looking for help Looking for Help/Advice on Server Set-up

[krnonthak0b]

Hello LTT community. I currently help out with the media department at my church, and I have been trying to upgrade our media room's systems and our workflow.

We currently have 2 PC's and 2 Macs along with recently purchased NAS (Synology DS918+). We have a router supplied by our gigabit internet provider (South Korea here), and also a fairly cheap Switch (currently not in use)

 

Now onto my question. Currently, I have everything connected simply to our router. 1 port per each computer. However, I saw that the NAS unit we bought has 2 ethernet ports which peaked my curiosity and came across tidbits of info regarding

link aggregation to improve bandwidth. Is setting this up as simple as connecting an extra ethernet cable from the NAS to the router? From my research so far, I understand that I need a router/switch capable of the protocol for link aggregation. Now I have a switch that is capable of IEEE 802.3, do i simply attach that to the router and the attach the NAS to the switch? what about the workstations? do they also have to attached to the switch? or can they be attached directly to the router with no negative impact on bandwidth?

 

I was wondering what is the optimal way to setup my computers to each other in our network? OR even better, if anyone could lead me to material in which I could study the information myself. I'm having a hard time finding material.. I may be searching the wrong terms. I have no real experience with network and finding it hard to find tutorials on how to physically set up a network >.<

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Lurick]

Link aggregation will increase bandwidth for multiple workstations accessing the same NAS so in your case, so long as you'll have multiple workstations accessing the same box at once then link aggregation will benefit you.

 

The individual clients will be limited to the slowest speed across the network so if you have a router with 100Mbps ports then anything attached to that will be limited but anything on the switch, if it's gig, will be able to access the nas a gig rates. Of course if the router and switch are all gigabit then you'll be fine. Additionally the clients themselves won't see a boost on a per workstation basis but if multiple people access the NAS at the same time then you'll see the benefit and they don't have to be attached directly to the switch.

 

You'll need to configure link aggregation on the NAS and the switch but it's pretty simple and then you just plug up the second port and you should be good to go.

[krnonthak0b]

1 hour ago, Lurick said:

Link aggregation will increase bandwidth for multiple workstations accessing the same NAS so in your case, so long as you'll have multiple workstations accessing the same box at once then link aggregation will benefit you.

 

The individual clients will be limited to the slowest speed across the network so if you have a router with 100Mbps ports then anything attached to that will be limited but anything on the switch, if it's gig, will be able to access the nas a gig rates. Of course if the router and switch are all gigabit then you'll be fine. Additionally the clients themselves won't see a boost on a per workstation basis but if multiple people access the NAS at the same time then you'll see the benefit and they don't have to be attached directly to the switch.

 

You'll need to configure link aggregation on the NAS and the switch but it's pretty simple and then you just plug up the second port and you should be good to go.

Thank you for the very helpful reply.

 

From your info, I assume that I should lookup how to configure link aggregation on my switch? Or also possible directly to router as long as router supports link aggregation correct?

[Lurick]

6 minutes ago, krnonthak0b said:

Thank you for the very helpful reply.

 

From your info, I assume that I should lookup how to configure link aggregation on my switch? Or also possible directly to router as long as router supports link aggregation correct?

What model switch do you have?

I would search for how to configure it but I might be able to help as well.

You'll need to configure link agg on the NAS as well.

[krnonthak0b]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

What model switch do you have?

I would search for how to configure it but I might be able to help as well.

You'll need to configure link agg on the NAS as well.

I appreciate the help very much, it's just the issue is the fact that both the router and the switch are Korean branded devices with zero international market share. 

As for configuring link agg on the NAS, Synology has a lot of helpful material on their site.

 

Really grateful for the help! I have a better idea of what it is I need to lookup and how to setup our network.

 

Ah one last question. Should I be trying to use the switch whether or not my router supports link agg? Or should I also factor in the speeds of the router and switch?

 

(just in case, I have linked the two devices, however I have not been able to find any english documentation for said devices, but in case you are curious  Router = ipTIME T3008 and the Switch = ipTIME H505)

[Lurick]

7 minutes ago, krnonthak0b said:

I appreciate the help very much, it's just the issue is the fact that both the router and the switch are Korean branded devices with zero international market share. 

As for configuring link agg on the NAS, Synology has a lot of helpful material on their site.

 

Really grateful for the help! I have a better idea of what it is I need to lookup and how to setup our network.

 

Ah one last question. Should I be trying to use the switch whether or not my router supports link agg? Or should I also factor in the speeds of the router and switch?

 

(just in case, I have linked the two devices, however I have not been able to find any english documentation for said devices, but in case you are curious  Router = ipTIME T3008 and the Switch = ipTIME H505)

That's a good point, if you only have a single link from the router to the switch then you'll still bottleneck any clients hanging off the router itself.

[krnonthak0b]

18 minutes ago, Lurick said:

That's a good point, if you only have a single link from the router to the switch then you'll still bottleneck any clients hanging off the router itself.

Sorry, but what does it mean to "have a single link"? 

Would it work to connect all clients (PCs + Nas) to the switch and the switch to the router?

 

Also most important, If my router supports link agg, maybe simply not using the switch?

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, krnonthak0b said:

Sorry, but what does it mean to "have a single link"? 

Would it work to connect all clients (PCs + Nas) to the switch and the switch to the router?

 

Also most important, If my router supports link agg, maybe simply not using the switch?

Yah, earlier you mentioned having some clients connected right to the router, or maybe I misread.

If all clients go to the switch and then just a single link from the switch to the router then the only bottleneck will be leaving the network but anything locally connected will benefit from the link agg when accessing the NAS.

 

If the router has enough ports for all the clients and supports link agg then you could skip using the switch.

[krnonthak0b]

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Yah, earlier you mentioned having some clients connected right to the router, or maybe I misread.

If all clients go to the switch and then just a single link from the switch to the router then the only bottleneck will be leaving the network but anything locally connected will benefit from the link agg when accessing the NAS.

 

If the router has enough ports for all the clients and supports link agg then you could skip using the switch.

Thank you very much Lurick for all your help!

 

I have a much better understanding of how it is I would like to set up our network.

I have no networking background and in fact the limit of my "tech savyness" is building my own PCs for gaming >.<

I really appreciate it very much!

[Lurick]

4 minutes ago, krnonthak0b said:

Thank you very much Lurick for all your help!

 

I have a much better understanding of how it is I would like to set up our network.

I have no networking background and in fact the limit of my "tech savyness" is building my own PCs for gaming >.<

I really appreciate it very much!

Always glad to help, just @ me if you ever need more help or shoot me a message