I have a question about reconfiguring my home network.  I feel like I should already know how to do this, but for some reason I can't get it to work.  Here is my situation:

 

I have a DSL modem.  It is connected by WAN port to a DIR-655 router.  That router has a built-in 4 port switch.  On port on that switch is connected to a WAP in a remote part of the house that didn't get signal from the wireless from the 655.  The other three ports have a 8 port Trendnet Gigabit switch attached to them.  One switch is in the home entertainment center.  It has a all my AV equipment, video game systems, etc connected to it.

 

The second switch is in my son's room and it has Dune player, BD player, and PC connected.

The third switch is in my home office and it has a PC, unRAID, network printer, and Dune player.

 

About a month ago, I started having a problem where unRAID and my Dune players would not show up in windows on the networking screen.  I could see other PC's/devices, but not unRAID or Dune players.  I could FTP them and they were there, but I couldn't see any of the Samba shares (Dune also uses Samba).  Nothing I could do would make the samba shares appear.  However, if I rebooted the DIR-655, the would all appear of the reboot.  So I saw there was a firmware update for my DIR-655, so I thought I would apply it to see if it helped fix the problem (I was rebooting the 655 almost daily).

 

After the firmware update, I noticed that I was having problems playing Blu-ray rips off anything on the network.  After some monitoring, I realized that any writes to my unRAID were at the same 40MB/s speed that I have always had, but reads had dropped to between 1-2 MB/s (they used to be around 60 MB/s).  1-2 MB/s is well below the bit rate needed for Blu-ray, but enough for DVD.  This is exactly the problem I have been seeing' DVD playback through my Dune players is fine, but Blu-ray playback is crap.

 

Since it was effecting anything reading from my unRAID (PC's and Dune player, PC file copy between .5-2 MB/s), I focused on the network card in my unRAID and the switch unRAID is connected to. I swapped in two other switches and saw the same read speed.  Then I even tried a third Allied Telesyn Fast Ethernet switch and got the same low speed.  This left the network card in unRAID (which is a relatively new PCI-E Intel card).  I tried it in another machine at Gigabit speeds and it worked fine transferring from PC to PC through a switch.

 

So I was a bit perplexed, so I decided to pull the connection back to the router.  I thought I would still have local connection to all devices on the same switch.  To my surprise, I did not.  If I pull the router from my network, I can no longer communicate between any devices on my network.  Further tracing shows that all of my network traffic goes through the router.  I thought that traffic between two devices on the same switch would stay on the switch, not go back to the router.

 

So at this point I reflashed the router firmware again, but still had the same slow speed.  I reflashed back to the previous firmware, and still have the same slow speed.  So at this point I think my router is hosed.

 

However, I would really like to have my network configured so that if I pulled my router, devices on the local switch could still communicate.  I am currently building a new house and have a 24 port switch that I am going to connect my unRAID and all media players to.  I would like for that system to continue to be able to work, even with a downed router (I would loose radio streaming or Torrents, but still be able to play my media off unRAID).  Basically just want the router to be there as a gateway to the WAN.  I thought I knew how to configure my network this way, but I can't get it to work.  Anyone have any instruction on how to do this?  Do I need to configure a 24/7 PC as a DNS server vs using the router as a DNS server (but do I even need DNS if everything is configured by IP)?  I must be overlooking something obvious.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

You'll need to set up static IP addresses everywhere. Probably not worth it.

Would you be able to set IP addresses on the Router based on MAC addresses?

Would you be able to set IP addresses on the Router based on MAC addresses?

 

I already have that setup.  No, I was really wanting to look into a setup where if I pulled the plug on my router, devices on the same switch would continue to talk to each other.  I'd just loose internet access.  For whatever reason, I tried manually entering IP's before, and my devices still wanted to send all data through the router (meaning when I pulled the plug, nothing worked).  After some more thought, maybe it is something exotic on my NIC's like QoS settings or something that seems to force all traffic through a router.

 

Anyway, I'm not going to spend too much time on it.  Multiple reboots of my DIR-655 still left me with 2 MB/s read speeds, but I pulled the plug on it, counted to 10, and plugged it back in and now my unRAID read speeds are back to 60-70 MB/s.  So whatever the problem was, it was definitely in the DIR-655.  And now it won't show my SMB shares under networking, again...  Unless I type //TOWER (or //DUNE or whatever the smb share address is), in which case it will then show the share correctly, add the share to the list on the left panel in Network Explorer, but it won't add it under <Computer> on the right panel.

 

I am not at all impressed with the DIR-655, but from what I've read, every brand is buggy and the DIR-655 is the least buggy.

..... but from what I've read, every brand is buggy and the DIR-655 is the least buggy.

 

From what I've ready, D-Link routers are more buggy than many others....

 

Least buggy for me are Draytek routers - currently using a Vigor 2110vn here.  Solid as a rock.  Same goes for their other models.  They are more expensive than many of the regular brands but do well in the small business / home office kind of environment.

..... but from what I've read, every brand is buggy and the DIR-655 is the least buggy.

 

From what I've ready, D-Link routers are more buggy than many others....

 

Least buggy for me are Draytek routers - currently using a Vigor 2110vn here.  Solid as a rock.  Some goes for their other models.  They are more expensive than many of the regular brands but do well in the small business / home office kind of environment.

 

I've never heard of Draytek, but I will check out their product offering.  A quick check of Froogle shows that hardly anyone in the US sells them, so maybe they are bigger in Europe. 

 

From everything I've read, the bugs all vary.  For example, DLinks seem to do inexplicable things, are hard to setup, require more frequent reboots, etc.  Netgear units are easy to setup, are stable, hardly ever need to be rebooted, but then their wireless signal is weak.  Linksys operates well all around, but have a tendency to die 6-24 months after being put into service.  Then Buffalo routers are also pretty good all around, but some models don't play nice with Apple wi-fi.  It's like every brand has some quirk.  The quirks aren't the same between any two brands, and for 70% of people, they never encounter any problems, but the other 30% encounter constant problems.

 

I've always had really good luck with Allied Telesis equipment, but while their switches aren't too much more than other brands, all their routers are more business/small business oriented (modular with cards) and carry a hefty price tag.  From some skimming I've gathered that there are some brands of router that can be reflashed with an open source linux firmware, and that the hardware running that linux OS is much more stable and reliable than the OS provided by the manufacturer.  I added it to my list of things to check out.

Yea, they all seem to do strange things. My Linksys loses the admin web server after operating for a while. I usually have to reboot it if I want to change any of the configuration.

 

Peter

Yea, they all seem to do strange things. My Linksys loses the admin web server after operating for a while. I usually have to reboot it if I want to change any of the configuration.

 

Peter

 

My Cisco (Linksys) running DDWRT has been flawless so far. [knock on wood]

 

I had a linksys before that was running stock firmware and it could not handle high traffic load.  It would completely freak out and crash itself.  I think a later firmware update fixed it, but I had moved to DDWRT on that router by then.  I gave that router to my sister and she has been using it since then.  My parents have a DLink that will randomly stop supplying an internet connection so they have to unplug it for 5 seconds and then plug it back in.

I've never heard of Draytek, but I will check out their product offering.  A quick check of Froogle shows that hardly anyone in the US sells them, so maybe they are bigger in Europe.

 

Very few people have heard of Draytek - they're not commonly available from the usual retail outlets, but they are distributed in most countries.  Go to the Draytek site for your country and look for the authorised resellers.

 

I used to be a reseller in UK, and I would be loath to use any other brand, having been using Draytek for more than ten years.

 

I'm still using a 2700VG which I brought from UK when I emigrated to Philippines in 2007 - it really is absolutely trouble-free.

Don't have a draytek but I have heard good things about them.

 

At the time I was looking at routers it came down to either a Billion or a Draytek. The Billion was cheaper and I should have gone with the Draytek. I read a lot of good things about them. My Billion hasn't been too bad but not perfect.

 

Josh