[Krusty]

I feel silly asking this because I've always prided myself on knowing most of the basics regarding simple landline home networks, but there is one question I am totally in the fog about.

Say I have a 100bt router serving dhcp to all downstream clients. Say I also have a 1000bt passive switch that two of the client machines are hooked in to. Will those two machines be able to communicate locally at 1000bt or will the serving router limit them to 100bt ? I'm asking because I really like the idea of the new Airport Base station with its ability to act as a print server and NAS bridge to USB drives but am wondering if I can get around its 100bt landline limitation for just those machines that are hooked up via landline.

Any thoughts on how I could get around the 100bt landline limitation while still having the Airport Base Station be the dhcp server for the whole network?

[ghporter]

The 1000BT switch will allow the 1000BT machines to communicate at their faster rate. It will also allow both to connect with the rest of the network at the speed of the upstream devices. That's what autosense switching is all about. In other words, there is no limitation for you to be concerned with.

[Sherman Homan]

As long as the two gig Macs are going through the gig switch they will work at gig speed. (How many times can you use the word "gig" in a sentence! ) The router merely handed out a DHCP address and that won't have anything to do with how fast the two Macs talk, as long as the traffic doesn't go through the router.

[Krusty]

Thanks guys, somehow I was imagining that the "main" router would have to arbitrate the connection through itself as lower speed. But, sounds like I'm in the clear in that regard with the new Airport.

Gracias,

Krusty