Mailing List Archive

On Monday, January 18, 2021 8:57:38 AM CET Raffaele BELARDI wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jack <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net>
> > Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 22:00
> > To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> > Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] network transfer speed
> >
> > I may be way off base here, but if the switch is connected to a router,
> > packets from one PC go to the switch and then to everything else connected
> > to it, including both the other PC and the router. Is there any chance
> > the
> > router is passing packets back to the switch to get to the second PC? I
> > can imagine that causing lots of problems. However, I would hope it is
> > smart enough to know it doesn't need to do so, since both PCs show up on
> > the same router port.
>
> A switch uses the Ethernet MAC destination address to forward a packet only
> on the 'interested' ports. What you describe would be a 'hub' [1], I don't
> think it's easy to find one of those on recent networks.
>
> Raffaele
>
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_hub

Some cheaper switches fail-over to hub-mode when the traffic exceeds what it can
manage.

--
Joost

> -----Original Message-----
> From: J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org>
> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 09:47
> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] network transfer speed
>
> Some cheaper switches fail-over to hub-mode when the traffic exceeds
> what it can manage.
>

Interesting, do you have pointers to such switches' specs? Or is it from experience?

Thanks,

raffaele

On Monday, January 18, 2021 10:58:24 AM CET Raffaele BELARDI wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org>
> > Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 09:47
> > To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> > Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] network transfer speed
> >
> > Some cheaper switches fail-over to hub-mode when the traffic exceeds
> > what it can manage.
>
> Interesting, do you have pointers to such switches' specs? Or is it from
> experience?

This is from experience, also 1 of the reasons why I switched to managed
switches.

--
Joost

? 2021/1/18 ??6:19, J. Roeleveld ??:
> On Monday, January 18, 2021 10:58:24 AM CET Raffaele BELARDI wrote:
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org>
>>> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 09:47
>>> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
>>> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] network transfer speed
>>>
>>> Some cheaper switches fail-over to hub-mode when the traffic exceeds
>>> what it can manage.
>> Interesting, do you have pointers to such switches' specs? Or is it from
>> experience?
That's true.
Some cheap switches may become like a network cable when it fails or
exceeds network flow. And there is also no log to check, will cause some
strange problems.

Actually , some business machines also have such a policy that they
become straight through or completely blocked in case of failure. But
they have a fail log for review.
> This is from experience, also 1 of the reasons why I switched to managed
> switches.
>
> --
> Joost
>
>


--
bobwxc
F645 5C7A 08E8 A637 24C6 D59E 36E9 4EAB B53E 516B

On 1/18/21 4:41 AM, bobwxc wrote:
> ? 2021/1/18 ??6:19, J. Roeleveld ??:
>> On Monday, January 18, 2021 10:58:24 AM CET Raffaele BELARDI wrote:
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org>
>>>> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 09:47
>>>> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
>>>> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] network transfer speed
>>>>
>>>> Some cheaper switches fail-over to hub-mode when the traffic exceeds
>>>> what it can manage.
>>> Interesting, do you have pointers to such switches' specs? Or is it from
>>> experience?
> That's true.
> Some cheap switches may become like a network cable when it fails or exceeds network flow. And there is also no log to check, will cause some strange problems.
>
> Actually , some business machines also have such a policy that they become straight through or completely blocked in case of failure. But they have a fail log for review.
>> This is from experience, also 1 of the reasons why I switched to managed
>> switches.
>>
>> --
>> Joost

What switch would you folks recommend?
I'm planning getting to the bottom of it including replacing switch and cable if I have to.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: thelma@sys-concept.com <thelma@sys-concept.com>
> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 20:13
> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] network transfer speed
>
> What switch would you folks recommend?
> I'm planning getting to the bottom of it including replacing switch and cable if
> I have to.

At home I'm using Netgear GS305E/GS308E with no particular issue. The 'E' stands for managed, I never use management features except for checking the port status (nice to have, but LEDs give the same information) and in some particular, business-related configuration, to enable port mirroring. I haven't tried yet to set up a VLAN or configure QoS parameters, which I think would be the main reason to prefer a managed over a non-managed.
Since I always used Netgear I can't say if they are better than others.
I think you are already aware that unless all cable patches are at least CAT5e you're not going to get 1Gb speed. The 'e' here makes a real difference over the plain CAT5.

Raffaele

On Monday, January 18, 2021 8:13:24 PM CET thelma@sys-concept.com wrote:
> On 1/18/21 4:41 AM, bobwxc wrote:
> > ? 2021/1/18 ??6:19, J. Roeleveld ??:
> >> On Monday, January 18, 2021 10:58:24 AM CET Raffaele BELARDI wrote:
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org>
> >>>> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 09:47
> >>>> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> >>>> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] network transfer speed
> >>>>
> >>>> Some cheaper switches fail-over to hub-mode when the traffic exceeds
> >>>> what it can manage.
> >>>
> >>> Interesting, do you have pointers to such switches' specs? Or is it from
> >>> experience?
> >
> > That's true.
> > Some cheap switches may become like a network cable when it fails or
> > exceeds network flow. And there is also no log to check, will cause some
> > strange problems.
> >
> > Actually , some business machines also have such a policy that they become
> > straight through or completely blocked in case of failure. But they have
> > a fail log for review.>
> >> This is from experience, also 1 of the reasons why I switched to managed
> >> switches.
>
> What switch would you folks recommend?
> I'm planning getting to the bottom of it including replacing switch and
> cable if I have to.

I currently use a mixture of:
GS716T and GS108TV3 Netgear switches without issues and manage full 1Gb
transfer rates between any 2 systems.

--
Joost

On Monday, 18 January 2021 19:13:24 GMT thelma@sys-concept.com wrote:
> On 1/18/21 4:41 AM, bobwxc wrote:
> > ? 2021/1/18 ??6:19, J. Roeleveld ??:
> >> On Monday, January 18, 2021 10:58:24 AM CET Raffaele BELARDI wrote:
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org>
> >>>> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 09:47
> >>>> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> >>>> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] network transfer speed
> >>>>
> >>>> Some cheaper switches fail-over to hub-mode when the traffic exceeds
> >>>> what it can manage.
> >>>
> >>> Interesting, do you have pointers to such switches' specs? Or is it from
> >>> experience?
> >
> > That's true.
> > Some cheap switches may become like a network cable when it fails or
> > exceeds network flow. And there is also no log to check, will cause some
> > strange problems.
> >
> > Actually , some business machines also have such a policy that they become
> > straight through or completely blocked in case of failure. But they have
> > a fail log for review.>
> >> This is from experience, also 1 of the reasons why I switched to managed
> >> switches.
>
> What switch would you folks recommend?
> I'm planning getting to the bottom of it including replacing switch and
> cable if I have to.

I've had a look recently at unmanaged switches. Vanilla plug 'n play
unmanaged switches are mostly the same internally, although some more
expensive pro-sumer offerings have larger jumbo frame size capability.

As already mentioned, reliability is questionable. In the end I decided to
buy Linksys LGS108 (now owned by Belkin) because their chips are different to
Netgear/TP-Link/D-link, all of which have received poor reviews on consumer
sites. Given they all eventually fail, a longer warranty may be a better
determinant.

On 1/19/21 12:46 AM, Raffaele BELARDI wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: thelma@sys-concept.com <thelma@sys-concept.com>
>> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 20:13
>> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
>> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] network transfer speed
>>
>> What switch would you folks recommend?
>> I'm planning getting to the bottom of it including replacing switch and cable if
>> I have to.
>
> At home I'm using Netgear GS305E/GS308E with no particular issue. The 'E' stands for managed, I never use management features except for checking the port status (nice to have, but LEDs give the same information) and in some particular, business-related configuration, to enable port mirroring. I haven't tried yet to set up a VLAN or configure QoS parameters, which I think would be the main reason to prefer a managed over a non-managed.
> Since I always used Netgear I can't say if they are better than others.
> I think you are already aware that unless all cable patches are at least CAT5e you're not going to get 1Gb speed. The 'e' here makes a real difference over the plain CAT5.
>
> Raffaele

That is a good hint, I need to check if it is CAT5 or CAT5e