Home Network Upgrade

[rheck]

Later on this year or when Vista is available early in 2007 I am planning to upgrade my main worksstation. While I am busy tucking away the cash for this adventure, I am researching all the various options, including changes to my home network. The network works great as it is and consists mostly of wired 100 Mbs with a Netgear Range Max (108 Mbs)) wireless router ( for Internet access) and wired remote hub. Currently there are 4 wired PCs, one Linksys NSLU2 Network Storage unit and one wirless laptop connected to the network. There is just me, but I hate to throw out working computers and I like to experiment with networks. I do a lot of automated and manual moving of disk images and backup files around the network.With my current main workstation hardware (AMD 1800 +), the performance really slows down when I am moving 6 to 7 GB files across the network. I intend to improve that greatly with the upgraded workstation hardware. Since most new motherboards have 1 Gb networking available, I am considering adding a 1 Gb NIC to my secondary PC, which will be my old AMD 1800 +. I would also purchase a 1Gb switch and connect the new workstation and the secondary PC to the new switch. The 1 Gb switch would be connected to the router, so that all systems would still have Internet access.My question, to those of you who are more experienced than I, is this a workable solution? I like to experiment, but I prefer to do it as economically as possible. I have the time to educate myself and make a wise decision.Thanks in advance.Bob Heck

[Peachy]

Welcome, Bob!Sounds good to me. Gigabit switches are dropping in price and by the time Vista rolls around they should be close to what Fast Ethernet is today.

[Rons]

Hi Bob - and welcome to the forum.