New house networking help

ubern00b

ubern00b

ubern00b

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Joined
25 Nov 2004
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Hi all

I am buying a property that has the master socket in a cupboard under the stairs (FTTC). The property is also networked with 1 ethernet socket per room and also terminating under the stairs. My existing network consists of a Draytek Vigor 130 connected to an Amplifi HD router.

I obviously don't want the Amplifi under the stairs for Wi-Fi signal reasons and I can't replace the system yet (I have another 2 x Amplifi HD routers as mesh nodes) so looking for the simplest way to do what I want which is to have the primary Amplifi HD in the lounge. I may be overthinking things, but this is what I have come up with:

I could purchase 2 managed switches that support VLAN's (looking at TP-Link TL-SG108E). Create 2 VLAN's, 1 = WAN and 2 = LAN. Assign VLAN 1 to port 1 on each switch, assign VLAN 2 to ports 2-7. Port 8 is a trunk. Connect the Vigor to port 1 in the switch under the stairs, connect port 8 to the patch panel that leads to the lounge. In the lounge connect the wall to port 8 on the switch. Connect port 1 on the lounge switch to the WAN port on the Amplifi. Any LAN devices can then use ports 2-7. This should work, right?

OR am I massively over-complicating things. Could I purchase 2 dumb switches, plug everything in and it will also just work because: broadcasting?

Thanks :)
 
Do you have a patch panel? How do the Ethernet sockets terminate? Assuming you have a patch panel, plug the Vigor 130 into the master socket as usual then the output from the Vigor 130 goes into the patch panel that corresponds to your lounge ethernet socket. You then plug the Amplifi into that socket and it’s exactly the same as if you’d plugged it in under the stairs.
 
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I guess I missed off some stuff. Yes it terminates into a patch panel but I want to plug all the other rooms into a switch under the stairs and the other mesh nodes I have, utilise ethernet backhaul on (from whatever room I put them in). So if I do as you say I can't do that. Sorry, should have included that info.
 
You might get away with dumb switches because PPPoE is point-to-point and doesn't really care what else is going on, and your managed switch idea will work fine. Since your internet is limited to FTTC speeds though you could turn the 4 pair gigabit link between your cupboard and the lounge into 2x two pair 100Mbps links, assuming you're happy for whatever kit is in the lounge to 'only' have a 100Mbps link to the rest of your equipment.

Do you not have a phone extension in your lounge next to the normal antenna/satellite/network feeds? You could just extend the FTTC and put the modem in there. If you're worried about losing sync then pop the faceplates off the phone sockets on the way to the lounge and gel crimp the wires together, and leave the socket disconnected.
 
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I am hoping that my area will get FTTP at some point (Openreach map says the area I am moving to is due between 2021-2024!) so would prefer to keep the network Gbit at the least. FTTP is PPPoE too, right?
 
FTTP is whatever the ISP decide they want it to be, Openreach just move tagged layer 2 packets across their network.
 
Caged said:
You might get away with dumb switches because PPPoE is point-to-point and doesn't really care what else is going on, and your managed switch idea will work fine. Since your internet is limited to FTTC speeds though you could turn the 4 pair gigabit link between your cupboard and the lounge into 2x two pair 100Mbps links, assuming you're happy for whatever kit is in the lounge to 'only' have a 100Mbps link to the rest of your equipment.

Do you not have a phone extension in your lounge next to the normal antenna/satellite/network feeds? You could just extend the FTTC and put the modem in there. If you're worried about losing sync then pop the faceplates off the phone sockets on the way to the lounge and gel crimp the wires together, and leave the socket disconnected.
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I’ve just tried it with a dumb switch and it doesn’t work. Vigor 130 into a Mikrotik RB5009 and it was fine direct but it didn’t like going through a switch. As for the VLAN idea yes, it might work but I think I’d be more inclined to put the Alien base unit in the cupboard and run the other units off a switch under the stairs to the patch panel. Yes, you lose the access point on the master unit but that’s cheaply replaced with another slave unit.
 
Hey, thanks for trying it! I guess I'll use one of my routers under the stairs and the other 2 dotted around the house. Probably won't be as bad as I can utilise ethernet backhaul now.

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas.
 
ubern00b said:
Hey, thanks for trying it! I guess I'll use one of my routers under the stairs and the other 2 dotted around the house. Probably won't be as bad as I can utilise ethernet backhaul now.

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas.
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It should work perfectly - they’re access points.
 
WJA96 said:
I’ve just tried it with a dumb switch and it doesn’t work. Vigor 130 into a Mikrotik RB5009 and it was fine direct but it didn’t like going through a switch.
Click to expand...
I read a thread on Reddit that the dumb switch won't work if you have a local DHCP server as that will fight with the ISP DHCP server and will reply first to a request (being local, quicker to respond etc). Made sense to me.

I picked up 2 of the TP-Link switches I was looking at as eBay had a 15% off code and I needed the switches anyway so I'll set them up with my VLAN idea and give it a go. If for no other reason than pure interest hehe.
 
Useful to know as just moved into our new place that has single network points in some rooms.

Annoyingly I then realised that meant the only option I really had for the router was to stick it under the stairs where everything terminates, and the ONT is located.

Was so annoyed I didn’t bother to tell them to run 2 to each room but thinking about that got lost with all the other stuff we had to deal with.

But if we did want to move it out from under the stairs nice to know it can be done using switches and VLANS easily enough.
 
Ev0 said:
But if we did want to move it out from under the stairs nice to know it can be done using switches and VLANS easily enough.
Click to expand...

Or if its just a stand alone wifi router you have and you don't have to worry about mesh nodes as the OP, then you could just get a stand alone access point and put it whereever and then disable wifi on the router.

All my equipment (modem, router, switch, NAS) is in a cabinet in the garage at one end of the bungalow, now as you might expect, wifi signal was rubbish, so I've got a POE powered access point in the loft roughly in the middle of the house
 
Not really the scenario I’ve got but thanks for the help :)

Issue is potentiallly didn’t want the router sat in the under the stairs cupboard, but the places I’d move it to only have the one network point that terminates under the stairs where the ONT is. Which leaves me one port short as I’d need one to connect to the ONT and the other to connect to the internal network.

If I just plugged the router into the port connected to the ONT then I’d have no way of using the other network ports in the house.

But this method of using VLANS would solve that.
 
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Yeah I reported their post I think (or if not I meant to)...

*edit* actually might not have been this one I think but another similar/copy from a few days ago. Guessing this account is a new one from the same person.
 
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