[CALUG] Gigabit Ethernet

[Ray Lischner]

Among the three main systems that I use daily, I often have to work with
files that reside on one of the other machines. Remote files access is
noticeably slower than local file access. My proposed solution is to
switch to Gigabit Ethernet.

I started to do a little research, and stumbled on the issue of Jumbo
Frames. My understanding is that if I am bothering to run Gigabit
Ethernet to improve performance, I should probably also enable Jumbo
Frames. On the other hand, Jumbo Frames would work only within the LAN.
For any network access outside the Gigabit LAN, I cannot use Jumbo
Frames, which means I need two Ethernet adapters in each machine.
(That's not a problem; I can continue to use the current adapter for
Internet access and use the new Gigabit adapters for LAN access.)

Once I install the Gigabit adapters, I would need to manually configure
routing tables so that local traffic is routed through the Gigabit
adapter and all other traffic is routed through the old 100Base-T
adapter. Of course, the Gigabit adapters would be cabled to a Gigabit
switch (which must support Jumbo Frames), and the old adapters would
continue to go through the existing switches and hubs, which connect to
DSL and the world.

I'm not a routing expert. Until now, I've coped by letting the Suse
installer automatically do its thing. I don't think that will work once
I install the Gigabit adapters.

Is my understanding correct? Does anyone have any additional advice to
offer? Thanks.
--
Ray Lischner