I would be quite surprised if there were many/any modern devices like this offered 1000 on one side and 100 on the other. I'd guess they'd only do that if it was cheaper and that seems unlikely for the simple reason that the ethernet interfaces on these things are typically made up of a small (as few as possible) number of chips, with the only thing distinguishing "WAN" from "LAN" being VLAN tagging within the device marking where a given packet came from.

Edited by deleted (Mon 30-May-11 22:21:54)

In reply to a post by awoodland:

I would be quite surprised if there were many/any modern devices like this offered 1000 on one side and 100 on the other.

Possibly... but look at that Linksys.

There are clearly 5 Ethernet ports on the rear, but the spec explicitly states

Ethernet ports x speed

4 x Gigabit

.
If all 5 were gigabit I'd expect the advertising department to insist that it said so. Pretty much the same applies to all the other routers I've looked at (except the Apple)- the "Features" text often suggests fully gigabit with careful phraseology, but the spec doesn't mention the WAN speed.

The general descriptive-only bits aren't subject to the Sale of Goods Act in detail, the technical spec is.

The Linksys supports PPPoE, as do the others I linked to at BroadbandBuyer

I missed out the bit about chip count... considering that most routers have four LAN ports and 4-way switches are dirt cheap, I'd think it quite likely that there's an easily available single chip that will handle four gigabit Ethernet ports.

So one of those and another cheap chip (possibly the same one that Huawei use in the modem) for the single 10/100 WAN port... no need to go faster as there isn't a domestically-available broadband connection¹ that will run faster than that.


¹ Certainly in the UK, possibly in Europe.

Edited by billford (Mon 30-May-11 23:13:43)

Draytek 2830 has a gigabit WAN port iirc.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The output from the OR modem is pure ethernet. You don't even need a router for a simple connection. There shouldn't be a problem with any cable router, so the one under discussion should be fine.

I should think it needs to be able to do PPPoE. Not just straight Ethernet. Chances are if you connect directly then it is because the OS stack can easily speak PPPoE.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but otherwise it'd not make much sense.

Oops! Yes indeed. But although it needs checking, is it conceivable that it won't, with a spec like that?

Me again (dustofnations), on a machine where I can't log in atm.

Could you clarify what you mean by "it needs checking, it is conceivable that it won't, with a spec like that". Not sure I grasp exactly what you intend to ask/comment!

Anyway you need PPP to provide authentication and important LCP stuff to negotiate packet sizes, byte ordering and so on.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Draytek 2830 has a gigabit WAN port iirc.

That one seems to be 10/100 on all ports?

In reference to www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/Specifications.asp?ProductID=10743:

Physical Interfaces

LAN: 4-port 10/100 Base-TX Switch
WAN: 2-port 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet

But at least they specify the speed of the WAN port

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Draytek 2830 has a gigabit WAN port iirc.

That one seems to be 10/100 on all ports?

In reference to www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/Specifications.asp?ProductID=10743:

Physical Interfaces

LAN: 4-port 10/100 Base-TX Switch
WAN: 2-port 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet

But at least they specify the speed of the WAN port

The Draytek website seemed to imply that the secondary WAN fail-over port is gigabit. Not sure though.

I think your best bet is to go for a "standard" one with 100Mbps WAN for now, and then migrate to something fast in 10 years or whatever. Unless you have an imminent use-case for gig WAN?

I missed out the bit about chip count... considering that most routers have four LAN ports and 4-way switches are dirt cheap, I'd think it quite likely that there's an easily available single chip that will handle four gigabit Ethernet ports.

PCB image

The realtek switch chip in question is 5 ports +1 and definitely does support 1000 on all switch ports too, according to the datasheet for it at least. (The 5+1 is because the switch has 5 PHYs attached, but there's a link to the processor on the router too)

You might be right though about running the WAN at 10/100 shaving some money off though actually. Looking at the PCB tracks on an example in the linked image it seems there's 2x2 chips which I assume are media converters and a 3rd, smaller one which could well be 10/100. I can't quite make out the part number on the WAN port one though.

Thanks for that, especially the datasheet.

I didn't realise that quite so much was implemented in the hardware, it's a busy little chip!