Gigabit Networking

tiramisubombtiramisubomb
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I am wondering if I want to network my 4 Macs, an inkjet and two backup drives. Do I need Mac OSX server? I have one broadband account and wishes to share Internet access. Although Internet access does not require high bandwidth, that means Airport is definitely suitable. I may need to transfer files from one Mac to another. 11 Megabits is way too slow for small files. Any other option that I can fully utilize the Gigabit Ethernet port?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    [quote]Originally posted by tiramisubomb:

    <strong>I am wondering if I want to network my 4 Macs, an inkjet and two backup drives. Do I need Mac OSX server? I have one broadband account and wishes to share Internet access. Although Internet access does not require high bandwidth, that means Airport is definitely suitable. I may need to transfer files from one Mac to another. 11 Megabits is way too slow for small files. Any other option that I can fully utilize the Gigabit Ethernet port?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    why not just standard 10/100 Ethernet? gigabit is expensive. gigabit switches/hub are not cheap.



    10/100 are and 100 really seems like it would fit your needs nicely. My house is wired in a couple of rooms for 100mb/sec ethernet and I also have an airport network. Wiring was very easy and cheap. it helped that I had a friend come over who does it for a living but it could easily be done on your own.



    all you need is a 10/100 switch and some category 5 patch cables which are literally available everywhere now
  • Reply 2 of 9
    tiramisubombtiramisubomb Posts: 58member
    Applenut,



    Do I need an OSX server if I am running X?
  • Reply 3 of 9
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    nope, not at all.



    because you want to share your internet access you should buy a router instead of a hub or switch.



    Basically a router is a switch that routes your internet connection to all the connected computers. I have a Macsense router with my cable connection and it works great. Linksys also makes them and so do many many others.



    So your cable modem plugs into the uplink port on the router and you just connect your four machines to the four ports on the router and you are set.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    tiramisubombtiramisubomb Posts: 58member
    Applenut,



    Thank you for your advice. Unfortunatly, since my house Broadbank cable modem is way too far to be hard wired through Ethernet. I have to use Airport for Internet connection. As for file transfer between different Macs, can I still use the faster 100 base T or Gigabit to hook them up since I am working on digital movies which requires faster networking if I am going to transfer the file from my PowerMac to the PowerBook, I prefer at least 100base-T, so that I don't have to move my PowerBook alot and use FireWire Disk Mode.

    What I am trying to say is, is it possible to have 2 networking system. One for the Macs to connect to Internet through 11 MBits Airport and the other one for connecting Macs internally at 100 base-T and beyond.



    Sorry for confusing u.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Routers aren't necessarily switches.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    the milkmanthe milkman Posts: 94member
    Gigabit is way to expensive for my tastes for a home network. Here at work we got a 4-port Gigabit switch so our new file server, myself, and our graphics guy could use Gigabit. The 4-port switch was just a little cheaper than our 24-port 10/100 switch.



    I use a Linksys Router/4-port 10/100 switch at home and it is plenty fast enough for me. Once I get an external Firewire HD, I really wont worry about tranfering big files, I'll just take the HD over to the other computer.



    Just my $0.02



    edit: Coffee hasn't helped yet, still making silly grammar and spelling mistakes.



    [ 02-21-2002: Message edited by: The Milkman ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 9
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    unless the file transfers you're doing are from one machine with a RAID HD setup to another RAID, you're never even going to come close to the bandwidth that 100 baseT is capable of, let alone gigabit.



    stick with the 100 baseT, esp. since you're writing to and from a laptop HD, which is slower than a regular PC HD anyway.



    have you ever checked to see what kind of sustained transfer rates you're getting?



    unless you're consistantly transferring a little over 12 MB per second, you haven't maxxed out your 100 baseT bandwidth.



    -alcimedes
  • Reply 8 of 9
    neomacneomac Posts: 145member
    Well, if you can't share the internet connection through a router, but still want to network the four Macs, then you will need to get an T100 ethernet hub and hook them all up to it.



    I don't know how often you do these big/huge file transfers, but FireWire, using Target Disk mode, is the fastest way to transfer between two Macs. It is less convenient, but it is blindingly fast - about 40MB/sec - 50MB/sec.



    [ 02-21-2002: Message edited by: NeoMac ]</p>
  • Reply 9 of 9
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    [quote]Originally posted by tiramisubomb:

    <strong>Applenut,



    Thank you for your advice. Unfortunatly, since my house Broadbank cable modem is way too far to be hard wired through Ethernet. I have to use Airport for Internet connection. As for file transfer between different Macs, can I still use the faster 100 base T or Gigabit to hook them up since I am working on digital movies which requires faster networking if I am going to transfer the file from my PowerMac to the PowerBook, I prefer at least 100base-T, so that I don't have to move my PowerBook alot and use FireWire Disk Mode.

    What I am trying to say is, is it possible to have 2 networking system. One for the Macs to connect to Internet through 11 MBits Airport and the other one for connecting Macs internally at 100 base-T and beyond.



    Sorry for confusing u.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    why is the cable modem to far to be hard wired?



    the best solution would be to get the router and then plug the base station into one of the router ports and the other macs into the other ports.



    as for doing it as two networks. that would fine I believe as long as you have OS X on the machines which has multihoming.
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