How does a gigabit lan work?

Mars

Mars

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I thought all you needed was gigabit capable hardware?
Now someone has told me that if I have even one 10/100 device on the network it will slow it all down...
Not all the pc's on the network have gigabit nics, and I have a 10/100 switch at a remote end... Does this mean that I cannot get gigabit speeds between those machines that are capable?

I knew I obviously would not get gigabit through the 10/100 switch, but that's just feeding surveillance and a network printer.
 
you do need a gigabit switch if you want to run 10/100/1000, your pc's communicate via the switch, not directly to other gigabit devices...

a 10/100 client connected to the switch wont slow your network down at all
 
Yeah, what he said but basically if you use a hub instead of a switch then it might slow down your speed. Your best bet is therefor to use a switch
 
Think of the path between any 2 machines/devices on your network. The path includes the NIC on Machine A, the NICs/ethernet ports on all the switches/hubs/routers that the data passes through, and the NIC on Machine B.

If any of the devices along this path don't support Gigabit Ethernet, including both endpoints, then you won't get Gigabit speeds between the 2 concerned devices. You could have a mixed network where some devices are able to communicate using Gigabit speeds, while others are constrained to 100mbps. It all depends on the specific path between these devices...
 
ToxicWazte said:
Think of the path between any 2 machines/devices on your network. The path includes the NIC on Machine A, the NICs/ethernet ports on all the switches/hubs/routers that the data passes through, and the NIC on Machine B.

If any of the devices along this path don't support Gigabit Ethernet, including both endpoints, then you won't get Gigabit speeds between the 2 concerned devices. You could have a mixed network where some devices are able to communicate using Gigabit speeds, while others are constrained to 100mbps. It all depends on the specific path between these devices...
Click to expand...

Ok so thats what I thought...

Gigabit nic -> gigabit switch -> gigabit switch -> gigabit nic will get gigabit speed, regardless of other hubs or nics on the network.

Thanks
 
Gigabit nic -> gigabit switch -> gigabit nic = Gigabit speed
I have my router and a pc running at 10/100 on this connection, and they don't slow down the other gigabit enabled PC's - the switch adjusts this depending on the connection speed and capability.
 
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