Does traffic take a short cut through the switch ?

[PolarBear]

Hello, a simple question from a networking newbee.

I have lurked on this forum for several months and have read widely about networking in general, but can't find the answer to the following question.

I would like to back up one NAS to another - both will be connected through a switch to a RT-AC66U, which distributes addresses via DHCP.

If the switched is unmanged (I had HP 1410-16G in mind), would the traffic pass directly from one NAS to the other via the switch, or would it go first from the switch to the router and then come back to the switch again ?

The answer is important since there is only one cable from the switch to the router, which for historical reasons is CAT5. (All other cables are CAT5e). As there is a lot of data to transfer, the faster the data flows the better.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can give me some guidance.

PolarBear

 

[htismaqe]

The traffic should not pass through the router.

 

[PolarBear]

The traffic should not pass through the router.

Many thanks htismage. That's very helpful.

PolarBear

 

[cHarley]

Yes, this is correct. Device to device traffic on a LAN is simply passed between switch ports.
There are some consumer brand routers, Netgear comes to mind, that have been known to interfere with LAN side traffic under certain conditions if you are using the the routers (LAN) switch ports for directly attaching devices. While a router should only be monitoring the WAN side traffic for intrusions and attacks, some have been known to act on LAN side traffic. This can sometimes be seen with high traffic such as streaming video between devices, and the router detects it as a flood attach.

I always install switches for all device connections. My routers, regardless of the number of included switch ports, have a single LAN cable connected to the switch, or daisy chained switches. This keeps the router from being able to interfere with LAN traffic.

 

[PolarBear]

Thank you cHarley for sharing.

PolarBear