Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch settings when used with a Nighthawk XR1000 Gaming Router?

[SouthernGypsy]

OK, I hope this is a simple question. For a couple of years now I have had a Nighthawk S8000 gaming switch and only used it with no router, as my ISP provided the routing automatically. I just set static IP addresses on my devices within the 192.168.4.### that my ISP assigned (their modem was 192.168.4.100 and my stuff started at .101 and up from there) and was all happy and the switch worked great, it has 8 ports and I was using all of them and that's all I needed. I set Critical for the Inbound Port, Critcal for my Xbox port, and everything else to High, Medium, or Low depending on their priority.

NOW my ISP has changed, they are no longer doing ther routing and told everyone that if they haven't been using a router they needed to get one. OK, So after loving the Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch, I went for the Nighthawk XR1000v2 Gaming Router. Things have NOT been quite as smooth as the switch, still working out the best setup on the router, but that's a story for the Router forum...

...So for this forum the Question is; Because the XR1000 only has 4 LAN ports (plus the WAN port) that left me still needing a few ports so I am still using the S800 switch for the less critcal devices, but my question is, since the Router now handles priorities and QoS, how should I set the switch?  Just set every port to Critical so the router decides or? or?  Not sure of the other option, guess I could still set things connected to the switch by their own priority but then that seems redundant if the Router is now doing it?  In fact I'm kinda concerned that Both the Router and the Switch trying to do Prioritizing at the same time could actually cause conflicts.

[SouthernGypsy]

I asked this on the forum for the Gaming Switches but never received any responses so maybe that was the wrong location so I'll give it a try here...

For a few years now I've had a Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch and no router. Unless you asked them to put your account into bridge mode (which I didn't) my ISP provided automatic routing and security and all I had to do was just set static IP addresses on my devices within the 192.168.4.### that my ISP assigned (their modem was 192.168.4.100 so my devices started at .101 and increased from there). It worked great, low lag, always open NAT (ISP's system handled that). The Nighthawk S8000 Switch worked great, I was using all 8 ports, set Critical for the Inbound Port and Critcal my Xbox port, and everything else to High, Medium, or Low depending on their priority.

Until couple of weeks ago when my ISP announced a change ~ They are no longer providing routing but rather connecting everyone straight to the backbone of the net, wide open and unrestricted for maximum speed and minimal ping, and told everyone that if they haven't been using a router to handle their IP addresses and security they needed to get one. After such good luck with the Nighthawk S8000 Gaming Switch I opted for their Nighthawk XR1000v2 Gaming Router. Whcih has not been as smooth but I think after a week I'm finally getting it's settings all ironed out.

HOWEVER, Because the XR1000 only has 4 LAN ports that left me still needing a few ports so I'm still using the S8000 switch for some of my devices. But I'm concerned that Both the Router and the Switch trying to do Prioritizing at the same time could actually cause conflicts.

So the question is, since the Router now handles priorities and QoS, how should I setup the switch?

Just set every port to Critical so the router decides or what?  I could still set things connected to the switch by their own priority but then that seems redundant if the Router is now doing that and as I said, I'm concerned that could actually cause a conflict?

[FURRYe38]

Best option would be to make the switch as pass-thru as much as possible, no routing or QoS at all being done on the switch as the XR router would be more capable and designed to do all that and intended for this as it's meant to be a gaming router with gaming features. 

[SouthernGypsy]

Thanks!

That's the lines I was thinking but wanted to get some other opinions. I know the switch was designed to be used behind a router, but they never mention Gaming routers that already have advanced QoS features for gamers in the manual or anywhere online.

The S8000 doesn't have a specific way to disable all QoS, ie. nothing like a specific setting, but the manual does say that if you leave off the extra QoS/Features (VLan, Multicast, Link Aggregation, DOS Prevention, etc.) and set every port to Auto Speed, No Speed Limit, No Flow Control, No Data Limit, and then set every port to "High" Priority that it makes the switch treat every port/connection as equal. So I think that's as close as you can get to disabling all QoS, and I guess that is their version of disabling. Normally you can set each port individually to Critical, High, Medium, or Low for Priority but it said set them all to High (see I would have guessed critical if I had not read the manual in the thought that would just open them all up totally).

I already had everything else disabled so I'll just make sue all the ports are set to High and give that a go.

[FURRYe38]

Ya that should work.