Ethernet Switch creating a bottleneck?

[Tyrosen]

I use a Linksys E2500 as a switch. Connect it to my main router, and done. The problem is that the switch has some major bottleneck. The switch bottlenecks the internet from 150Mbps to a low 13Mbps. All devices connected into the switch are slow. What can I do to "unbottleneck" the switch?

[Benergy]

Just now, Tyrosen said:

I use a Linksys E2500 as a switch. Connect it to my main router, and done. The problem is that the switch has some major bottleneck. The switch bottlenecks the internet from 150Mbps to a low 13Mbps. All devices connected into the switch are slow. What can I do to "unbottleneck" the switch?

Unmanaged switches split their total bandwidth between each of the ports unintelligently, e.g. if you have 8 ports on a 100Mbps switch, the maximum bandwidth they can all provide is 12Mbps (if they are all in use simultaneously), which seems to be similar to what you're experiencing, despite only having 4 ethernet ports - which could be related to this being a router rather than an actual dedicated switch.

 

To solve this, you could get a cheap 1Gb switch, and that's pretty much it.

[Tyrosen]

3 hours ago, Benergy said:

Unmanaged switches split their total bandwidth between each of the ports unintelligently, e.g. if you have 8 ports on a 100Mbps switch, the maximum bandwidth they can all provide is 12Mbps (if they are all in use simultaneously), which seems to be similar to what you're experiencing, despite only having 4 ethernet ports - which could be related to this being a router rather than an actual dedicated switch.

 

To solve this, you could get a cheap 1Gb switch, and that's pretty much it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A128S24/ref=psdc_281414_t1_B0000BVYT3

 

So would this switch suffice?

[Benergy]

1 minute ago, Tyrosen said:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A128S24/ref=psdc_281414_t1_B0000BVYT3

 

So would this switch suffice?

Yep that's fine. One cable from the router into this switch, then you connect everything else into the new switch.

[KuJoe]

+1 to what @Benergy said about getting a cheap switch. Using a consumer router as a switch isn't ideal and if I remember correctly (I have this same router at home) you cannot disable routing on the ports and turn it into a switch. Replace it with a $20 GigE switch and call it a day.

 

Here are the switches I use (I have 2 5-port, 1 8-port non-PoE, and 1 8-port PoE):

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Gigabit-Ethernet-Desktop-TL-SG105/dp/B00A128S24

[Tyrosen]

3 hours ago, KuJoe said:

+1 to what @Benergy said about getting a cheap switch. Using a consumer router as a switch isn't ideal and if I remember correctly (I have this same router at home) you cannot disable routing on the ports and turn it into a switch. Replace it with a $20 GigE switch and call it a day.

 

Here are the switches I use (I have 2 5-port, 1 8-port non-PoE, and 1 8-port PoE):

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Gigabit-Ethernet-Desktop-TL-SG105/dp/B00A128S24

Thanks, and can you tell me what is the difference between managed, unmanaged, and easy smart?

[Benergy]

1 minute ago, Tyrosen said:

Thanks, and can you tell me what is the difference between managed, unmanaged, and easy smart?

A managed switch intelligently allocates bandwidth to network devices as needed, e.g. a heavy downloader get's more bandwidth allowance than an email browser machine.

They generally have a web interfac (like most routers) and you can change various settings and manually give one device priority over another for example.

 

'Easy smart' seems to be a marketing term, I'm guessing for a managed switch that is easily configurable for non-techies using simple step-by-step wizards for example.

[KuJoe]

8 minutes ago, Tyrosen said:

Thanks, and can you tell me what is the difference between managed, unmanaged, and easy smart?

I personally just get unmanaged switches for at home (managed everywhere else). Unless you need VLANs, QoS, LACP, etc... then go with unmanaged (i.e. dumb) switch.

[Tyrosen]

ok, thanks guys

[Wombo]

12 hours ago, Benergy said:

Unmanaged switches split their total bandwidth between each of the ports unintelligently, e.g. if you have 8 ports on a 100Mbps switch, the maximum bandwidth they can all provide is 12Mbps (if they are all in use simultaneously), which seems to be similar to what you're experiencing, despite only having 4 ethernet ports - which could be related to this being a router rather than an actual dedicated switch.

 

To solve this, you could get a cheap 1Gb switch, and that's pretty much it.

This is true of hubs, but not un-managed switches. There are plenty of un-managed switches that contain enough backplane to feed all ports at maximum bandwidth. Even with that said, the devision of bandwidth doesn't work like that outside of hubs (dumb switches as they occasionally called).

 

However if the device in question is a relatively cheap device, it is most likely the device does not contain enough backplane to feed all the ports. With that said tho, keep in mind a vast majority of networking devices, even enterprise and carrier grade ones, do not contain enough backplane to feed all ports at maximum bandwidth while fully utilized.

 

Generally speaking a modern 4 or 8 port switch, even unmanaged, should contain enough backplane to feed at least 50% of the combined total, more than enough for the vast majority of consumers. There are always outliers however.

 

A brief google search of the device listed shows a multitude of complaints regarding poor service while utilizing the device. Your recommendation looks good, replace the device with something better.

 

Edit: The Linksys device looks to be heavily bottlenecked based on a large amount of CPU based forwarding, among other limitations. Looks to be a very poorly engineered device.