# Looking for a router to handle Gigabit WAN to LAN



## Blade 117

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320115

this would be what i go through

but if you are just looking for a more solid ethernet port as in a NIC I would go with

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033

i have this and it really performs as well as every review raves about it

good luck


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## bavarianblessed

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Blade 117*
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320115
> 
> this would be what i go through
> 
> but if you are just looking for a more solid ethernet port as in a NIC I would go with
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033
> 
> i have this and it really performs as well as every review raves about it
> 
> good luck


That ASUS is a solid WiFi router, especially running Tomato or DD-WRT but it's WAN to LAN throughput is rated at 836Mbps, slightly less than my current router.

I have a solid Intel NIC in all my wired computers as well so no real concern there. It seems as though non of the consumer off-the-shelf routers are capable of true Gigabit throughput. Anyone have any tried and true suggestions?


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## beers

Keep in mind that's about what you'll get for throughput after protocol overhead.
Also keep in mind that singular target servers on the internet won't facilitate 1 Gbps to you directly.

You could dump some cash on some extra equipment but it really won't give you a cost-effective benefit.


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## bavarianblessed

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *beers*
> 
> Keep in mind that's about what you'll get for throughput after protocol overhead.
> Also keep in mind that singular target servers on the internet won't facilitate 1 Gbps to you directly.
> 
> You could dump some cash on some extra equipment but it really won't give you a cost-effective benefit.


I was hoping you would chime in, I know you know your stuff.
I know it'll be a rare instance that I actually find a source that provides me with full bandwidth, I'm just trying to get the most out of what I have. If I plug my PC directly to the jack(a single CAT6 run into the house from the fiber connection outside) I am able to pull 980 down and 960 up. I was hoping to get as close to that as possible because well, it's there. I'll probably go ahead and grab that Gigabyte board to see how it does. Worst case scenario I can re-purpose it as a NAS. What router distros have you used or would you recommend, beers?


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## beers

Cool, a PC based router with some Intel NICs would probably give you what you want then.

I always thought Vyatta or Untangle looked interesting but never really got around to setting it up in a lab environment or similar.


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## tlsr

Even a lot of the lower end small biz routers that Cisco sells can't reach that speed. The answer to getting the full gigabit speed it multifold. First a routers processor can only do so much work per second, but it can't be measured in Mbps because the router makes decisions based on IP address and ACLs so if you have loads of ACLs on the router you could potentially reduce your speed. The speed of a switch or router is measured in packets per second, so the minimum amount of processing power required to achieve gigabit speed is: speed / highest supported mtu = required switching rate. At 1Gbps you would need aprox. 66.3Mpps at an mtu of 1508, I used the default mtu because if you send packets larger than your upstream can handle then those packets will be dropped, and I am pretty certain that the process of breaking the packets down would reduce throughput yet more.

The minimum router that I can find a good piece of documentation for is a Cisco 1800 series router, but that assumes the ideal circumstances, and that every packet including acks for packets are using the full mtu. In order to get one that is documented to do 1Gbps you are looking at a $3000 router. I could very well be wrong about that but I wouldn't think that anything cheap would have the processing power to actually get the full 1Gbps.

If you go with something like pfsence or insert favorite pc routing/firewall distro here, you might be able to use a server with a couple good nics to facilitate 1Gbps throughput a bit cheaper.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-Router-1841-V05-1800-Series-W-WIC-1DSU-T1-V2-Switch-Module-64-CF-Card-/321211306171?pt=US_Wired_Routers&hash=item4ac9af90bb
http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/downloads/765/tools/quickreference/routerperformance.pdf


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## bavarianblessed

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tlsr*
> 
> Even a lot of the lower end small biz routers that Cisco sells can't reach that speed. The answer to getting the full gigabit speed it multifold. First a routers processor can only do so much work per second, but it can't be measured in Mbps because the router makes decisions based on IP address and ACLs so if you have loads of ACLs on the router you could potentially reduce your speed. The speed of a switch or router is measured in packets per second, so the minimum amount of processing power required to achieve gigabit speed is: speed / highest supported mtu = required switching rate. At 1Gbps you would need aprox. 66.3Mpps at an mtu of 1508, I used the default mtu because if you send packets larger than your upstream can handle then those packets will be dropped, and I am pretty certain that the process of breaking the packets down would reduce throughput yet more.
> 
> The minimum router that I can find a good piece of documentation for is a Cisco 1800 series router, but that assumes the ideal circumstances, and that every packet including acks for packets are using the full mtu. In order to get one that is documented to do 1Gbps you are looking at a $3000 router. I could very well be wrong about that but I wouldn't think that anything cheap would have the processing power to actually get the full 1Gbps.
> 
> If you go with something like pfsence or insert favorite pc routing/firewall distro here, you might be able to use a server with a couple good nics to facilitate 1Gbps throughput a bit cheaper.
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-Router-1841-V05-1800-Series-W-WIC-1DSU-T1-V2-Switch-Module-64-CF-Card-/321211306171?pt=US_Wired_Routers&hash=item4ac9af90bb
> http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/downloads/765/tools/quickreference/routerperformance.pdf


Thanks for the informative post! Cisco configuration is a bit out of my league so I guess I'll go forward with PC based solution and see what I can get out of it.
So far this looks to be perfect for what I need, I think so anyway lol http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813176015
Hopefully I can grab one soon and test it out. I'll be sure to post back with my results


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