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I am thinking of changing my current setup at home (which is: I have a Virgin router connected to Asus RT-AC88U. Then all my devices connect to Asus router). I want to add a network rack with a network switch so that I can route all my local connections through this switch. I am not clear on certain things, hence the questions:

  1. I am presuming that adding a switch will mean that local traffic will just travel through the switch and wont be routed through the Asus router. Is that correct?
  2. As the devices connected to the network get their IP address (static or non-static) from the router, I am presuming that this will still be the case?
  3. Would it be better to connect the printer to the switch or connect it directly to the router or leave it the way it is now where it's connected to the network via wifi?
  4. I have a NAS drive which at the moment is connected to the router. I suspect it's better to connect this to the switch as well? I have a Plex server installed on a local PC. Plex drives are setup on this NAS drive
  5. NAS drive has a static IP address. Presumably connecting it to the switch will not change the IP address of the drive?

A basic diagrammatic example of what I'm thinking off: enter image description here

Zac
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  • A switch (if not configured, i.e. "Dumb Switch") will simply broadcast to all active ports on the same VLAN. If not configured, it will get DHCP from the Router, which will be plugged into the uplink port. `1`. Switches do not do routing; they do switching; routers do routing. `2` Yes, this is the case, unless you have a DHCP helper, or DHCP server. `3`. If you're using IP driven printing (WiFi) it does not matter; else add it to the switch for uniformity, it should work fine. `4`. Again imho yes, uniformity. There will be no noticeable lag changes. `5`. You are correct here. – DankyNanky Oct 04 '17 at 12:47
  • Any sanely configured switch won't make _any_ difference to your network, other than increasing the number of (ethernet) ports you currently have. – djsmiley2kStaysInside Oct 04 '17 at 12:56
  • Thanks guys. I have added a comment on grawity's reply. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated – Zac Oct 04 '17 at 13:15

1 Answers1

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I am presuming that adding a switch will mean that local traffic will just travel through the switch and wont be routed through the Asus router. Is that correct?

Yes. But local traffic isn't routed anyway – it just goes through the Asus router's built-in switch.

  • Local traffic (that is, within the same subnet) is never routed. Instead, all "LAN" ports are bridged (at layer 2). Whether done by software or hardware, the packets are sent based on MAC address and don't involve IP routing table lookup.

  • As a result, many "wireless routers" actually include a hardware switch for those LAN ports, so that local traffic doesn't even burden the CPU and you should be getting the same performance as with a dedicated switch.

As the devices connected to the network get their IP address (static or non-static) from the router, I am presuming that this will still be the case?

Yes. By default, a switch is completely transparent in that regard.

Would it be better to connect the printer to the switch or connect it directly to the router or leave it the way it is now where it's connected to the network via wifi?

In general, wired Ethernet tends to be more reliable than Wi-Fi. (Some printers even have broken/buggy Wi-Fi implementations...) But if you're not currently having problems, then it doesn't matter.

I have a NAS drive which at the moment is connected to the router. I suspect it's better to connect this to the switch as well? I have a Plex server installed on a local PC. Plex drives are setup on this NAS drive

A direct connection (going through just one switch vs two) could improve performance due to avoiding a possible bottleneck, but it only matters if you're close to the limit. Though, you should measure both methods and see what works best.

NAS drive has a static IP address. Presumably connecting it to the switch will not change the IP address of the drive?

It won't. A switch is normally completely transparent to layer-3 matters.

u1686_grawity
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  • Thanks, that makes things a bit more clear. One of the reason I wanted to add a switch was to reduce the load on Asus router. At the moment, I can comfortably stream videos from Plex to 2 devices. But if I try more then that, it starts lagging. As I will be adding the rack, is there anything I can do to help with this? – Zac Oct 04 '17 at 13:14
  • Are those 2 devices both connected over Wi-Fi? – u1686_grawity Oct 04 '17 at 13:17
  • No. TV has a network cable connection and laptops/mobile devices are through wifi. I am planning to have a network port in all the rooms so that all laptops/stand alone PC's in the house are connected via a network cable. Only mobile devices will be on wifi. I've added a high level diagram, hopefully to make things a bit more clearer as to what I want to achieve – Zac Oct 04 '17 at 13:20
  • Well, for Wi-Fi devices i'd say get more access points (and put them on different channels), but that's more of a separate question really. – u1686_grawity Oct 04 '17 at 13:28
  • Maybe something for the future :). Thanks for your input – Zac Oct 04 '17 at 13:31