Mixing 100Mbit and 1Gbit on a home network?

My home network consists of two desktop PCs with Gigabit ethernet, and a multifunction printer/scanner/copier and a Freesat box both with 100Mbit. There are a host of wireless devices which all conncet via a Linksys 100 Mbit WAP. Connection to the internet is via the O2 supplied TG585 operating at 100Mbit in bridged mode with wireless disabled (the performance is poor, and to cap it all, the TG585 disconnects the laptop when coming out of standby... No such issues with the Linksys)

I would like to upgrade the network by adding a NAS box to facilitate backups and to act as a media server.

My question is will I see benefit from upgrading to Gigabit, and will I need to upgrade everything in one go, or can I mix speeds of kit in the same network and get a boost for the upgraded bits?

You can upgrade bit by bit (no pun intended), but you will need to add a gigabit switch so that the faster devices can talk to each other at gigabit speeds. Connect the gigabit switch to one of the ethernet ports on your router and the gigabit devices to the switch. Obviously you will only get a speed boost between gigabit devices - e.g. PCs to NAS.

In reply to a post by noinchki:

..... and a Freesat box both with 100Mbit.

I'm curious - which box?

The Humax FreeSat HD box has a network connection, no idea if it works as I've not got one.

In reply to a post by Rockh:

The Humax FreeSat HD box has a network connection

Not quite - which is why I asked.

I do have one - and the network connection is for "future use"

In reply to a post by Sandgrounder:

In reply to a post by Rockh:

The Humax FreeSat HD box has a network connection

Not quite - which is why I asked.

I do have one - and the network connection is for "future use"

Same as the Sky HD box then. I do wonder why they put these things on but never seem to have a use (SKY especially for that one).

In reply to a post by Rockh:

In reply to a post by Sandgrounder:

In reply to a post by Rockh:

The Humax FreeSat HD box has a network connection

Not quite - which is why I asked.

I do have one - and the network connection is for "future use"

Same as the Sky HD box then. I do wonder why they put these things on but never seem to have a use (SKY especially for that one).

You are right about Sky - My old Freesat-From-Sky box had one, which was never used.

Because the hardware is cheap, and they might make a bundle if they can come up with a killer application for it?

It is a Humax Foxsat HDR. The network connection is "live", and is used for the BBC iPlayer. It's now moved on from beta so you don't have to find the secret teletext page. You just connect to your network, and then a link appears on teletext via any BBC programme. There are two choices, SD at ~700 kbps or HD at ~3200 kbps. HD looks about the same as broadcast SD to my eye.

Unfortunately, the network connection cannot be used for anything else. However, you can play content from a usb device, and even copy video back onto the Humax with this software:

AV2HDR

Sky Anytime+ i.e. IPTV VoD which is on its way, but looks like will only work with the latest boxes - waiting on details like everyone else