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I think this is a pretty simple question, but I wanted to either validate my thinking, or for someone to tell me I'm wrong.
My router at home has 4 gigabit ports. So, obviously, each (supported) device connected to it is over a gigabit connection.
If I add a gigabit switch to one of these ports, and I add two devices to the switch, will they still have gigabit throughput to the rest of the LAN, or will it be reduced because there are two devices fighting for contention over the gigabit connection from the switch to the router?
So how does this work when you have a server and (say) 20 PCs on a network switch... the server-switch link is surely going to totally strangle your lovely Gigabit if people are actually using the network? Doesn't this negate the benefit of the switch if ideally all the devices would just plug directly into the server? – Mr. Boy – 2018-03-06T14:58:27.143
1thats why link aggregation (or Teaming) is valuable, in that it allows you to multiply available bandwidth to the server from the server switch, so a desktop has 1Gbps, and the server has 4 or 10Gbps. That said, keep in mind that the servers network card can only process one command at a time, so there is always an element of time-slicing in contentious environments, whether you have a bandwidth issue or not. – Frank Thomas – 2018-03-08T13:45:11.670