I have my home network setup as follows using Cat 5e cables and 20Mbps down and 4Mbps up speeds from ISP. Am hoping to increase this to 100Mbps down in near future. Downstairs 1. Cable internet into Modem 2. Out of Modem into D-link DGL-4500 Router 3. Router Port 2 to Computer 10/100(rarely used) 4. Port to Cable run to Upstairs Upstairs 1. Cable into Gigafast EZ-500-S 10/100 5 Port Palm Switch 2. Port 1 to main computer with 10/100/1000 Mbps onboard 3. Port 2 to secondary computer with 10/100/1000 Mbps onbard My main question is how much is the switch on second floor actually limiting my speed on internet and on transfers between computers? I know it would be best to eliminate the switch and just hook all up to router but this was a quick fix and if I'm not going to gain anything by eliminating switch I may leave it as is for the time being. Can anyone suggest an alternative to the switch other than wireless. I live in a very old house and walls and floors are like lead barriers. I have laptop with wireless and can sit beside router and connect perfect, sitting on floor upstairs I can hold router to ceiling directly under laptop or directly on other side of a wall and get no signal. Its like a wireless Bermuda Triangle lol

Hi There is No 100Mbps Internet download available to consumers, 20Mb/sec. is the viable max. right now. Switch is a transparent device and does not slow down any thing, you can have 10 switches in the way and there would Not be significant slow down in the traffic. As a frame of reference, "Speed" (Bandwidth) expectation of Ethernet Home Networks using Windows, http://www.ezlan.net/net_speed.html Extending Wireless Coverage. The info bellow is just one working example that I use, other solutions along this line can be found with proper search. The general approach that I take for Coverage issues is the following. The best way is to lay few CAT6 cables to central locations in the house, install Access Points, or Cable/DSL Routers configured as an Access Points ( Using a Wireless Cable/DSL Router as a Switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html ), and connect them to the Main Router. You do not want/can not/hate/your client hate to lay Cables. You start with One affordable Wireless Router that can do WDS (the reason to start with WDS capable Router is that in case you need to add more Wireless WDS hardware the original Router has to support it). If you are lucky and your environment is conducive to get covered with one Good Wireless Router and you are done. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Distribution_System. Buffalo-HP-54G, Linksys WRT54GL, and Asus, 520GU can do WDS when flashed with DD-WRT firmware. Due to the added flexibility, it is better solution to choose Routers that can work with DD-WRT http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page http://meanderingpassage.com/2007/04/15/dd-wrt-setting-up-a-home-wireless-distribution-system-wds/ It is a good idea to start with the Buffalo since it is a High Power Wireless Router that covers more distance to begin with, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833162134 Using a Laptop loaded with Wirelessnetview, do a Wireless survey, http://majorgeeks.com/WirelessNetView_d6102.html According to the signal strength reading, identify spots that have strong signal. and spot with weak, or No signal. Evaluate how you can cover the space and start placing WDS units. Additional Wireless Routers in WDS Mode (Wireless Network - Configuration Modes. ) has to be placed in spots were the signal is good about Half way to the dead spots. How many WDS units are needed? It depends on your specific environment (that is a good the reason to buying WDS units one at the time, try it, and decide on the Next step). More about the topic. Extending Distance - http://www.ezlan.net/Distance.html Wireless Router as an AP - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html Wireless Modes - http://www.ezlan.net/Wireless_Modes.html Wireless Bridging - http://www.ezlan.net/bridging.html Hi Gain Antenna - http://www.ezlan.net/antennae.html ----------------------- Jack, MVP-Networking. EZLAN.NET

I see no where in this design that you are limiting or creating a bottleneck. Your computers are connected at 100 Mbps since the switch cannot do 1Gps. The cable supports this current design. The fact that you used a switch rather than a hub upstairs is even better. The real limit here is your Upstream at 4GB and wireless since wireless technologies are shared, not switched. If you are simply accessing websites, downloading, streaming, etc.. i dont forsee a problem. If you uploaded a file from any computer in the house, you will be limited by the upstream speed. If you take a look at task manager and pay close attention to the Networking tab, I am sure you will be surprised that these systems actually use very little bandwidth, on average.Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

Thanks for the quick replies. As far as internet speed goes I was going by Comcasts list of available speed packages with powerboost. Their Extreme package is "Downloads up to 50 Mbps, Uploads up to 10Mbps with Powerboost." They are in the process of uprading (Some have already recieved upgrade) the Extreme package to Xfinity which increases "50Mbps downloads today, increasing to 100+ Mbps and even faster in the future".