Network Cards: 100 or 1000 1

[shmoes]

I'm just looking at the whole network card thing.. and i've noticed that they have switches with 2 1000gb ports.. and 24 100 ports..

does that mean I can have a 1000 card on my server and 100card on my clients and get full throughput from the server to multiple clients?

hopefully that makes sense



~Shmoes

 

[kmcferrin]

On a 100 Mbit switch that has one or two 1000 Mbit ports, these ports are usually used to:

1. Connect multiple switches together to make a cluster (requires switch clustering to be supported on the switch).

2. Connect the switch to a faster network (i.e, you clients are on 100 Mbit connections and your server switches are all 1000 Mbit connections. You can use the 1000 Mbit ports to connect to the higher-speed backbone.

3. Connect faster computers to the same network as the slower computers, i.e., you have 24 PCs and 1 or 2 servers, or some of your PCs have 1000 Mbit NICs.

In any case, you can have 100 Mbit and 1000 Mbit devices connected simultaneously, but they will only work at their maximum speed. In your example, you could theoretically have 10 clients pulling data from your server at full 100 Mbit speed (10 x 100 = 1000).

 

[shmoes]

excellent, thank you for the response!

~Shmoes

 

[kmcferrin]

Another thought, depending on the model of switch, those two gigabit ports may be configured as uplink ports, meaning that they are used to connect to another switch. If you intend to connect a PC to them you may need a crossover cable. What particular switch are you looking at?

 

[shmoes]

this is the one I was looking at.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=14522&vpn=GIGAX1024P&manufacture=ASUS

~Shmoes

 

[shmoes]

maybe a better link would be

http://usa.asus.com/products/networks/switch/x1024p/overview.htm

~Shmoes

 

[kmcferrin]

Yeah, those look like uplink ports for something that you would use to connect it to a backbone. If you had several of these switches you might even link them together over the gigabit ports.