Help setting up my small office network

[EnvilGT]

Hi,
I am new around here and I've come to learn! So as my first topic I would like to ask for opinions on how to arrange my small office network.
Ever since we put it all together we felt like the general speed is quite slow, and I've notice that on the windows event viewer I have several issues with ip assignment and dhcp, so I was wondering if you guys could help me to find out what is wrong.
My LAN consists of:
. 1x 16 Port Unmanaged Gigabit Switch (TP Link)
. 1x 4 Port Wireless 10/100 Router (Linksys) - Used to provide the DSL internet
. 5x Windows 8 workstations with Gigabit LAN cards
. 3x LAN Printers
. 1x Surveillance Camera System (5 cameras concentrated in one NAS)

I have physical LAN plugs/cords throughout the office, so nothing is connected with the wireless.

Currently it's all plugged to the switch, and then the switch is plugged into my router. The internet works fine, the wireless works fine, the printers are working fine, the camera system works but it has unwanted delay in LAN (slower than if I use it through my DDNS address) and my retailer software works but its also quite slow.
A ping test in one of my machines always have the first packet lost and the subsequent 3 fastly delivered.
The same ping test on others are fine.

Now my questions are:
1) Would the 10/100 router in my network be creating a bottleneck?
2) Could windows 8 be interfering somehow on the DHCP server, creating the delay?
3) Could/Should I assign fixed IPs to my computers/printers/camera system, while leaving DHCP activated in the router active for the wifi network? In this case, how can I make sure that the fixed IPs won't conflict?

I guess that's all my questions for now, so whoever can help, suggest, etc, I would be very grateful!

 

[CaptainSTX]

Weak Link

You don't mention the brand/model of your router. Since you list it as a 10/100 Linksys router I am guessing that it is an older and less powerful router. Newer routers with more powerful processors and more RAM typically have gigabyte ports 400Mhz or faster processors and 128 - 256 MB or RAM.

Find a new router with gigabyte ports and a faster processor and more RAM. You can use the the test/ reviews on this site to help you select a more powerful router. If your budget forces you to select something designed for the SOHO market you probably will have to purchase a router with WiFI built in. If you don't want to use WiFi then you simply can disable the radios through the firmware.

After you get your new router run a Cat 6 cable from a gigabyte LAN port on the new router to your current gigabyte switch. Be sure that after you make this connection both the switch and the router show that it is a 1000 Mbps connection. Then connect as many devices as you can that connect to each other and or share data to the remaining LAN ports on your switch. Be sure that devices that have gigabyte Ethernet adapters are connected using Cat 6 cables. After connecting them again be sure both your switch and the device show that they have established a 1000 Mbps connection. If for some reason the device or cable won't support a 1000 Mbps connection don't worry about it. 100 Mbps will be fine for most connections. If the connection is only 10 Mbps then you will have to trouble shoot the problem.

Use any of the three remaining ports on your new router to connect devices which are lightly used or don't share large files with your NAS or other connected devices.

By connecting most of your devices to the switch it can handle the switching functions while the router handles DHCP and other router functions.

Using your router to assign static IPs should not have any impact on your network's speed. For your purposes static IPs would just make administering your network easier in that you would know that a specific IP belongs to a specific device instead of having to cross reference MAC addresses.

 

[jlake]

It's possible you may be able to keep the linksys if it is capable of being a "modem only". If it's really old, then you can get rid of it.

Try to find a DSL modem/router that is capable of full bridge mode. Then you can add a soho router as captainstx said.

Also, make sure you have the MTU set properly on the linksys. Google for instructions on how to check your MTU.