigabit network with a 10/100 segment. I needed a few more connection options in two other rooms. So I added two 10/100 switches on the same line. At the last switch on this segment, I only get an average of 8MBps. If I remove the middle switch, I get around 11MBps. Is it common to lose performance, albiet a small amount, when connecting switches in a series? Also, if I replace the 10/100 switches with gigabit switches, would I get better performance since my throughput will be way higher than the capabilities of my hardware? BTW, All 4 PC's run XP with gigabit NICs and PMCIA cards. All connected with cat 5e and cat 6. I average around 22MBps when connected directly to my gigabit switch. Not too bad IMO. I use a very simple (and great) network tool called Speedtest by Raccoonworks .

TIA
 
M

Markware17

New Member
Judging by the results you posted, nothing really seems to be out-of-order since your 10/100 segment is going to operate at 100Mbps which is ~ 12.5MBps without including limiting factors such as TCP/IP overhead. Possibly that "middle" switch in the chain could be lacking in performance compared to the last switch in the chain which could be causing that slight drop in throughput.

Directly connecting to your Gigabit switch, which operates at 1000Mbps, is going to give you a theoretical speed of 125Mbps. Again without including the factor of TCP/IP overhead and hardware subsystems, these speeds are hardly ever reached since they are only hypothetical. Since you have Gigabit NICs in your machines, 22MBps seems reasonable depending on your hardware. I'd also make sure that auto-speed negotiation/auto-sense features aren't screwing up what mode your Gigabit NIC is operating at both locally on the computer and within the switch. The NIC and switch should both be operating in full-duplex mode.

If you do upgrade your 10/100 switches to Gigabit switches creating a full Gigabit network, then you will notice some what of a speed increase throughout your LAN.
 
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