Router/switch for home use

[rudirautenbach]

I currently use a Netgear WGT624 router, to which I connect to the internet via iBurst, and have 3 x PC's connected via LAN ports to it. I use the wireless to occassionally connect my work PC when I use it at home.

I find it quite sluggist to transfer files between PC's (all PC's run W7). I get around 9 Mb/s transfer rate (which is probably normalish for a 100 Mbps connection). I am also planning using some kind of media server application to stream music around the house in future. I am not too sure of video streaming yet, we are only 2 in the household and might not need it.

My question is, what other hardware could be use for a better home networking experience? I am not too phased with wireless performance although I would like to have it available for the odd occassion when I use the work PC at home to connect to email and internet.

Budget - depends on what gets recommended....

Thanks R

 

[ToxicBunny]

W7 does have a bit of network overhead, but 9Megabytes/sec is not tooo shabby really... and unless you upgrade your home network to gigabit, you won't get much better than that.

And decent quality gigabit stuff is going to cost you a LARGE sum of money...

 

[LFX]

on a 100mbit lan 9-11mbit/s is normal . . .

a gigabit lan is not that expensive if your PCs already have gbit NICs, check the manual.

a 5port gigabit switch is in the region of R400 - R600. you will also need cat5e or cat6 network cables to get true speed.

 

[ToxicBunny]

yeah you can get a gigabit switch for that much.. but its not decent by any stretch of the imagination (Then again I have been spoilt by playing with HP Procurve stuff so yeah.. my idea of decent is in the R18k - R30k range )

 

[LFX]

lol toxic, we are talking home networking here, he has no intention of starting his own INX

 

[ToxicBunny]

INX? Hell no..

I have a 32Port Procurve on my home network ... granted its serious overkill for now since I'm still buggering around with QoS on the thing and haven't got the voip system up yet... but I have 1 of them running my small office as well..

But yes... I would guess DECENT gigabit switches for the average home to be in the region of R1k... not R600 (I still believe you get what you pay for)