Quality, performance 10/100 switch?

[{Sniping}Waste]

I have this switch a sky link net 1008.
http://www.zipstorage.com/skylin108por.html
in lan partys I have gone to, this switch was much faster then the rest there. all that was on my switch had a ping of half compared to the rest on the network. May be the intergraded 2 meg dram on the controler chip has somthing to do with that. The funny thing is I got it for $20 new about 4 years ago and the others switches were around $60 then.
EDIT
here is PDF with more info
http://www.skyhawkusa.com/olditem/NET-1008.pdf

 

[Pete]

Russ, have you considered moving to a single modem+router+switch device, rather than multiple, separate ones? I'm not sure it'll help, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

As for switch speed tests, back when I was looking for router reviews, I think I found some at DSLReports and the like.

 

[Sxotty]

I had trouble with a linksys switch long ago and have since stayed away, but then I had a crappy Dlink router as well.

I am using an Asus Wl500g router at the moment and it works extremely well. The only problem is that there is no documentation anywhere. I am under the impression that the Asus networking stuff is actually pretty darn good for the price, but like I said you have no real support. I had to read how to configure other routers and such to figure out what the menus all meant.

On the plus side if you plug it in, it just works unless you need to do something specific. i.e. netmeeting/bitorrent etc...

 

[Frank]

I have the same router, and it is a really nice one. You can even download tweaked (Linux) flash upgrades build by enthousiasts to make it do whatever you want, if you don't like what it does out of the box.

 

[Florin]

Heh, I also have that Asus WL500g router, and it's one of the reasons I don't trust consumer hardware much. The thing defaults to autonegotiation, but if I use that and try a highspeed transfer of say a couple of gigabytes of data from its WAN port to one of its LAN ports, it just dies. I have to power cycle to wake it up.

It does not show that problem when using a fixed setting of 100 full duplex on the WAN port, and unlike many other consumer routers actually has a setting in its web management interface for that, but get this.. that doesn't actually do anything. I have to log in to the command line (this router is actually a little Linux box) and type in a command to *really* switch the port setting.

I got so tired of this router - and also my Motorola cable modem - that I switched out my cheapo home switch for a used Cisco Catalyst 2950, and that showed me that the Asus actually ends up using 100/half when using autonegotation. The Cisco cured all vague stuff on my home network. I can now configure individual switch ports to a fixed setting if necessary - as is the case with the Asus - and all is well. Maybe they fixed it in later firmware revisions (I'm using 1.7.5.6) but I wouldn't say this router is the way to go to fix these kinds of problems.

 

[Sxotty]

Heh, I also have that Asus WL500g router, and it's one of the reasons I don't trust consumer hardware much. The thing defaults to autonegotiation, but if I use that and try a highspeed transfer of say a couple of gigabytes of data from its WAN port to one of its LAN ports, it just dies. I have to power cycle to wake it up.

I do not think it does this anymore, but I don't really download gigs of crap usually, though I do throw a lot of data around between the 3 'puters in the house.

 

[Guden Oden]

I haven't had much luck just connecting two computers with a cable, even though they 10/100.

Maybe you're right, I'm not sure how much 100Mbit equipment supports it. Yet, gigabit LAN ports autodetect, so you could connect 2 PCs with a straight cable and have it work no problem... Awesome strides technology makes, eh? Only took them what, fifteen years?

 

[Florin]

I do not think it does this anymore, but I don't really download gigs of crap usually, though I do throw a lot of data around between the 3 'puters in the house.

There was never a problem with traffic between the switch ports, only with the router function (WAN to LAN). I could get it to crash reliably with a certain amount of traffic, which with normal Internet use would take like 2 weeks, but much faster with synthetic testing. This problem was well documented on the wl500 forum, the duplex setting is a workaround. I'll have to read up on if they ever found a proper fix..

 

[Frank]

I do download large amounts of all kind of stuff regulary, including DVD images, and I've never had a problem with the router crashing. So I think it's fixed for quite some time now.