Gigabit Router/Switch combo----Look Good to You???

[johnrr6]

Am about to drop some bucks on these:

Newegg.com - D-Link DIR-655 IEEE 802.11n (draft) IEEE 802.11g IEEE 802.11b IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.3u Xtreme N Gigabit Router - Retail

Newegg.com - D-Link DGS-2208 10/20/100/1000/2000Mbps Desktop Switch 8 x RJ-45 Ports 8K MAC Address Table 144KB per Device Packet Buffer Memory - Retail

2 each: Newegg.com - D-Link DGS-2205 5-port 10/100/1000 Desktop Switch - Retail

This setup should do fine for 6 PCs and two laptops in my house.

All have gigabit and /or wireless N Nics
No individual cable (or combined cable through a switch) length greater than 100 feet.

Will also simplify things a bit and remove my wireless access point that was connected to my wired riouter.

Do you see any problems with this equip or its intened use???

Any tips you can give before jumping into the venture most appreciated.

John

[shaihulud]

What you are getting now is and will always be limited by your hard drive and sub-system rather than the interface's ability to transmit at high throughput. In other words if your sending computer is very fast, but the receiving computer is slow you will be at the mercy of that computers ability.

What I use and is easy to do, but needs to be saved after configuration is Performance Monitor. It is integral to Widows and is easy to setup. If you customize the Start menu the very last option is for “System Administrative Tools.” After you toggle this it [Performance Monitor]can easily be accessed along with other useful tools.

Load Performance Monitor and and select the report toggle. This will turn the chart into numerical datums rather than a chart. Select the plus to add a counter. In the “performance object” field select network interface and make sure it is the instance that is used from the list. If you have two you will need to create two instances. The counters I use are bytes sent and received, output queue length, and packet sent and received.

The only unfortunate thing about this is that the counters do not partition the place of the commas. You will need to manage this mentally or move the pointer to the megabyte. You can also output to text if you wish to get a pattern.

The DIR-655 is a good router and based on the Ubicom processors and ipOS. The only recommendation I have for it is to make sure DNS Relay is disabled and that fragmentation is disabled in game fuel. You really do not need to make any configuration for QoS and I recommend leaving it as such.

Personally, you should be fine, extra wiring is required, but I think only the 8 port switch is necessary. You will be 3 usable ports on the 655 and 7 usable ports on the 2208 for a total of 10 allocable ports. Unless, topology requires something different of course.

[johnrr6]

Thanks Shal----Excellent post and advice----as usual....

Will set up performance monitor as you suggest and give it a whirl....

The Cabling-Switches topology is still up for debate.....

with my wife.......

and you KNOW who will win that one.....

[Underwater Mike]

I use that router plus the d-link switch with 5 ports. I love them both.

[ddoggma]

I have that switch, it has run good for 2 years now.

[SRTDodge05]

I have all gigabit and im so happy i did it. I can send 700mb files in under 10sec from all my machines with no problems at all.

[rjs735]

I just bought the dir-655 Costco had very good price. Hooked it up and the speeed is noticably better than the Linksys wrt54g that I was running.

Next step gigabit switch and gigabit NAS with raid.

[Belgareon]

I bought the DIR-655 like a month ago, awesome speed, and good stability, great router, I am totally satisfied.