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  1. #1
    Relic Horn
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    General wireless network question

    Say I have a 500mbps capable router/wireless network but my actual internet connection is only like 16 mbps

    say i also want to have like 5 wireless cameras on this network connected to that router and then ran to a switch and then to my filestation

    will all the wireless traffic from the cameras slow down all the connections/internet speed on the network significantly? Do i need to pay attention to how much bandwidth each camera uses and keep the total under the limit for the router? I'm not exactly sure how this works

  2. #2

    Older wireless connections split total capacity among all connected clients. 802.11g, for example, caps at about 51 mbps, and if you have six clients connected they'll each have a theoretical maximum bandwidth available around 8 mbps (in practice, g never hits that level, and real bandwidth would be closer to 1-3 mbps / client, and much less if any clients require 802.11b). Newer ones are more efficient about this: 802.11n and ac requires stations support at least some mu-MIMO, and thus individual clients have less impact on each other than in the worst-case scenario.

    Then you have the actual router and its switch. Each physical port has a certain amount of bandwidth available to it. Usually 1 gigabit, but some very cheap routers still have 100 mbps ethernet and should be shunned. Because this is switched, only the ports in use for a given link will impact each other. Transfering from one hardwired computer to your file server won't slow the connection from another hardwired computer to the internet. It'll also depend somewhat on the wireless cameras and their usage level. Most will only sporadically connect to the internet, and not use much bandwidth when doing so. If they're configured to transmit to the local storage server, they'll have an impact on wireless bandwidth and access to the server, but not on an ethernet connection going to the internet. However, if they're configured to upload data constantly to a file server offsite, that'll impact your 16 mbps internet link.

    ((In theory, the switch's onboard CPU can get overwhelmed by total bandwidth across all connections, but this is pretty much impossible on home devices.))

    tl;dr: unless you're uploading from the cameras to the internet, or trying to game from the file server, you don't need to care.

  3. #3
    Relic Horn
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    The file station can be accessed remotely but I almost never do that, it's only recorded on the hds on the network and backed up on site too
    So I guess I'm mainly wondering what the capacity of the network is for wireless cameras. I have a few cameras wired directly to the PoE switch now. But like you said the cpu on the file station could be overwhelmed too by the surveillance station software I know this isn't a fancy synology model.

    There aren't that many PCs on the network either, I just don't exactly want to run Ethernet cords all over the building to wire these to the switch

  4. #4
    Chram
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    The capacity of your network for additional cameras probably has quite a bit to do with the cameras you're using, the quality of video they produce, the desired frame rate, and the compression they use, as all these different factors will cause more or less bandwidth usage.

    Here is a good article on the subject. I just browsed it briefly but it seems very detailed. It is from 2012 though, I am IP cameras have changed considerably since then, but it should give you an idea of where to start and factors you need to consider in your bandwidth calculations.

    https://ipvm.com/reports/bandwidth-t...llance-systems

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