I’ve finally bit the bullet and am upgrading from my Nvidia Shield and USB hub to a dedicated NAS using Unraid and a separate 290 Slimline for transcoding.
I’ve got a sea of parts arriving this week and I’m super excited. That said:
What is the optimal configuration for my NAS and transcoder to connect to each other and the network? I would normally just plug each unit into the router directly. Would it be better to add another ethernet port to one or both units and connect the NAS directly to my transcoder?
Also: I have a bridged router and two 5-port switches connected to my main router at the moment. Would there be a loss of quality if I connected the transcoder and/or NAS to one of the 5-port switches rather than the router directly?
Don’t directly connect any two devices together. Connect everything directly to your LAN.
A small optimization is to connect all the “heavy” stuff that communicates with each other, like NAS and PMS/transcoder and any wired computers, to the same Ethernet switch.
Consider getting a bigger switch instead of using two baby switches, just to reduce complexity and the number of power adapters.
Unfortunately, I can’t merge the switches. They are located on opposite sides of a large-ish house. (One switch sits directly next to my main router in the living room for extra ports, while a long line connects the router to the second switch in my bedroom, while a different line connects from the router to the bridged router for our game room).
Great to know on being able to connect both to the same switch! I was worried that connecting to the switch rather than the router would produce some sort of performative loss.
Ahhh gotcha. Don’t worry about multiple switches then.
Logically your “router” is two pieces - a router, and a switch.
The integrated switch has a few ports. Most are external. The “router” brain is connected to an internal port. But it’s just a normal simple switch.
The benefit of having busy devices on the same switch is that they can talk directly to each other on the same switch, they don’t use bandwidth going between switches also. There’s not a ton of benefit to being on the router’s integrated switch vs. a different switch.
Mostly just don’t connect two devices directly together. 99% of the time it’s not as much optimization as you would hope, and 95% of the time it will introduce additional complexity.
Extra switches are not necessarily a bad thing, having a internal NAT to protect your IOT’s or highly sensitive Computer. For me I run a VPN 24/7 but that does not protect my IOT’s as it not a router based VPN solution. Have a read through the following documentation from Steve Gibson. If your having issues with LAN or WLAN traffic it might be best if you configure your router with Reserved Static LAN IP’s of your devices. That way traffic will be configured to there mac addresses and LAN searches by devices will be simplified. Or the more expensive way of upgrading to a Enterprise grade router. I have found the former enough for home entertainment and general everyday needs.
As for Wifi devices select your Band and channel carefully as thru put can be detrimental. I use 5GHz Band, channel 100 (DFS) with channel width set at 40/80MHz for maximum thru put. This may not be the same for your location but check on this page.
