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4 Hubs - add 1 Switch - Best setup?

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by cazen 2 views

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We have a 37 node network with about 80% being 100Mbit - the remaining 10Mbit. We currently have 2 Linksys 10/100 24 port hubs on the rack connected via uplink, and 2 departmental 10Mbit hubs at remote locations. Since adding the second 10Mbit dept.hub - collisions are really bad. I know I need to use a switch - but don't know where to put it. We are currently on one subnet and using static IP's. We have a 3com ISDN Lan modem for internet access, one NT4 PDC, and various other network hardware. (printers, time clock, CNC machines, etc.) I have a map at:
http://mtd-inc.com/wklpc/lan_map.jpg
My question is - where do I put the Linksys EF2S16 switch I'm getting for the best performance / solution.

5 replies

by mike mullins

SWITCH PLACEMENT

PDC/BDC/Mail/Lan Modem/File Server: the busiest stations on a LAN. With all workstations demanding their time, they can prove to be a bottleneck. One port should be dedicated to each server/device.

Busy Hubs: The Widgets Department’s constant database processing slows down Sale’s and Accounting’s network access. Dedicate a port to Widgets.

Power Users: The boss, they get their own switched port. If they see the performance gain, they'll be more likely to shell out the bucks to buy another (and eventually replace all the hubs).

Good Luck,
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by shanghai sam

Cazen....no matter what you do with HUBS in the picture you will have a collision problem.
Remember, the entire hub ( all 24 ports ) constitute one collision domain. If you were to use switches in place of hubs this problem would effectively disappear. Each port in a switch is a collision domain.

A typical setup - which may not apply to you - is to have a "core" switch and then have "distribution" switches. Your server would plug directly into the core switch as would your distributionswitches. Your clients would plug directly into the distribution switches.

Please note that this is simply a generic solution/situation.

Now, how do we "fix" you? I would replace the two 24 port HUBs with two 10/100 switches. Take a look at the D-Link DSS-24+. It is about $200.00 per switch. I presume that you have two remote locations....replace each of the 10 mbps hubs with a 10/100 switch ( with the appropriate number of ports ). You no longer have a collision problem!

I did not look at the map...so all of this is based on what you have given. I am not sure that I understand what you want to do with the EF2S16 switch? Is this to replace one of the hubs??? If that is the case, simply replace one of the hubs. I would adda second to replace the other hub. I do not see how $400.00 is not worth the investment. Your network will take off....

If you have another $700 to spend think about getting a six port 10/100/1000 switch ( from 3Com or NetGear or D-Link ) to use as a core switch. This will help, too....

HTH,

Cary

by cazen

OK. Good start. I plan to replace one of the main hubs with the new switch. The other will be replaced later. I don't entirely understand your aversion to hubs entirely - they have a place somewhere - doesn't seperating the dept. hubs with the switch being the core effectively create 3 collision domains? Please answer to wklpc@voyager.net if you like. In any case - I have a plan, goal met, thanks.

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