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I have what is possibly a simple question, but I'm trying to get some clarity for my particular setup. Please see attached image.

Basic setup diagram here

The Goal:

To make file transfers from office NAS to a computer in the office as fast a possible

Context

  • My office is a short distance from the house and uses the same internet connection.
  • It's not possible to directly connect the modem in the house to the office.
  • I have a NAS in the office that backsup to another NAS in the house.

Problem:

My understanding is that, if I pull a file from the NAS, even though I'm in the office, all the data has to go via the router. This slows things down.

Questions:

See image for clarity.

  • Can I create a separate network in my office that receives an internet connection from the router in the house? Therefore when I pull a file from the NAS and i'm in the office it will be much faster.

  • Will I still be able to tell my office NAS to backup to the NAS in the house?

  • Do I just plug the internet from the home router into the WAN port of the Office router?
  • Is there anything I should bear in mind?

Many thanks for any clarity/confirmation etc.

S

[ EDIT 1 ]

The connection between the home and the office is not hardwired and has to use a powerline for some of the distance. The diagram is a highly simplified diagram of a much more patched together setup where I can't guarantee a gigabit connection. This is why I'd like to have a local network in the office but have it connected to the house as well.

The NAS drives are Synology DiskStation's DS215j.

I don't mind if the the backup takes a long time to the house that's not a issue as it happens overnight. The goal is to have fast transfer speeds in the office between the NAS and 2 other computers.

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    Don't add another router as that is unnecessary. Ensure that the routwer and the switch have gigabit connectivity, along with the NAS. Ensure that the link between you and the office is a gigabit capable cable - check for all 8 wires going to the rj45 connector. Once you have confirmed that you have these there shouldn't be a problem, assuming your computers have gigabit connectivity Aug 18, 2019 at 13:01
  • what model NAS is it? Aug 18, 2019 at 13:02
  • Routers should not slow down traffic, as they're capable of processing millions of packets a minute, and it's highly unlikely you're saturating your entire connection (unless your running 10/100). Few options, depending on the cause of the slowed traffic: QoS on the router to prioritize traffic to/from both NAS', install FreeNAS on each NAS, providing greater flexibility for your environment with a myriad of different, and generally more efficient, transfer solutions when compared to the OEM NAS OS/Firmware, upgrading to a 10Gbit/s fiber optic router & switch (generally ~$150/per), etc.
    – JW0914
    Aug 18, 2019 at 13:08
  • Thanks for the input. I added some edits to my post.
    – Steviehype
    Aug 18, 2019 at 13:41

2 Answers 2

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Yes, you can surely create another network in your office by connecting the wire from your home router to the WAN port of the Office router.

In the proposed setup,

  • Your home router will never be contacted if you only want to communicate with your office NAS.
  • You can still tell your office NAS to backup to the home NAS.
  • Yes, you simply have to plug the wire from the home router into the office router's WAN port assuming it has WAN enabled and you have DHCP enabled at your home. Otherwise, you can configure a static IP 192.168.1.x for your office router.

However, in this proposed setup, you will lose the ability to individually communicate with devices in your office network because your office router will isolate its internal office network from its external home network.
But you can always forward ports of the required devices from your office network to get selective access to the office network resources in your home network or you can also try setting up a DHCP relay (with the target as home router) in your office router and not use WAN at all.

But, w.r.t. to your current setup, what makes you say that the data that you request from your office NAS is going through the home router? If your home router has an Interface Statistics section, I would recommend resetting the data counters once and then transfer a large file between your office NAS and office PC and check the readings on your home router to find out whether the data actually passed through it or not.
Ideally, your switch should be forwarding it directly to your NAS without reaching out to the home router. (Something more to read here)


Also, from a security point of view, I would like to advise something for your current and proposed setups -

In both the scenarios, you are keeping all the devices in the same network or creating the office network a sub-network inside the home network. In both these cases, you are giving complete access of your home network to the devices in the office network, which is not advisable if you have some other people working in the office whom you don't want to grant access to your home network resources.
If possible, I would suggest creating access restrictions in your home router if it supports that, or simply moving the internet connection to the office and create your home network a sub-network in your office network.
Just a tip, though.

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  • Thanks for your feedback, that's really helpful. Ok, this is where my understanding is limited. So if I have a switch in the office, that will direct the traffic (from the NAS to the computer for example) without going to the router?
    – Steviehype
    Aug 18, 2019 at 13:45
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    Yes, it depends on the type of switch that you are using in your office. But yes, you can surely have a switch which will not send traffic to your home router once it discovers which device is where. Here is another related question I would like you to look at. Aug 18, 2019 at 13:56
  • Ok great, knowing this changes everything! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer, it's helped me a lot.
    – Steviehype
    Aug 18, 2019 at 14:39
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    And basically all sufficiently modern switches are the type of switch that sends traffic directly to connected computers. The odds of having a switch in 2019 that doesn't do that are pretty low.
    – dirkt
    Aug 18, 2019 at 15:49
  • Another network will not help you connect to your NAS any faster. It will just complicate things. Aug 18, 2019 at 18:54
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Your current setup already shows a properly working configuration. It is NOT true that you have to go through your router in the home to access the NAS. Computers in the office will go through the network switch in the office to access the NAS that is in the office.

This is assuming that you are using the IP address of the office NAS (192.168.1.18) to access it in a typical file sharing configuration.

No further change is necessary. The information you were given is inaccurate. Your performance issues are not because of the scenario you describe.

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  • You're right, it was down to cables, a slow switch and old wifi. New switch and cables ordered. Time to be hardwired via gigabit ethernet.
    – Steviehype
    Aug 18, 2019 at 16:30
  • Sounds great! Let us know your results and whether your problem is solved after upgrading the hardware. Aug 18, 2019 at 19:24

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