My network is getting big, I need help

With computers and networking I know just enough to be dangerous.

the Problem:
-Some PCs are really slow, especially the internet.
-some devices don't connect reliably.

the stuff:
Living room-
HTPC
Uverse
4 Sonos zone players
Hava streamer
Roku
Isy99ir lighting controller

Server room-
Big PC using windows home server OS, but I'm not using the homeserver gui or functionality, I'm just using it as a cheap windows Server 2003 machine.
6 Sonos zones
Cisco gigabit managed switch (SG300-10MP).

Main office
1 sonos zone
Uverse router
PC

Other:
Mac Leopard OS laptop
mac mini with win7 OS using ethernet

The Mac via wifi is really fast on the internet.

The other computers are hit and miss.

My assumption is that so many devices all wired together might require some management rather than just plugging it all in and hoping for the best.

I tries to keep the Sonos network separate since their built in switches are only 100Mb.

All the computers make a home run to the Cisco switch.
The other devices are all sort of chained together.

Is this too big to be a simple home network? Do I need a domain or something?

If I were to start from scratch, how should it all be wired?

thanks,
~Jay

I'll try to do that. I suspect that I might be daisy chaining too many devices.

thanks,
~Jay

Your four questions are what I don't understand. I just plugged it all in and hoped for the best. As far as I know all the devises obtain an ip address automatically.

Can you point me to an article that explains all that as it pertains to a home network?

The SG300 has a home run to all the PCs.
The SG300 also has a home run to one Sonos. The Sonos has a built in switch which I use to feed other Sonos zones and the Roku, and lights and other low bandwidth stuff.

The Uverse hub has a built in 4 port switch. That goes to the SG300 and one Sonos zone that happens to be next to it.

The Sonos zone players create a mesh network of WiFi and Ethernet. Is it possible that I'm creating a feedback loop by plugging these into ports on two different switches? (SG300 & Uverse router)

thanks,
~Jay

The problems I am having are intermittent. Some web pages take way too long to load, and can't stream a DVD to one of the PCs over gigabit, but can almost stream it over wifi.

Internet is now better with Uverse than it was with Time Warner. But it's still slow on my Win7 PC over gigabit compared to my Macbook over wifi. By slow I'm talking about pages loading, they are both the same on speedtest.net.

A little over a year ago when I had DSL everything was faster, especially the internet. Web browsing was dramatically faster even though I only had a 5 Mbit connection.

~Jay

Thanks. That is very good basic trouble shooting advice that I haven't tried yet.

By "other devices all chained together" I mean that each Sonos zone has a built-in 4 port 100Mb switch. In there area where I have 6 of them together I have them daisy chained together. I have been told that hopping form switch to switch, as I'm doing with the Sonos zones, can cause problems.

~Jay

That is correct, however it is recommended that you hard wire a Sonos system whenever possible for the best performance. All of them are attached together via Ethernet.

I don't know about wifi channels, but every wireless device does have good reception.

Thanks, this is all very helpful. I still don't know if I have one mistake, or just a handful of things that are bad. But you guys are really helping me think through the system.

Ethernet is so forgiving in its design that even things like bad cables, and wrong implementations will still work, but be detrimental to performance.

My goal is to make sure all the equipment is working, that everything is wired in an ideal way, and also that the part I know nothing about DHCP, DNS, and a few other acronyms are configured appropriately for my home.

~Jay

That's a fair question.

The exact model I got was much cheaper than that, but the reason I chose it are because it had 10 ports, a built in power supply, and NO fans. I got tired of cheap crap that doesn't quite do the job, and then fails in two years. Even if I did spend $400, it's a tiny percentage of the total investment I have in electronic toys, and a very significant part.

Another goal was to maybe learn a bit about basic, and maybe even intermediate networking. I'm more of a hands on learner rather than a book learner.

My first plan of attack will be to do the basic trouble shooting that was suggested above, then as much as possible only have home runs to eliminate jumps from switch to switch.

I will also have to be very careful to avoid the multi-path situation.

thanks,
~Jay

I'm not an engineer, so please forgive the messy diagram.

I have some old home made CAT5 cable that I plan to replace this week. This diagram is what I'm proposing.

I plan to take it all apart, and then, one by one add devices back as suggested above.

The diagram doesn't show the wireless stuff, iPhone, iPod, Wii, Mac Book, old laptop.

Would you recommend any specific settings on the router or switch to optimize the network? I don't move very many big files, I just want everything to feel fast.

thanks for your help in this!

Thanks MrBobb, I updated the image to reflect the wired connection to the internet which comes through the U-Verse router.

The Sonos uses the Wifi spectrum for its controllers, so it's broadcasting all the time whether or not they are using Wifi to transmit data.

~Jay

Sonos recommends hard wiring everything for the best results. I noticed the missing Sonos 4 after I was done. I need to go home and re-count Maybe I only have 10 zones.

The Sonos wireless is proprietary to ensure control over latency. You wouldn't several linked zones out of sync. When it's hardwired, I think it is using the normal Ethernet. So theoretically, I could at some point add new zone wirelessly and it will just attach to the nearest zone with the best reception. Since I want to ability to stream Apple Lossless and uncompressed wav files, it's much better to have it all wired.

What is a Vlan? The Sonos does need access to the Server to get ripped music, and it also needs access to the computers if I want to use the software controller.

The Cisco switch was only $250, so I don't think it's worth the hassle of selling it.

There is only one device in my wife's office, it's a Mac Mini running Windows 7 as the OS.

As far as multiple hops go, I was making several hops through the Sonos Zone Players because they each have only 4 ports.

According to the drawing above, I will only have 1 additional hop to any device. Before there could have been 2 or even 3.

~Jay