Learn how to set up a 2.5G Multigigabit network at home
In recent times, multigigabit networks at speeds of 2,5 Gbit / s are fully entering our homes, although today the most common thing is to have a Gigabit Ethernet network, where we can achieve speeds. 1 Gbps upload and download over the local network Home users who want to transfer twice as fast see 2.5G network equipment getting cheaper and cheaper. Today in RedesZone we are going to give you all the keys to set up a 2.5G Multigigabit network at home, to get the most out of your NAS server or your computer when you are going to transfer data over the local network.
Characteristics of 2.5G multigigabit networks
2.5G multigigabit networks are a reality thanks to the IEEE 802.3bz standard , or commonly called NBASE-T , a new standard that defines 2,5 Gbps speeds using typical twisted pair network cables, without having to change the network cabling in our home. If you've bought a new home recently (or for more than 6 years), it's very likely that all rooms have RJ-45 roses and the whole house is wired with a Cat 6 network cable. NBASE-T standard, we can Achieve true speeds of 2,5 Gbps Full Duplex (both upload and download simultaneously) with this Cat 6 cablingTherefore, we will have more than twice the speed of the commonly used 1000BASE-T standard, just by changing the electronics in the network (switches and network cards).
Other features of this 2.5G Multigigabit standard is that it inherits from technologies such as automatic negotiation , the network cards will always try to synchronize at the maximum possible speed automatically, without us having to "force" this speed. It incorporates a function called " downshift »To lower the speed manually when you want, in case of stability problems you can do it. Finally, we also have the popular Auto MDI/MDIX to use both flat and cross cables, the electronics in the network will detect them automatically no matter what type of cable you are using.
2.5G Multigigabit networks, unlike 10G networks that we can also use in our homes, have other strengths which we detail below.
Price
2.5G networks are quite cheap nowadays, currently you can think of buying hardware without leaving hundreds of dollars in the new network, we have to keep in mind that in order to have a 2.5G network we will have at least need a 2.5G Multigigabit switch, whether it is manageable or not, and a network card for our PC or NAS server which is also 2.5G.
If we have a NAS server or a PC that acts as a server, having a 2.5G card means they can access up to 2 computers with Gigabit Ethernet cards and transfer data at maximum speed, previously they could only transfer 'at speeds of 500 Mbps each of them, now they will be able to squeeze the maximum of 1 Gbps. The ideal is to have all NAS and PC servers with 2.5G network cards, to transfer data at the maximum possible speed and compress hard drives to the maximum.
10G networks are clearly more expensive today, not only 10G switches are much more expensive, but also 10G network cards for our equipment, compared to 2.5G network cards. Also, we have to keep in mind that Cat 6 cabling is very limited in terms of distance if we want to achieve real speeds of 10Gbps, therefore, we have to change it to Cat 7 cabling if we want to get the speed maximum possible.
Temperatures
Another point in favor of 2.5G Multigigabit networks is that the electronics in the network (switches and network cards) hardly heat up at all, very similar to what could heat up switches or network cards with the Gigabit Ethernet standard, for example. Therefore, this is ideal in a home environment where we don't want switches or network cards to have active cooling (fans), and we want everything to be passive or fanless cooling, in order that the noise generated by the equipment is zero.
In 10G networks, switches and network cards get much hotter and typically require active cooling with fans to suck hot air from inside. The vast majority of 10G switches have built-in fans to adequately cool their interiors, although there are 10G network cards that have a large passive heat sink to control temperatures so they don't rise too high. The temperature above the 2.5G standard makes the USB to RJ-45 adapters too hot if we give them heavy use, which does not happen with the 2.5G Multigigabit standard.
Network equipment: switch, cards and cables
In RedesZone, we are going to recommend a series of highly recommended network equipment for home environments to achieve speeds of 2,5G Multigigabit, where any user could install the devices without any problems and without having to configure absolutely anything. , because we will not have any Manageable to facilitate configuration, and if we are manageable to do link aggregation, its firmware is very intuitive to be able to do it quickly without complicated configurations.
Recommended 2.5G multigigabit switches
Currently, we have many Multigigabit switches with speeds up to 10G, but these devices are generally very expensive and not part of a household budget. The ideal is to have switches with all 2.5G Multigigabit ports, or which have 10G Multigigabit ports to connect the fastest devices to them, and the slowest devices in the other Gigabit Ethernet ports.
The first switch we are going to recommend is the QNAP QSW-1105-5T, a model which integrates a total of 5 2.5G Multigigabit ports, it is not manageable, therefore, we will not be able to do link aggregation or segment by VLAN. The best thing is that this equipment is really cheap.
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Another highly recommended model is the QNAP QSW-M408-4C, in fact it is one of the switches we use in RedesZone to test Multigigabit equipment. This model has 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and a total of 4 Combo RJ-45 / SFP + ports, RJ-45 ports are 10G Multigigabit. Although it is clearly more expensive than the previous one, we have to keep in mind that it has a lot more ports and is manageable, so we can segment by VLAN or do link aggregation among d 'other advanced L2 functions.
An interesting switch if you don't want to spend too much money
Another highly recommended switch for home environments is the NETGEAR XS508M, but this model has a fan, so it will make some noise. The main features are the incorporation of 8 10G Multigigabit ports, so it is significantly superior to the previous ones, but it is also more expensive. Depending on your needs, this may be a good option.
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