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Old 28th January 2015
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jggimi jggimi is offline
More noise than signal
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 7,975
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Hello, and welcome!
Quote:
If I connect my PC to one Gigabit port on the switch and my NAS to another Gigabit port on the same switch (in order to transfer large files from the PC to the NAS), does the traffic go through the router....
I'll draw a "picture" -- please correct any mistakes or misunderstandings.
Code:
      [router]
         |
         |
         |
    [switch]
      |   |
      |   |
      |   |
[NAS]-+   +-[PC]
If both the PC and the NAS device are on the same Ethernet segment (also called a broadcast domain), and also on the same IP subnet, traffic will go directly between the two devices, connected through the switch, and the router will not be involved in PC <-> NAS communication.

(It is possible to configure the devices on separate IP subnets, or with a managed switch on separate VLANs. Then, the traffic must be routed. You would have had a specific operational need to do this, and the knowledge you were doing it.)

Last edited by jggimi; 28th January 2015 at 06:03 PM. Reason: clarity
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