Very few internet connections are fast enough that you need a gigabit ROUTER. If you transfer large files on YOUR network, you may want a gigabit network SWITCH. In that case, there's no need to replace the router. Just add a switch.
I bought my current modem used from the local e-recycler for two bucks, and it's been running just fine for the last year.
Modem rental is for suckers.
Jon
Another Usenet pedant. Most people use the switch that come with their router. Han may be a loony lib, but I'm quite sure there was no information lost in the shorthand.
" snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Mark is wrong and right, and so is Keith (I think). The 100baseT ActionTec router is still doing the DHCP, although my gigabit DLink is doing some of the switching. So I believe the whole shebang is really working at 100baseT. But I'm going by inference. I don't know for sure.
True about the DHCP (and some do DNS too), although that shouldn't require much speed. That's why I didn't mention that before. You would get gigabit speed between devices connected to that switch.
BTW, I recently replaced my router. The old one was limited to about
12Mbps for interent, and my ISP got faster than that. The new router will abow the up to 20Mbps I can get now. It also has 802.11n WiFi and a gigabit switch. The old router is still there just as an additional switch for slow devices.Mark Lloyd wrote in news:aVzis.34052$ snipped-for-privacy@fed03.iad:
This just shows I don't know how things work:
If I sent a file between two laptops wired to the switch, isn't the router/DHCP server needed to tell the switch which is which laptop? Or is it so that once the switch is told by the DHCP server that the blue wire on port 1 goes to the blue laptop and the black wire on port 4 to the black laptop, that the DHCP server isn't needed anymore? For how long does that work?
Or does the switch send the whole file (in packets) to the router/DHCP server, which then sends it back with the port #/DHCP address of the other machine?
[snip]
DHCP is used by each computer when the PC is first booted or connected to the network. This is how your computer gets a network address. If is not used for individual transfers.
The DHCP server does not control the switch. As far as I can tell, the switch creates a table associating devices with physical ports. It does this by examining the data passing through it.
A file transfer between computers does not in any way go through your internet router. It is sent directly to it's destination. Like mail, the data has a destination address on it. The switch knows where it goes, and the PC you're sending it to knows it's own address and accepts it.
In most cases, the router never sees it (the switch doesn't send it to the router).
Mark Lloyd wrote in news:sjGis.68267$ snipped-for-privacy@fed04.iad:
Thanks, I think. But if I turn my router off, how long before the switch "forgets" the destination addresses?
There have been a few (thankfully just a few) instances were things got totally muffed up in the sense that I couldn't "go" anywhere anymore (mostly the internet), and I got things right again by turning everything off, then turning them on again, starting with the router, then the switch, then the computers.
The switch should never forget as long as it has power. This might be a problem when you're rearranging connections. In that case, reset the switch.
DHCP is needed ONLY when a computer first connects to a network, unless you manually renew a lease (seldom needed) or a lease expires (often 24 hours later).
DNS could have gotten confused. Restarting everything clears the cache (memory) and usually fixes it.
You probably don't need DNS for local connections (on your own network).
Mark Lloyd wrote in news:VsVis.71061$ snipped-for-privacy@fed08.iad:
Thanks again! Now everything is clear ...
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