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I am thinking of changing my current setup at home (which is: I have a Virgin router connected to Asus RT-AC88U. Then all my devices connect to Asus router). I want to add a network rack with a network switch so that I can route all my local connections through this switch. I am not clear on certain things, hence the questions:

  1. I am presuming that adding a switch will mean that local traffic will just travel through the switch and wont be routed through the Asus router. Is that correct?
  2. As the devices connected to the network get their IP address (static or non-static) from the router, I am presuming that this will still be the case?
  3. Would it be better to connect the printer to the switch or connect it directly to the router or leave it the way it is now where it's connected to the network via wifi?
  4. I have a NAS drive which at the moment is connected to the router. I suspect it's better to connect this to the switch as well? I have a Plex server installed on a local PC. Plex drives are setup on this NAS drive
  5. NAS drive has a static IP address. Presumably connecting it to the switch will not change the IP address of the drive?

A basic diagrammatic example of what I'm thinking off: enter image description here

Zac
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1 Answers1

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I am presuming that adding a switch will mean that local traffic will just travel through the switch and wont be routed through the Asus router. Is that correct?

Yes. But local traffic isn't routed anyway – it just goes through the Asus router's built-in switch.

  • Local traffic (that is, within the same subnet) is never routed. Instead, all "LAN" ports are bridged (at layer 2). Whether done by software or hardware, the packets are sent based on MAC address and don't involve IP routing table lookup.

  • As a result, many "wireless routers" actually include a hardware switch for those LAN ports, so that local traffic doesn't even burden the CPU and you should be getting the same performance as with a dedicated switch.

As the devices connected to the network get their IP address (static or non-static) from the router, I am presuming that this will still be the case?

Yes. By default, a switch is completely transparent in that regard.

Would it be better to connect the printer to the switch or connect it directly to the router or leave it the way it is now where it's connected to the network via wifi?

In general, wired Ethernet tends to be more reliable than Wi-Fi. (Some printers even have broken/buggy Wi-Fi implementations...) But if you're not currently having problems, then it doesn't matter.

I have a NAS drive which at the moment is connected to the router. I suspect it's better to connect this to the switch as well? I have a Plex server installed on a local PC. Plex drives are setup on this NAS drive

A direct connection (going through just one switch vs two) could improve performance due to avoiding a possible bottleneck, but it only matters if you're close to the limit. Though, you should measure both methods and see what works best.

NAS drive has a static IP address. Presumably connecting it to the switch will not change the IP address of the drive?

It won't. A switch is normally completely transparent to layer-3 matters.

grawity
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