Question About wired Network

[gbryant]

My home is wired Cat5e... I use Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro. Only wireless use is iPad, iPhone.

 

The disclaimer... I am not a networking professional... But, I can install.. I know just enough to 'be dangerous' 😉

 

The question... If I use a small switch at my music server computer location... such as a USW-Flex-Mini... run from it directly to my Music server (modded Mac mini) and a run directly to my network player ( PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC)... and a run back to the Dream Machine to connect back to the network, does the traffic from the Mac to the player route direct or through the Dream machine?

[gbryant]

Maybe the better question is... Does anyone isolate their Audio Network ?

 

[cjf]

On 3/4/2022 at 8:06 AM, gbryant said:

The question... If I use a small switch at my music server computer location... such as a USW-Flex-Mini... run from it directly to my Music server (modded Mac mini) and a run directly to my network player ( PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC)... and a run back to the Dream Machine to connect back to the network, does the traffic from the Mac to the player route direct or through the Dream machine?

The traffic between the Mac Mini and the PS Audio should not need to route back thru the Dream Machine. The switch should handle the task on its own without needing to use the Uplink back to the Dream Machine.

 

This assumes both devices are part of the same IP Range/Subnet of course. This also assumes your Mac Mini has everything required "Locally" for the PS Audio to playback the music stream (ie..locally stored music files and playback software). You could also have a NAS in this configuration as long as it is also on the same IP Range/Subnet and plugged into the same switch; in case their is future interest in such a layout.

[davide256]

42 minutes ago, cjf said:

The traffic between the Mac Mini and the PS Audio should not need to route back thru the Dream Machine. The switch should handle the task on its own without needing to use the Uplink back to the Dream Machine.

 

This assumes both devices are part of the same IP Range/Subnet of course. This also assumes your Mac Mini has everything required "Locally" for the PS Audio to playback the music stream (ie..locally stored music files and playback software). You could also have a NAS in this configuration as long as it is also on the same IP Range/Subnet and plugged into the same switch; in case their is future interest in such a layout.

Its actually simpler than that. If devices are on the same switch they know the MAC address associated with the IP address, traffic is switched between ports

[cjf]

On 3/5/2022 at 7:28 PM, davide256 said:

Its actually simpler than that. If devices are on the same switch they know the MAC address associated with the IP address, traffic is switched between ports

True, as long as they are on the same Subnet/IP Range. Otherwise they need to be routed. In this case, back to the Dream machine which it sounded like the OP was trying to avoid.