Newbie confusion between unmanaged and managed switch speeds

[Exponential]

Sounds fine. You'll see what works and what doesn't once everything is hooked up. 2.5 between the switch / router makes sense to feed the laptop the best possible speeds out to the internet. It also gives you room for other traffic since your ISP speed isn't 2.5 or maybe it is / don't recall.

ONT <2.5> AX6000
AX600 <2.5> switch
Switch <10> NAS
Switch <2.5> NAS
Switch <5> Laptop

LAG's can be useful for redundancy and higher speeds but, you're wasting time / ports considering the changes you're making already to make the best use of the switch ports. Considering the port speed of the ax6000 you're making the best decision until you decide you need a faster router down the road with a 10GE port W/L.

5GE will make quick work of the transfers though to the NAS w/o the higher expense of a 10GE dongle for the laptop. Now, the only thing that I don't think we discussed is the drives and how you set them up in the NAS. Whether you went JBOD / Riad 0 / Riad 1 / Riad 10 or Raid 5. 5 won't get you a huge amount of speed but, offers more space than R1. R0 gives you tons of space and speed but, not redundancy. Raid 10 gives you a blend of both.

Looking at the specs the next potential bottleneck would be the NAS itself but, looking at https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/ts-464 shows the potential for 1.6GB/s using M2 NVME drives. For 4 x HDD though in R10 you should be about 1/4 of that somewhere in the 450MB/s range or slightly higher since they're 7200 drives. Now, that still leaves you room for adding M2's if you really need more speed but, the limiting factor is the laptop drive speed. If it's a SSD it should be plenty fast but, would cap out at ~550MB/s and even an early NVME would still be able to push 1.5GB/s though more recent drives like Gen4 can hit 5GB/s and Gen5 10GB/s.

It's a bit of a slippery slope though if you keep yearning for faster data. Like the photo of a substation you could easily end up there in the pursuit of speed. It's possible to do anything you want if your bank account supports it. There are even NAS devices that are all NVME based and then the issue becomes the network speed and you have to get creative with 40gbps cards and DAC cables. In the case of a laptop I don't think that's possible w/o using something like an external GPU enclosure to put the NIC into it for the DAC to plug in. It gets kind of silly unless you're using a desktop PC that has more expansion options. At this point you'd want to go DIY to max out the speeds you can achieve with a custom build. Rolling up the functions inside a single box breaks away from the restrictions of a "router" / NAS and opens the data bandwidth to the extent of your imagination.

Thanks bud.

You've given some really useful information to chew on there!

So we are agreed on the networking side and I'll have that all up and running when the new devices arrive in a few weeks so I'll get everything prepped for then....

Some info on the NAS:

I have 4 x 6Tb Toshiba N300 7200 HDD's running in a RAID 5.
I've installed 2 x M.2 nvme's (1Tb each) - one is used for the applications storage and the other is Read-Only Cache.
I've also installed a 2 x M.2 nvme SSD internal pcie for Read/Write Cache (2Tb total)
All nvme's installed are Samsung 970 M.2's.

I made a daft mistake when ordering the SSD internal pcie card as I could've bought the one with the 10Gbe port pre-installed but when purchasing it (less than 3 months ago) I though I would never need such speeds and didn't buy it! How wrong I was!!

I am going to take a hit on the pcie card I currently have in favour of the one with the 10Gbe port installed and sell the old one (minus it's nmve's of course) on Ebay.

I installed a noctua fan in the NAS too and it is SIGNIFICANTLY quieter than the stock fan.

I'm going to do that same for the switch, get 2 x 40x40x20mm Noctua fans for a quieter and more efficient fan.
The noise from the switch is audible so it's worth it.

The router upgrade will be far off in the future but when the time comes, I'll be much more aware of my options (mostly due to your input).

 

[follower]

Jumbo Frame doesn't give you any difference these days. It's old tech. But if anything, you may have network issues like compatibility, slowness issues something.. Why don't you call a network technician? I think it's better for you. You think you have 10gb network system with 2.5gb.

 

[Exponential]

Jumbo Frame doesn't give you any difference these days. It's old tech. But if anything, you may have network issues like compatibility, slowness issues something.. Why don't you call a network technician? I think it's better for you. You think you have 10gb network system with 2.5gb.

Well I did what most newbie's do and think that the higher number is obviously better! I now know that jumbo only works when all devices are compatible with it. My NAS and switch do support it but I saw no difference in speeds when trying it out so I put everything back to standard 1500.

I did consider getting an IT guy out but the charges are too high. I would much rather learn about it all anyway so I know for future reference.

Thanks for the input.....

 

[follower]

Well I did what most newbie's do and think that the higher number is obviously better! I now know that jumbo only works when all devices are compatible with it. My NAS and switch do support it but I saw no difference in speeds when trying it out so I put everything back to standard 1500.

I did consider getting an IT guy out but the charges are too high. I would much rather learn about it all anyway so I know for future reference.

Thanks for the input.....

You still don't understand what I was talking about. Jumbo frame doesn't increase any performance properly these days even if all of your devices are compatible and support it 100% perfectly. It's old tech. Jumbo frame is nothing these days. Over 10 years ago? Jumbo frame might decrease CPU usage up to 55%. These days? Nope. You can find a lot of posts about Jumbo frame on internet. They are copied useless old articles. It's like some old people still suggest "Use a Direct cable instead of Cross cable for your routers and switches. You may not know this, but present routers and switches support Auto MDI/MDI-X .

 

[Exponential]

You still don't understand what I was talking about. Jumbo frame doesn't increase any performance properly these days even if all of your devices are compatible and support it 100% perfectly. It's old tech. Jumbo frame is nothing these days. Over 10 years ago? Jumbo frame might decrease CPU usage up to 55%. These days? Nope. You can find a lot of posts about Jumbo frame on internet. They are copied useless old articles. It's like some old people still suggest "Use a Direct cable instead of Cross cable for your routers and switches. You may not know this, but present routers and switches support Auto MDI/MDI-X .

I 100% do not understand at all but I do understand the principal of what you're saying and I appreciate you trying to steer me in the right direction!

The great thing is, regardless of whether I fully understand the terminology, technology and processes behind it all, I am learning with each post.
I don't know what MDI/MDI-X is but I will certainly research it now you've said it!

Thank you..........

 

[Tech Junky]

There are plenty of IT and network people here we just don't boast about it or publish credentials. I've been playing with IT related stuff since HS and before then as a user of tech. Overall I would say 30+ years at this point. Career wise though mostly deal with Cisco and Juniper gear and links exceeding 100GE between remote sites. Yes, there has been improvements in networking such as the mentioned crossover cable that is just coiled up in a bag of tricks just in case you need it for some reason. Even console cables have C connectors instead of the older D bus these days. Back in the day the big thing was being able to use dialup with modems that could use two lines for 112k or going big for ISDN.

 

[Exponential]

There are plenty of IT and network people here we just don't boast about it or publish credentials. I've been playing with IT related stuff since HS and before then as a user of tech. Overall I would say 30+ years at this point. Career wise though mostly deal with Cisco and Juniper gear and links exceeding 100GE between remote sites. Yes, there has been improvements in networking such as the mentioned crossover cable that is just coiled up in a bag of tricks just in case you need it for some reason. Even console cables have C connectors instead of the older D bus these days. Back in the day the big thing was being able to use dialup with modems that could use two lines for 112k or going big for ISDN.

So you've been in the game for a very similar amount of time as I've been an electrician! The great thing about you is that, although you're extremely knowledgeable, you're spoon feeding me in understandable bite-sized chunks which is exactly what I need at the moment and I appreciate that very much!
100GE!! I presume that is the equivalent to 10 times my upcoming 10Gbe connection? That's seriously quick!

God, the old dial-up days!
I distinctly remember getting my first internet connection (I think it was AOL) then staring at the browser thinking......what do I do now?
I didn't really see the point of it all back then and wondered why I was I was being asked for an email address at my bank. I was really against it all but now, it's the norm....

 

[Tech Junky]

100GE!! I presume that is the equivalent to 10 times my upcoming 10Gbe connection?

Yes, 10X faster and long distance across several states.

understandable bite-sized chunks

The breadcrumbs lead you to the cheese. Sometimes along the way it might trigger an idea. It's kind of like tracing a fault in your line of work.

I was really against it all but now, it's the norm....

Don't get too complacent as that's how your info gets hijacked. But, yes, we hand over tons of info to the ease of use. At this point I'm sure most of my info is out on the dark web with all of the breaches in the past 10 years. I have so many settlement monitoring services at this point it's just stupid. Getting alerts on things seems like a monthly occurrence at this point. Swapping out all passwords for random generated ones so nothing ties back to a common password. Get e-mails from scammers for old accounts from 15 years ago and silly things like that that aren't relevant today.

I've been considering using a HW key for authentication though more recently. Already have a program that syncs passcodes that generate every 60 seconds. Just seems like you're always exposed no matter the discipline you apply to keeping things secure.

 

[Exponential]

Yes, 10X faster and long distance across several states.


The breadcrumbs lead you to the cheese. Sometimes along the way it might trigger an idea. It's kind of like tracing a fault in your line of work.


Don't get too complacent as that's how your info gets hijacked. But, yes, we hand over tons of info to the ease of use. At this point I'm sure most of my info is out on the dark web with all of the breaches in the past 10 years. I have so many settlement monitoring services at this point it's just stupid. Getting alerts on things seems like a monthly occurrence at this point. Swapping out all passwords for random generated ones so nothing ties back to a common password. Get e-mails from scammers for old accounts from 15 years ago and silly things like that that aren't relevant today.

I've been considering using a HW key for authentication though more recently. Already have a program that syncs passcodes that generate every 60 seconds. Just seems like you're always exposed no matter the discipline you apply to keeping things secure.

I can't thank you enough for the valued input you've given to me as you really didn't have to at all!

You've given me a lot of "food for thought" too as this isn't just about attaining the fastest speeds possible also (and more importantly) to ensure your network is structured in a way that it is safe and secure from outside influence!

Next topic..... VLAN's

I will post back when I've received the items and give you and anyone spectating a bit of an update with some screengrabs for proof.
I'm looking forward to it though and it's even better that I can add these devices without the wife getting wise to it!! hehehehe

Mike.

 

[To the ocean]

interesting, so in your case, the unmanaged switch is faster than the managed one!

 

[Exponential]

interesting, so in your case, the unmanaged switch is faster than the managed one!

In my use case scenario yes.
I think that, because I only use a handful of wired devices and of those, a couple are very low bandwidth due to older technology (or cheap manufacturing processes), the unmanaged switch is certainly the better option.
The unmanaged switch will auto-negotiate and resolve issues automatically whereas the managed requires setting up correctly to get the best out of it.

Using the managed switch has revealed a few issues though which has allowed me to plan my set up much better and future-proof myself which is why I have opted to continue to use the managed switch.
As my personal and business data grows over the years, having a managed switch will allow me to expand my network much more easily so it's the better option in the long term.

I was really disappointed with the managed switch at first until I realised it was actually revealing flaws and possible issues that can be rectified.

 

[To the ocean]

In my use case scenario yes.
I think that, because I only use a handful of wired devices and of those, a couple are very low bandwidth due to older technology (or cheap manufacturing processes), the unmanaged switch is certainly the better option.
The unmanaged switch will auto-negotiate and resolve issues automatically whereas the managed requires setting up correctly to get the best out of it.

Using the managed switch has revealed a few issues though which has allowed me to plan my set up much better and future-proof myself which is why I have opted to continue to use the managed switch.
As my personal and business data grows over the years, having a managed switch will allow me to expand my network much more easily so it's the better option in the long term.

I was really disappointed with the managed switch at first until I realised it was actually revealing flaws and possible issues that can be rectified.

yes, and a managed switch should have more functions for security, which is really important for your business, so it's good for you to prepare for the greater future!

 

[follower]

yes, and a managed switch should have more functions for security, which is really important for your business, so it's good for you to prepare for the greater future!

Actually, managed switch's security functions are useless. It's just a marketing tactic. That's why you need a Hardware Firewall.

 

[follower]

In my use case scenario yes.
I think that, because I only use a handful of wired devices and of those, a couple are very low bandwidth due to older technology (or cheap manufacturing processes), the unmanaged switch is certainly the better option.
The unmanaged switch will auto-negotiate and resolve issues automatically whereas the managed requires setting up correctly to get the best out of it.

Using the managed switch has revealed a few issues though which has allowed me to plan my set up much better and future-proof myself which is why I have opted to continue to use the managed switch.
As my personal and business data grows over the years, having a managed switch will allow me to expand my network much more easily so it's the better option in the long term.

I was really disappointed with the managed switch at first until I realised it was actually revealing flaws and possible issues that can be rectified.

Unmanaged switches are better than Managed switches except certain purpose like VLAN, LACP, IGMP, Mirroring something. If you don't need those options Unmanaged switches are the best option. If you use Unmanaged switches you don't have to worry about firmware, vulnerability, managing, bug and more. Hackers can control all of devices which are connected to the managed switch. Unmanaged switches? They are much better for it.

 

[To the ocean]

Unmanaged switches are better than Managed switches except certain purpose like VLAN, LACP, IGMP, Mirroring something. If you don't need those options Unmanaged switches are the best option. If you use Unmanaged switches you don't have to worry about firmware, vulnerability, managing, bug and more. Hackers can control all of devices which are connected to the managed switch. Unmanaged switches? They are much better for it.

thx for correcting and sharing, so professional information!

 

[To the ocean]

Hardware Firewall

may I ask what would be the hardware firewall?
like a wired router or?

 

[follower]

may I ask what would be the hardware firewall?
like a wired router or?

What is a Hardware Firewall? Compare Hardware to Software | Fortinet

A hardware firewall is a physical device that filters the traffic going to a computer. Learn the difference between hardware and software firewalls and why you need one on your network.

www.fortinet.com

 

[To the ocean]

What is a Hardware Firewall? Compare Hardware to Software | Fortinet

A hardware firewall is a physical device that filters the traffic going to a computer. Learn the difference between hardware and software firewalls and why you need one on your network.

www.fortinet.com

thx for sharing and telling me that, it's really helpful for me to learn, thank you!

 

[Exponential]

Morning all,

The Sabrent 5Gbe USB adapter hasn't arrived yet but I have made a couple of minor changes which I feel should be mentioned along with a few minor annoyances too!

I have installed a new Cat6 Ethernet cable to my laptop now and have disabled WiFi which has had mixed results.
When using the WiFi on the laptop, there were no delays or buffering when watching videos on YouTube or another streaming platform but using the wired connection, it always buffers at the start of any video which was very unexpected! It is a 1Gbe connection so as far as I'm concerned, it should've already pre-fetched most of the data before the video starts playing so I'm a littler perplexed with that.
Also, I accidentally damaged the cable when I was clipping it to the skirting board due to a mistake lining up the cable stapler!!
I've had to buy an RJ45 crimping tool and learn how to crimp new ends. I've bought a CAT6 through connector though so it should be ok.
The crimping kit came with a cable tester which revealed my first effort had reversed connections so I'm lucky I tested the cable really.

I have also learned that my 1Gbe connection to the laptop is a bottleneck for everything else so anything I transfer to/from the laptop to any other device is limited to 1Gbe regardless of the other device connection type.
I'm looking forward to the Sabrent 5Gbe adapter coming really just to see the effect of it if nothing else.

One other strange thing is bothering me which I have opened a ticket with QNAP for which they are being incredibly slow in responding to is the following:

As mentioned in previous posts, I use a QNAP managed switch and feed my QNAP NAS with two cables -
Cable 1 from Port 8 (2.5Gbe @ switch) to Port 1 (2.5Gbe @ NAS) and
Cable 2 from Port 10 (10Gbe @ Switch) to Port 3 (10Gbe @ NAS)

I have configured the NAS so that Port 3 is the Primary Port and Port 1 is the Failover Port as shown:

Despite this, the 10Gbe port is NEVER used during any file transfers whatsoever.
The only way I can force the 10Gbe port to be used is by disabling Port 8 (2.5Gbe) as the switch.
I have tried setting the Cos for Port 10 at the switch to the highest priority which has no effect at all.

Can anyone shed any light on this and maybe point me in the right direction??

Mike,