[plug] Switch speeds

Andrew Cooks acooks at gmail.com
Tue Jul 21 14:26:42 UTC 2015


On Tue, Jul 21, 2015 at 9:37 PM, Garry <garbuck at westnet.com.au> wrote:
>
>
> If you have a 10/100/1000 mb switch and one of the devices is a slower
> speed, does that slow the whole thing down?
>

Nope, all switches support devices of different speeds. Cheap switches
typically do not have enough internal bandwidth for the aggregate
throughput of all the ports operating at maximum line rate, but that's
rarely a problem.


> I have an AP which dates way back to pre "N" sharing ADSL, but within my
> local network I'd like to be running a LOT faster.. I'm sticking with that
> AP as it has a SMA connector I connect to a 180 degree waveguide antenna.
> The AP is certainly fast enough to share the < 10Mb ADSL.
>

The ubiquitous all-in-one AP/router/firewall/modem devices are cheap and
popular, but they often suck in one way or another.


> FWIW I don't know about level 2 vs level 3 protocols (saw that while
> trying to work it out) if that gives an idea of my knowledge..
>

In consumer devices, layer 2 typically refers to Ethernet and layer 3
refers to IP. A layer 2 device is called a switch (it connects all devices
in your network) and a layer 3 device is called a router (it connects your
network to another network).

More sophisticated products perform layer 2 switching (based on MAC
addresses), layer 3 routing (based on IP addresses) and various other tasks
in one box, but I think you'd know if you needed one of those, because they
often come with expensive, Cisco-certified people in tow.

Cheers!

a.
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