Two switches on one router

Question

We have to extend our home network. Presently we use one Gigabit D-Link 16-port switch. Our idea is to extend by another switch (same model). My question is: Connect each switch separately to the router (it has 4 ports, 100M only) or connect just one switch to the router and one connection between both switches? As there are some NAS and media servers in the network, I think option 2 is the best choice.

Solution

There are 2 cases:

• 1 - if the switches were 100Mbit, like the router, both switches should of been connected to the router, because otherwise the link between Router and 1st Switch would become saturated.

• 2 - your current case - since the switches are 1GBit, connect the second SW to the 1st SW so at least you get the gigabit speed benefit between the LAN devices connected in them.

My general advice is to get a gigabit router and then use case 1.

Comments

[user1686]

I'd disagree; if the router only has a 100M switch built in, and both external ones are 1G, then following your suggestion and putting the 100M ports "in the middle" would be a major bottleneck.

[Moloch Monumento]

That my concerns, too. Big files from / to NAS or mediaserver have to pass the bottleneck and slow down the traffic.

[Moloch Monumento]

Regarding your general advise. If both switches are connected to the router, then the router has to do the traffic between the switches. I'm not sure, if the routers ports are switched ports or just a hub. In second case would create more collisions.

[ivanivan]

Option 3- Connect switches to each other and also each one to the router. This shoudl keep device to device traffic on the gig side, and either group of devices has a path to the router for DHCP adn Internet access

[ivanivan]

c/p my comment from teh other answer - connect both switches to each other AND to the router - device to device will use gig, device to internet will use 100mb and not have to fight whatever traffic is going through the other switch

[Moloch Monumento]

I am not sure, if this is a good idea. Because every device then has 2 ways to connect to the Internet. And most likely can get 2 DHCP addresses assigned. Are there any network specialists around who can judge this Option 3?

[Overmind]

That option works if you switches/router are redundancy/multi-path aware. otherwise, you can end up with a big loop.

[Moloch Monumento]

This matches with my understanding. The Internet-uplink is moderate fast, about 5Mbps, but internally is a lot of traffic when streaming media from the media-server or copying files to the NAS.