1
I'm doing my homework and I don't understand this question. If anyone can help me solve or point me in the right direction would be much appreciated.
The question is: If I have a 1Gbps NIC, 100Mbps Router, and a 10Mbps switch, whats the fastest speed I can get in my LAN setup?
xtremeslice
Posted 2016-02-03T18:31:49.490
Reputation: 21
1
The fastest your link will be, is always the slowest device along the path of travel because it's the culprit of the bottleneck. Assuming you were connected like Router > Switch > PC.
Excuse my excellent art skills trying to demonstrate what I mean.
DrZoo
Posted 2016-02-03T18:31:49.490
Reputation: 8 101
I suspect that this is what they wanted to ask. But as currenly asked to speed is higher. (much higher to 127.1) – Hennes – 2016-02-03T18:52:35.660
@Hennes yeah I get the loopback point. But the point of LAN is interconnecting more than one device. So you'd be sending data from client A to client B, rather than just back to yourself. Also cable modem is supposed to be a switch. The art I found didn't have a switch, but that looked close enough. – DrZoo – 2016-02-03T19:00:42.033
Sort of. A cable modem is supposed to be a modem. It is not the same as a single device with three devices in one (modem to fribre or cable, WAP and router). But I guess many people no longer make that distinction. – Hennes – 2016-02-03T19:20:03.097
-1 If you have a 100Mbps link to a 10Mbps link, data still travels at 100Mbps over the 100Mbps link. It will just only do it 1/10th of the time. – David Schwartz – 2016-02-03T19:22:04.927
0
Guessing a bit I read this as follows:
I got a 1 meter (100cm) radius pipe connected to a 10cm big pipe connected to a 1 cm pipe. What is the most water I can push though it?
(The answer matches the 1cm pipe).
And if they are trying to be smart: they toss aside the 10Mbit/sec switch (an antique!) and connect the NIC directly to the router. But that requires context not mentioned in the OP.
Hennes
Posted 2016-02-03T18:31:49.490
Reputation: 60 739
Thanks! So the answer is 100Mbps because the 1Gbps can handle anything up to 1G and 100Mbps was the highest offered. Thanks for the help! – xtremeslice – 2016-02-03T18:43:39.027
@xtremeslice - No; I would think the answer would be, 10 Mbps, since the switch is part of a Local Area Network (LAN) instead of a Wireless Area Network (WAN). – Ramhound – 2016-02-03T18:47:26.257
Aye. It depends on how you build it. (also see my cheat answer for localhost). Not enough info. – Hennes – 2016-02-03T18:48:53.307
0
The question is badly worded - the answer is indeterminate unless you know how many ports there are on the switch.
The answer is probably 100 megabits, as even basic routers have 4 LAN ports on them, so connecting 2 devices into those ports directly will allow 100 megabit connectivity between them.
The answer they are probably looking for is 10 megabits, which assumes that only 2 ports on the router are in use, and all the devices are plugged into the 10 megabit switch. This is a really dumb way of wiring things up.
I guess the point is to test that the student knows the slowest device in the path defines the maximum throughput.
davidgo
Posted 2016-02-03T18:31:49.490
Reputation: 49 152
But that is false. The slowest device in the path defines the maximum sustained throughput, but the fastest link in the path defines the fastest speed in the setup, which is what the question asks for. – David Schwartz – 2016-02-03T19:25:10.353
@DavidSchwartz - not sure how what you said differs from what I said. – davidgo – 2016-02-03T23:52:12.343
The questions asks what the fastest speed is, not what the total throughput is. The fastest speed is the speed of the fastest part, not the slowest. – David Schwartz – 2016-02-04T00:05:32.510
0
100Mbps.
The highest speed you can get is to connect the 1Gbps NIC to the 100Mbps router. That link will transfer data at 100Mbps. There is no way to get a higher speed anywhere in the LAN setup with those parts.
David Schwartz
Posted 2016-02-03T18:31:49.490
Reputation: 58 310
That would be changing the setup of the LAN they are given. 10 Mbps would be your max. – DrZoo – 2016-02-03T19:31:43.040
No setup is given. We're just told what components they have and asked what the maximum speed is. – David Schwartz – 2016-02-03T19:32:50.533
What kind of weird LAN would directly connect into a router with no switching capabilities? That sounds like a useless LAN to me. – DrZoo – 2016-02-03T19:36:50.813
@DrZoo There's nothing unusual about such a LAN. In fact, a typical SoHo setup with a separate router and modem has just such a LAN between the router and the modem. Consider any network link that serves a single end station. – David Schwartz – 2016-02-03T19:39:16.893
Yes, but this is a networking class where they use the routers that don't have the built-in switching, or X amount of LAN ports like home routers. – DrZoo – 2016-02-03T19:47:16.480
@DrZoo Are you suggesting they're talking about a router that only has a single physical interface in total? That's extremely rare and it would be quite strange to assume that. If not, your comment makes no sense. Yes, this physical interface connects to a LAN that has only one other device, an end station. But the router can route between this LAN and other networks (LAN or WAN) connected to other physical interfaces. – David Schwartz – 2016-02-03T19:52:31.987
Like a high end Cisco router. The type that would be used in any typical networking class – DrZoo – 2016-02-03T19:53:54.840
@DrZoo Those all have multiple physical interfaces. It's not at all unusual to connect one of those physical LAN interfaces to an end station, forming a LAN with just two devices in it -- the router and the end station. – David Schwartz – 2016-02-03T20:01:56.937
Is the 1Gbps NIC connected to the router or the switch? – Ramhound – 2016-02-03T18:34:57.307
Im assuming they are all interconnected. If anything can I have your opinion on it? – xtremeslice – 2016-02-03T18:36:27.810
If by LAN, you mean not WAN, then I believe the answer is 100Mbps. You would only get 10Mpbs on the WAN because of the limited speed of the switch, which I'm assuming is synonymous with bridge.l – BillDOe – 2016-02-03T18:38:28.097
Just to be nastyu: almost unlimted LAN speed to localhost. – Hennes – 2016-02-03T18:40:49.310
Thanks I get the idea now, and i'll write in there that 100Mbps is the fastest if connecting to the router. – xtremeslice – 2016-02-03T18:42:11.623
@xtremeslice - If you cannot provide me the specific specifications of the network, I cannot provide an opinion, if I did provide my current opinion it wouldn't be an educated opinion which means its a useless opinion. Is what you say that question is, actually what the question, or is there some context to the question itself or is this a question you came up with yourself? What is this question from exactly? – Ramhound – 2016-02-03T18:43:30.873
@Ramhound its an intro networking class and the question wasn't specific so sorry about that. But i got the gist of it and was able to answer my question. Thanks for the feedback! – xtremeslice – 2016-02-03T18:46:48.653
This a multiple choice question or a short answer question? – Ramhound – 2016-02-03T18:50:13.563
1@xtremeslice If you have to go through the switch to get to the router, how will you get 100Mbps to the router? – David Schwartz – 2016-02-03T19:19:55.367