How to improve network?

[Bluecube]

Networking is one aspect of computing my knowledge is a bit below par which is why I'm asking for opinions here. My network is shown below. It's a bit of a mishmash but it works and works well from my own experience. However being the tinkerer I am I was wondering if there were any bits that could be improved.

Toy Room (ex study hence the location of..) BT Infinity modem connected to a four port gigabit capable wireless N router. There is also a WD world book NAS connected to the router. The router is connected to 200mbit powerline adapter.

Study - 200mbit powerline adapter connected to a 10/100mbit switch. Attached to the switch is my main PC/ server and a network printer.

Lounge - 200mbit powerline adapter connected to a gigabit switch. Attached to this switch is my PVR, surround sound amp, PS3, Xbox 360, Squeezebox Duet and a laptop for streaming films from the server.

Opinions will be gratefully received.

[pipTheGeek]

If it is fast enough for everything you do then leave it alone. If you have specific issues with the performance or stability of the LAN then tell us more and I'm sure we suggest things to try. For example, if you find yourself frequently waiting for big files to move from one device to another on the LAN then upgrade of it as you can to wired gigabit. Although remember that file copies to/from the NAS will also be limited by the NAS hardware.
If your aim is to learn more about networking then I'm not sure what best to start with.

[Bluecube]

No specific issues but I was wondering if i was missing any obvious ways of making it tip top.

[edgars70]

What do you use the WD world book for? If you mainly access it from your PC in the study, then you could move it to the same room and possibly upgrade the 10/100 switch to a gigabit switch. The transfer rates between PC and WD world book could be better over the 10/100 switch rather than over the powerline.

Plus, if your children are like mine, then I would move the WD world book from the toy room to another room to stop it from being destroyed. btw, I have assume toy room = kids.

[Bluecube]

Funny you should mention that as I just moved the NAS yesterday. Initially it was for media use which is why I'd put out of the way in the toy room (for the small person in the house, not me!) next to the router. However, I finally twigged that it was now being used exclusively for Time Machine backups so I moved it up to the study yesterday. You're right in that it's much faster now it's not having to go via powerline.

I was thinking about buying a new gigabit switch but I'm not sure if I'd see much benefit. The NAS is 10/100 only and any streaming to the TV in the lounge is via the powerline adapters. This is one of the things I'd appreciate thoughts on.

[shaithis]

100Mb is still fine for streaming (even BluRay)

Personally I hate powerline and wifi but I am regularly copying 4-40GB files across my LAN. Something thta Gigabit makes a huge difference with.

[mikeo01]

802.11N is the newest technology, it won't be interfered with 2.4Ghz frequencies.
100MB is very good, well excellent.
Also leave the router settings alone, you could organise the channels for better performance. Leave the settings alone they are optimal for home networks.

My network download speeds, yes laugh ^^... 500-800KB/s.

[Larkspeed]

Personally I hate powerline and wifi but I am regularly copying 4-40GB files across my LAN. Something thta Gigabit makes a huge difference with.

Same here

We live in a three story 5 bedroom house with 4 kids and 2 adults

We have 2 network media tanks in this house. One in the bedroom and one in the front room.

We also have a total of 9 computers.

I wired the entire house with wired Gigabit because I just prefer the speeds over the 300N wireless and it is a lot less problematic.

Plus we have 120 Mb download on our internet and any other solution would have prevented us getting full speed off the net connection and still allowed us to connect every machine in the house.

[Bluecube]

Wiring up the entire house with cat 5/6 would be ideal but I doubt 'er indoors would be too impressed at the cost or mess. Women don't understand the need for stuff like this!

[Larkspeed]

depends I suppose

cost wise it should not be so bad as you can buy the cable in bulk

mess should not be so bad if you have hollow walls

if you have solid walls I can see it being a lot more difficult

[shaithis]

Yup, cost should not be a (large) factor. A real of CAT5/6 is cheap, as is a bag of 100 connectors and a crimping tool. 30mins of practice and you will be a pro cabler!

You can even buy nice cheap faceplates for the walls.

[Bluecube]

But pulling off skirting boards, lifting floors, etc is the issue rather than the cost of cable and faceplates. Given the configuration of my house and location of my equipment I suspect it will be a pro job rather than a DIY fun project.

[peterb]

A lot depends on the construction of your house, and how much mess you are allowed to get away with. Chipboard floors are difficult as you can't pull up a small section. Cavity walls offer a possibilities (provided you don't have insulation in there) or you end up chasing out channels in the walls.

You can run cable reasonably discretely on top of skirting boards, or at the edges of carpet, you just need to get creative!

[pipTheGeek]

We also cabled our house. WiFi didn't give a stable connection to the boy's bedroom. Only laptops, phones etc now use WiFi. Thankfully the house isn't too big so we have a cable runs round the edge of the living room to go through the wall to the dining room and another cable goes out the front up the outside and in to a bedroom, switch in the bedroom and splits it to go to both bedrooms.
I'm also lucky that my wife is very tolerant of my PC habit! She is currently even putting up with a spare PC living on the floor in the kitchen.

[dave87]

Probably not the extreme you'd want to go to, but I recently started the process of wiring up the house with CAT5e. I did a thread if you want to have a look at it: http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...style-wip.html

The TL;DR version? I went for CAT5e due to simplicity and the variety of stuff that can run over it (standard PC network, Phone, HDMI through CAT5E Baluns etc) and once installed, has very little in ongoing maintenance costs.

[peterb]

As Dave says, cat5e is ubiquitous. I used to reckon that where you want one network cable, run in 2, but now its almost a case of run 4. The only slight problem then is the size and location of the central hub.