Connecting PC directly to WHS 2011 Server through LAN Ports

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Otagolad

364 posts

Ultimate Geek

#131064 7-Oct-2013 17:22

Hoping someone might be able to help. Scenario is as follows:

1. I have a PC which I use for video encoding etc.

2. I have a WHS 2011 Server (homemade) which stores all video, photo's, music, doc's etc.

3. Each of the PC and the Server have 3xGigabit LAN ports.

4. PC LAN ports are connected (i) direct to my FritzBox for direct UFB connection and (ii) direct to my ASUS RT-AC66U router.

5. Server is connected (i) direct to my FritzBox for direct UFB connection and (ii) direct to my ASUS RT-AC66U router.

The question I have is whether I can run an ethernet cable directly between the PC and the Server to handle direct transfers between them rather than via the router and if so how to I configure that?

ubergeeknz

3344 posts

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Vocus

#909431 7-Oct-2013 17:38

Not sure why you're wanting to connect things up the way you have... Do any of your devices have a Gigabit switch built in? Just plug everything to that and be done.

Otagolad

364 posts

Ultimate Geek

#909444 7-Oct-2013 18:19

Basically, I want to channel large file transfers directly rather than using my ASUS router which is the Gigabit switch. The router handles a ton of other stuff and if I can by-pass it and just do the transfer direct then it leaves the router free to handle video streaming, internet etc.

Is there a way to check what path a file takes to get between the PC and the Server?

mentalinc

3244 posts

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#909447 7-Oct-2013 18:24

For the fun of it i'm sure you could but, the switch will handle the file transfers just fine so why go to the effort...

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Otagolad

364 posts

Ultimate Geek

#909449 7-Oct-2013 18:34

Reason - I notice that when I'm sending large files to the Server (e.g. 30GB Bluray rips) that if I then try and play a file from the Server or access a document etc. that the file hangs or the document takes an age to open - just wanting to elimate that issue. Now it may be a processor issue but both have i7's and sufficient RAM with SSD's that should be able to handle it.

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#909450 7-Oct-2013 18:34

If the router is any good, it'll handle 1Gb/s on all ports simultaneously no problem. Also unless you have a special setup you probably won't be able to reach 1GB/s to or from the server anyway, mechanical HDD's just can't keep up.

If you're seeing issues you have a bigger issue to investigate.

What you want to do is sort of possible, but it's rough, it'll be a pig to use, and you'll see no real benefit.

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#909452 7-Oct-2013 18:35

How are you managing your HDD space on the server?

Inphinity

2780 posts

Uber Geek

#909470 7-Oct-2013 19:13

The RT-AC66U can actually handle higher throughput than the sum of it's physical ports, I have successfully had total traffic throughput of > 9Gbps through mine concurrently (4x 1Gbps LAN ports, plus the WAN bridged to a VDSL modem, and 4 wifi clients). I doubt it's your bottleneck. I am so confused why you have your network set up how you do, though.

Anyway, to answer your question, you just need to connect a CAT5e or higher cable between the NIC ports on the two devices (crossover cable if neither of the devices are auto-MDI capable), and manually assign an IP in the same subnet on each.

Really no benefit, though. If this is a long-term transfer speed issue, and you're serious about it, you would be better to look at investing in a managed switch that will let you do link aggregation across the multiple NICs in each device, to give you 2Gbps or greater throughput on each. Or get some 10GigE NICs and a switch, hah.

Must be massive volumes of files, though, a 1Gbps link can do like 400GB/hour.

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Otagolad

364 posts

Ultimate Geek

#909471 7-Oct-2013 19:14

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for that and I guess I'll just use the router then - it's an ASUS RT-AC66U, so it should be up to the job.

In respect of the server (homebuilt using an old aTX PC I had lying around), I have 3x3TB drives iternally in the server, 3xSansDigital 5 Bay Towers connected by esata (6 Gb/s port-multiplier eSata cards) and a few external USB 3.0 drives with a total of 40TB, although I'm down to only 4TB free so time to buy some new drives - the new WD Red 4TB drives are excellent in this type of set-up. I use StableBit DrivePool to manage storage on the drives and to handle backups and duplication and have found it excellent.

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#909487 7-Oct-2013 19:25

DrivePool is a GREAT product, I assume you have Scanner too?

Are you duplicating these files you're copying, and if so do you have real time duplication turned on? That might slow things down.

Otagolad

364 posts

Ultimate Geek

#909520 7-Oct-2013 20:29

I do have scanner which is also fantastic. I do have real time duplication turned on and I know that slows things down - just looking for any gains I can get really.

coffeebaron

6236 posts

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#909539 7-Oct-2013 21:18

Also what's the purpose of connecting to both Fritz & Asus?

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linw

2850 posts

Uber Geek

#909687 8-Oct-2013 09:45

Good question, Coffeebaron.

OP, given that the Fritz seems to have giga ports, like Ubergeek says above, you could just connect the PC and Svr to that.

If you really want the ASUS involved, just connect the Fritz to the Asus and connect both PC and Svr to the ASUS.

gehenna

8521 posts

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#909688 8-Oct-2013 09:47

To answer the initial question - crossover ethernet cable.

EDIT: Sorry Inphinity just noticed you said the same thing already.

ubergeeknz

3344 posts

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Vocus

#910248 9-Oct-2013 09:19

gehenna: To answer the initial question - crossover ethernet cable.

Except it's gigabit, so, no need for a crossover cable :)