[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: 2.5 G LAN - is my thinking correct?

Hello,

Simple question to start, I am a bit out of my depth with the detail of some articles.

Goal: Setup 2.5 G LAN.
Present HW: GT-AX 6000 (on super sale). Good quality 5e LAN cables in the walls, distances <30 feet, some <5 feet. I acknowledge cables may limit success/speeds.

If I understand correctly, I would need a 2.5G switch, and USB 2.5G LAN adapter x2.

GT-AX6000's 2.5 G port ---LAN--- 2.5 G switch ---LAN--- other machines, specifically desktop and NAS.

If this is a correct understanding, I will proceed to comb through these forms for recommendations and proceed.

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
blacktop_ said:
Hello,

Simple question to start, I am a bit out of my depth with the detail of some articles.

Goal: Setup 2.5 G LAN.
Present HW: GT-AX 6000 (on super sale). Good quality 5e LAN cables in the walls, distances <30 feet, some <5 feet. I acknowledge cables may limit success/speeds.

If I understand correctly, I would need a 2.5G switch, and USB 2.5G LAN adapter x2.

GT-AX6000's 2.5 G port ---LAN--- 2.5 G switch ---LAN--- other machines, specifically desktop and NAS.

If this is a correct understanding, I will proceed to comb through these forms for recommendations and proceed.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Your AX600 has dual 2.5 GB ports. Connect one to the WAN and the other to the 2.5 GB switch, unmanaged switch recommended. You may be OK with the CAT 5e for short distances. It is rated for 1 GB @ 100 meters.

Take a break, though, and ask yourself if you really will gain anything with the 2.5 GB upgrade. It may not be worth the cost especially if it does not work. The AX6000 is still a good investment.

I'm waiting since my NAS can't write that fast. And since I replaced it only a few years ago, I'm in no rush to go out and buy another one with drives that can write that fast. The other thing is that my current router can't packet filter at those rates, not that I can get an ISP to sign me up for those speeds. And I don't have any content that I can pull back that fast. I stream 4K to my TVs, but that's only 25-30Mbps each. My PS5 is only capable of WIFI 6, but since I don't have an AP in the same room, I can only get 2/3rds of what WIFI 6 is capable of. But again, I don't have an ISP that's that fast.

What are you sending and receiving at those speeds internally?

I think, the future is cheap 2x2 APs spread throughout the home wired as the faster WIFI standards only benefit when you get really good SNR. And from what I'm seeing, that's no more than a room away from the AP before my SNR drops below 30.

bbunge said:
Your AX600 has dual 2.5 GB ports. Connect one to the WAN and the other to the 2.5 GB switch, unmanaged switch recommended. You may be OK with the CAT 5e for short distances. It is rated for 1 GB @ 100 meters.

Take a break, though, and ask yourself if you really will gain anything with the 2.5 GB upgrade. It may not be worth the cost especially if it does not work. The AX6000 is still a good investment.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply, both with the technical side and the voice of reason. Sometimes can it be done is the motivator rather than should it be done.

I believe my NAS can put out enough data to make the upgrade reasonable.

I will cost it out from parts reccomended here and see if the cost is reasonable.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: What are the different levels of PoE power supported by PoE switches?

Hi guys, I'd like to ask what are the different levels of PoE power supported by PoE switches?

[Assistant]
Power over Ethernet - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org

Tech Junky said:
Power over Ethernet - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
thx for the information!


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: 10Gb network card

Good day

I’m looking at 10Gb network cards. They are all about same price $130 Cad. I’m guessing they are all the same Marvel Aquantina chips??
Got Asus and tplink and trendnet. All have 1 yr warranty. Just wondering if it matters which one? Not sure how good they handle warranty or customer service?

[Assistant]
TP-LINK TX401.
Warranty: 2 years.
Customer Service: Don't expect any good customer service from Asus and tplink. They are horrible.
Do you use it?: Yes. Thiggins is using it too.
Why TX401?
You can upgrade it with Marvel's official firmware and driver without any issue. Other vendor's cards may have a problem with Marvel's official firmware and driver, especially ASUS. I had ASUS's card.
Amazon $99.99.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D71PVXG/?tag=snbforums-20

Wow thanks for the heads up. Much appreciated!

In Canada, but thanks for the reminder to tag snb also though.

Interesting
10 Gigabit PCIe Network Adapter – 10G PCIe Card | TRENDnet - TRENDnet TEG-10GECTX
www.trendnet.com

3 yr warranty

anotherengineer said:
Wow thanks for the heads up. Much appreciated!

In Canada, but thanks for the reminder to tag snb also though.

Interesting
10 Gigabit PCIe Network Adapter – 10G PCIe Card | TRENDnet - TRENDnet TEG-10GECTX

3 yr warranty
Click to expand...
I think TX401 is better for you.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08D71PVXG/?tag=smallncom-20
You know how PCIe slots work right? It depends on your motherboard.
This card is PCIe 3.0 x4. It works with X16 slot too, but 1st X16 slot will work as X8(no problem) or X4(problem). So check your motherboard first. You can use this card if your motherboard has PCIe x1(opened only, normal x1 slot is not opened), but it only works up to 2.5gb.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Gs305

Does anyone have experience with the gs305 switch connected to the gt ax6000 router? Works well for extensive ports?

[Assistant]
ronorbar said:
Does anyone have experience with the gs305 switch connected to the gt ax6000 router? Works well for extensive ports?
It works good. But TP-Link SG105 or SG108 is better. GS305 is just a cost reduction cheap switch.

follower said:
It works good. But TP-Link SG105 or SG108 is better. GS305 is just a cost reduction cheap switch.
What is recommended from Netgear's unmanaged series?

I'm running 2 GS108 and 1 GS516v2 switches for years with no issues at all. They've seen multiple router changes and never gave any problems. The GS105 is the 5-ports version of the 8-ports SOHO-oriented switch (GS108). Most unmanaged switches are almost the same inside, so you can do little wrong regardless of brand.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Does the Linksys SRW2024 still have legs?

I picked one up at a yard sale a while back and it's been sitting on a shelf. Thought perhaps I should dust it off and see what it can do in my house. Currently I just have a bunch of 8-port gigabit unmanaged switches where I need them but it would be nice to centralize with this + patch panel. Is there anything "too outdated" about it or should it function just fine? Thought I'd ask before potentially wasting time on it.
I did just pick up a 2.5G adaptor for my primary unraid server, so that will obviously have to go direct to my router (AX86U). I'm guessing you can only set up one link aggregation (say ports 1&2?) which would go to this switch. Is it possible to set up a 2nd link aggregation, (ports 3 & 4) to say, a second server?

[Assistant]
it's pretty old - it went end of life/end of support back in 2011...

sfx2000 said:
it's pretty old - it went end of life/end of support back in 2011...
Sure, but with the exception of the server upgrade I'm about to do, my house is still 1 gigabit so if it can serve that function... it seems to support link aggregation. I get that there's no support but IF it works like it's supposed to... I don't see the downside? I thought about security but it's behind my router so I'd like to think that's less of a concern. Just not sure if there's anything else I'm not thinking about.

Any other things to consider other than no more support? Just take the "if it works, it works" approach?

I guess the reality is, the 8-port unmanaged switches I've been using are likely older than it.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Speed Bottleneck on Aimesh

I currently run an ASUS Aimesh LAN using RT-AX88U (main) with two nodes ZenWiFi and one RT-AX1800S. Backhaul is ethernet. The 1800S is remote connected by UeeVii wireless bridge CPE-820. ISP speed is >1 GbE, modem is 1 GbE and all nodes connect at 1 GbE except the bridge which connects at 100 Mbps. The bridge is 1 GbE port selected (has both 100 and 1 G). All cabling is Cat 6 except for bridge which is Cat 7. I understand that the NICs set the speed so older ones only go to 100 Mbps but the bridge is 1 Gbps. Where is the "bottleneck" causing the bridge to connect only at 100 Mbps while all over nodes connect at 1 Gbps? Would like to recover some of the 450 Mbps from ISP on the 1800S (P2P bridge connection). Any suggestions? Can find an option to force a particular port on the main router to force 1 Gbps instead of fall back to older 100 Mbps.

Oh, I have five ethernt LAN connections on the 88U, three at 1 Gbps, one at 100 Mbps (older device, Zigbee hub) and the CPE bridge at 100 Mbps.

[Assistant]
The Lorax said:
I currently run an ASUS Aimesh LAN using RT-AX88U (main) with two nodes ZenWiFi and one RT-AX1800S. Backhaul is ethernet. The 1800S is remote connected by UeeVii wireless bridge CPE-820. ISP speed is >1 GbE, modem is 1 GbE and all nodes connect at 1 GbE except the bridge which connects at 100 Mbps. The bridge is 1 GbE port selected (has both 100 and 1 G). All cabling is Cat 6 except for bridge which is Cat 7. I understand that the NICs set the speed so older ones only go to 100 Mbps but the bridge is 1 Gbps. Where is the "bottleneck" causing the bridge to connect only at 100 Mbps while all over nodes connect at 1 Gbps? Would like to recover some of the 450 Mbps from ISP on the 1800S (P2P bridge connection). Any suggestions? Can find an option to force a particular port on the main router to force 1 Gbps instead of fall back to older 100 Mbps.

Oh, I have five ethernt LAN connections on the 88U, three at 1 Gbps, one at 100 Mbps (older device, Zigbee hub) and the CPE bridge at 100 Mbps.
Click to expand...
I noticed that the CPE-820 is PoE capable. If you are powering either device with PoE is there a chance that the PoE switch or power adapter is only a 100MB device? I looked for a manual on the CPE-820 but could not find one quickly.

Indeed. I'm way ahead of you. Since UeeVii always shows the setup topology with LAN connected to bridge rather than data over the POE connection, I assumed they supplied 100 Mbps injectors. So I looked it up and they claim the injectors are 1 GbE with fall back if using the 100 Mbps port. Unfortunately, I can't confirm because all the POE speed detectors cost $1300 or more. Any other suggestion?

I would try powering the device without the POE injector and see if it will connect at gigabit. If so, you found the culprit--the injector. Otherwise, it could be a very rare incompatibility that I've seen just a handful of times in many decades. The way to test for this is to get a small gigabit unmanaged switch and put it in between the asus and the ueevii and if it connects at full gigabit, it's that rare incompatiblity. If it does not connect at gigabit, it's a 100Mb port on there no matter what they're saying or a bad/marginal cable.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Home Net Typology & Patch panel(s) - Which cables SHOULD route to the patch panel?

When I built my home, the home network was an afterthought (e.g. I had bigger fish to fry, as the homeowner/GC of a troubled build). The day before drywall installation, I grabbed a laborer, spotted locations for the cable system entry, home network cabinet, entertainment sub-center, TV center, 7.1 ceiling speaker system, and appropriate drops to each bedroom, installed the enclosures, and ran conduit within half a day. I've used wireless since move-in about six years ago, uncertain whether I'd ever bother with pulling wire, since the quality of wireless technology has improved. Well, continuing issues with wireless lag has built to the point, where I'm biting the bullet, and pulling wire.

Which leads me to the question(s) I have.

1) I have assumed that there was some level of signal loss in connecting a router (8 ports) to a powered switch (8 ports). Is that, in fact, the case? In other words, I have my router installed inside the pantry, on a dedicated wire shelf near the ceiling. An RG6 cable feeds from the network wall enclosure up to the rack, which includes both cable modem and router, and CAT6 wires feed back from the router to the network wall enclosure. The router has 8 ports. How much signal (i.e. bandwidth) do I actually lose sending one CAT6 cable back, and hooking it to a 8 or 16 port switch inside the enclosure, for further distribution, versus, running eight CAT6 cables, installing into a patch panel, and using jumper cables to connect them to other, outbound ports in the patch panel?

2) In establishing patch panels in the network center enclosure (downstairs pantry wall), and upstairs sub-center (closet wall), I can terminate the CAT6 feeds from patch panel to patch panel, and then routing .CAT6 out to the user-drops, i.e. bedroom TV centers, main room TV centers, network CAT6/RJ45 wall drop, etc.). Or, I could route ALL CAT6 cables coming into the upstairs, closet sub-center, i.e. those from the drop points, and those from the pantry network center, and use jumpers to cross connect them. Is there a "proper" typology for routing network cabling via patch panels, inside network enclosures, i.e. which cables are terminated in a patch panel, versus which cables connect TO a patch panel via RJ45 connector, e.g. distribution vs. supply? My description is confusing, but basically, with every CAT6 cable entering a the pantry network enclosure, I have a choice of attaching a RJ45 connector, and plugging it into a patch panel, or terminating it INTO a patch panel, connecting it to a device, or providing service, via cross-connected, patch panel jumper cables.

3) FYI, I'm running a limited amount of actual live CAT6 network service cables, perhaps only 8 CAT6 cable, live connections throughout the house connected to the router, with the rest being unterminated "spares". However, I do intend to terminate all cables from network center (pantry) to sub-center (upstairs closet), as future end user/devices for each spare cable will be able to easily connect between network enclosures via RJ45 to existing patch panels. For example, for each bedroom TV center drop, I originally planned on providing 1 RJ45 internet cable/plug, 1 RG6 COAX plug, 1 HDMI plug, and one unterminated "spare" CAT6 wire for future use (new technology, maybe a USB, a bluetooth device, etc.). After researching current HDMI over CAT6 extender technology (which is how I wired HDMI to TV centers in my previous home), I realized that it's changed. The available connectors were previously powered and required two CAT5/6 cables at either end, but now unpowered connectors are available requiring a single CAT6 (i.e. albeit for shorter runs, fine for this installation). Since we do not intend to install TV's into the bedroom in the near term, and in view of changing technology, I've decided to skip the HDMI connectors for the present, and just include 1 RG6/COAX plug, 1 live CAT6/RJ45 network plug, and two spare, unterminated CAT6 cables to each bedroom drop. I'll have other "spare" cables pulled throughout the house, for future expansion. (Of course, someone can come along in the future and repurpose the conduits for other technology, but from what I've seen over the years, CAT5/6 cables are relatively standard, can support a host of purposes, and with spares in the tubes, will eliminate pulling wire for many future upgrades or additions.)

Thanks for wading through these verbose issue descriptions, and your help!

[Assistant]
Honestly, i have read your post now 3 times and i am still unsure what you are looking for.

Firstly, in order to have any loss of significance, your UTP cables need to be way longer than i would assume they would be in a regular home environment. Secondly, wifi can never replace a wired connection and in places where you would need a stable reliable connection such as TV for streaming services or a NAS or a wifi access point, i would always foresee an RJ45 wallsocket.

Last but not least, the desired topology to me, at least for home networking, router->switch->RJ45 wall sockets -> any wired devices (TV, STB's, NAS, Wifi access points).

My topology looks like below. Every full line is hardwired, all directly from my main switch. Where i needed more hardwired connections, i added an additional small switch. Does this make sense?

swb9999 said:
When I built my home, the home network was an afterthought (e.g. I had bigger fish to fry, as the homeowner/GC of a troubled build). The day before drywall installation, I grabbed a laborer, spotted locations for the cable system entry, home network cabinet, entertainment sub-center, TV center, 7.1 ceiling speaker system, and appropriate drops to each bedroom, installed the enclosures, and ran conduit within half a day. I've used wireless since move-in about six years ago, uncertain whether I'd ever bother with pulling wire, since the quality of wireless technology has improved. Well, continuing issues with wireless lag has built to the point, where I'm biting the bullet, and pulling wire.

Which leads me to the question(s) I have.

1) In other words, I have my router installed inside the pantry, on a dedicated wire shelf near the ceiling. An RG6 cable feeds from the network wall enclosure up to the rack, which includes both cable modem and router, and CAT6 wires feed back from the router to the network wall enclosure. The router has 8 ports. How much signal (i.e. bandwidth) do I actually lose sending one CAT6 cable back, and hooking it to a 8 or 16 port switch inside the enclosure, for further distribution, versus, running eight CAT6 cables, installing into a patch panel, and using jumper cables to connect them to other, outbound ports in the patch panel?
Click to expand...

negligible unless you have poorly done terminations or abused the cables during pulling.
swb9999 said:
2) In establishing patch panels in the network center enclosure (downstairs pantry wall), and upstairs sub-center (closet wall), I can terminate the CAT6 feeds from patch panel to patch panel, and then routing .CAT6 out to the user-drops, i.e. bedroom TV centers, main room TV centers, network CAT6/RJ45 wall drop, etc.). Or, I could route ALL CAT6 cables coming into the upstairs, closet sub-center, i.e. those from the drop points, and those from the pantry network center, and use jumpers to cross connect them. Is there a "proper" typology for routing network cabling via patch panels, inside network enclosures, i.e. which cables are terminated in a patch panel, versus which cables connect TO a patch panel via RJ45 connector, e.g. distribution vs. supply? My description is confusing, but basically, with every CAT6 cable entering a the pantry network enclosure, I have a choice of attaching a RJ45 connector, and plugging it into a patch panel, or terminating it INTO a patch panel, connecting it to a device, or providing service, via cross-connected, patch panel jumper cables.
Click to expand...

if the rack or the patch panel will never move, terminating works. if you think you may have to reposition or move connections around, use the connector. Either works, properly done.

swb9999 said:
3) FYI, I'm running a limited amount of actual live CAT6 network service cables, perhaps only 8 CAT6 cable, live connections throughout the house connected to the router, with the rest being unterminated "spares". However, I do intend to terminate all cables from network center (pantry) to sub-center (upstairs closet), as future end user/devices for each spare cable will be able to easily connect between network enclosures via RJ45 to existing patch panels. For example, for each bedroom TV center drop, I originally planned on providing 1 RJ45 internet cable/plug, 1 RG6 COAX plug, 1 HDMI plug, and one unterminated "spare" CAT6 wire for future use (new technology, maybe a USB, a bluetooth device, etc.). After researching current HDMI over CAT6 extender technology (which is how I wired HDMI to TV centers in my previous home), I realized that it's changed. The available connectors were previously powered and required two CAT5/6 cables at either end, but now unpowered connectors are available requiring a single CAT6 (i.e. albeit for shorter runs, fine for this installation). Since we do not intend to install TV's into the bedroom in the near term, and in view of changing technology, I've decided to skip the HDMI connectors for the present, and just include 1 RG6/COAX plug, 1 live CAT6/RJ45 network plug, and two spare, unterminated CAT6 cables to each bedroom drop. I'll have other "spare" cables pulled throughout the house, for future expansion. (Of course, someone can come along in the future and repurpose the conduits for other technology, but from what I've seen over the years, CAT5/6 cables are relatively standard, can support a host of purposes, and with spares in the tubes, will eliminate pulling wire for many future upgrades or additions.)
Click to expand...

what diameter conduit did you run for the 4 cable pull ?
i hope they did a good job removing burrs if this is metal conduit.
Did you use pulling boxes for the turns or long radius ells ?
How many ells per run ?
You may need plenty of non-conductive elephant snot to lubricate the pull
swb9999 said:
Thanks for wading through these verbose issue descriptions, and your help!

1. As previously posted--none if everything is done right. And pretty much none even if it's done only halfway right.

2. Usually you patch panel both sides since those cables are typically rigid and not meant to move (solid core wire). Then you use patch cables to patch whatever and however you want. You can put ends on a run, but I have seen them break over time and then you have to reterminate after wasting a tremendous amount of time diagnosing to find what most likely will be an intermittent issue. Just patch panel it all and be done with it.

3. We ran many spare ethernet runs to each room at our parents home, and we termianted all of them. This was back in 1995. Over the years, the greatest use has been when you need more than one ethernet port because you have more than one wired device in a room--really great to be able to just plug into a second port (or third or fourth) without having to worry about putting yet another 5-port switch in some room (which adds to network complexity).

Some very good points about pulling the wire too as in our experience less than 1/2 of conduits were actually usable unless they were 2"+. The 1" ones were simply too tight to ever be of use except for the thinnest of wires and only after something else was jammed through. The good thing is that in even the worse case, you have a path from boxes to your demarc so if you need to fish through and wire without the conduit, you probably can somehow.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: 2 users editing on a 10GbE NAS

Hi,

I want to build a home network for two users to edit up to 8K 30fps H256 footage simultaneously.
Would connecting the Qnap TS-h973AX NAS using the 10G port, plus another connection with the Qnap 5G to USB adapter to a 10G switch yield any bandwidth increase when both editors are working at the same time?

[Assistant]
not really. I don't think the ubw flex xg supports lacp.

if you really want 2 x 10G, then you need to get a NAS with native 2 x 10G + a managed 10G switch that supports lacp.

frequenzy said:
not really. I don't think the ubw flex xg supports lacp.

if you really want 2 x 10G, then you need to get a NAS with native 2 x 10G + a managed 10G switch that supports lacp.
I see, thanks for the answer. With this current NAS (since we already have it and the Qnap 10G adapter), would adding a 10G switch give any benefits other than not having to connect to the internet separately?

Adding another 10GbE switch will give negligible benefits for the two users.

Adding another NAS/DAS will make the biggest performance benefit (with one user on one NAS and the other user on the second NAS).


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: new house, network planning and shopping list.

hi there, long time lurker, finally managed to make an account.

i have bought a house in italy, 2,5 stories, 250mq, stone and concrete walls.

during the renovation i placed cat6 in every room, and everycable reach an appropriate storage area where there will be the network equipement.

my internet will be low grade (the joys of living in the countryside) 10mb adsl, unless i decide to go starlink, but it is expensive.

i am a thinkerer, mechanical engineer, reasonably competent in computer stuff. not an it professional thou.

i will have in the future some cameras, that i think will talk to my synology nas or something similar. so i was thinking of having a poe switch to power them.

due to the house construction i will need more than 1 access point, and i will like to have the seamless transiction between them. I'm not sure this is the mesh technology that is widely spoken those days or something differnet, due to the eth backbone.

i'd like to have a guest wifi, separated form the rest of the net.

i'd like to have the iot stuff (not much, but some) separate from the normal network. and maybe the cameras as well? but then will they be able to talk to the nas?

some years ago ubiquity was all the rage for this type of ap, but maybe there is something better now? i ahve seen the AP 6 lite at a reasonable price, but i'm not sure if i need a controller, or a cloud something (not a big fan of those thing). maybe a netgear orbi kit? Cisco WAP581 AP?

switch: does it makes sense my desire to split the network like this? will i need a superexpensive cisco o juniper? maybe a cheap tplink can do the trick? i'm a bit at loss at what to get here. maybe i'm overcomplicating...

i wont' mind having a pfsense/pihole setup someday to cut on advertising. maybe the pfsense box can do the vlan?

sorry for the ramble, it is just that going from a single isp modemrouter to all of this gets a bit overwelming. I have read the topics of jasonreg and trpltongue about home revamp and they have way more clear ideas than me. due to the low isp bootlenek i feel stability and futurproofing is the way to go, more than performaces.

what are your thoughts? any help and pointer will be much appreciated.

[Assistant]
bobo990 said:
due to the house construction i will need more than 1 access point, and i will like to have the seamless transiction between them. I'm not sure this is the mesh technology that is widely spoken those days or something differnet, due to the eth backbone.
"Seamless transition" between APs is what consumer Wi-Fi gear makers want you to believe comes with a mesh Wi-Fi system. But reality is usually different. Clients determine when and to where they roam. If the clients and the system APs support 802.11k and v, the AP's can suggest the best BSS (AP radio) to move to. But, in the end, the client decides.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to tell whether devices or router/APs support 11k and v. And even when the spec sheet says they are supported, there are many sub-categories in each spec and you'll never get that information out of a manufacturer.

AP placement and signal overlap also are important, but few mesh Wi-Fi systems provide good guidance on node placement.

In your situation, with multiple floors and stone/concrete construction, at least your devices will roam, mainly because they won't be able to see the AP on the other floors. But "seamless"? Doubtful.

The main advantage a mesh Wi-Fi system that connects the nodes via Ethernet is a single management interface. But it's usually dumbed down and may only have an app to manage it.

I'm sure you'll hear from the usual SNBForum suspects that tell you to build a system using ASUS AiMesh using multiple RT-AX86U's. It's a pricey way to go, but you will be able to twiddle every knob you want.

Since you have Ethernet drops in every room, I suggest you build your system with low-cost 2x2 APs, @Trip seems to like TP-Link Omada. Here's a post you may find helpful.
Seeking advice for network overhaul (more info in post)
I am new to the forum and have limited experience with networking. I have gigabit speeds from Verizon FiOS. I currently use their router and am in need of serious improvement. I need to build a network. We have many devices on our network with various uses, including home offices, watching...
www.snbforums.com

thiggins said:
Since you have Ethernet drops in every room, I suggest you build your system with low-cost 2x2 APs

Indeed. One per room, if wall penetration is really bad, on low power.

Omada AC1200 Wireless MU-MIMO Gigabit Wall Plate Access Point
Omada AC1200 Wireless Gigabit Wall-Plate Access Point EAP235-Wall provides dual-band Wi-Fi of up to 1200 Mbps, also 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports for bridging (1× uplink + 1× downlink), with one downlink port supporting PoE pass-through to provide power for wired device. Ideal for the use in hotel...
www.tp-link.com

I would use Cisco small business wireless APs. They update their firmware regularly, TP-Link not so much from my 1 experience with TP-Link.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: GS30XEPP Support WPA2 Fast Roaming?

I talked to biz techie and he said to enable fast roaming with WPA2 saying the GS30xEPP supports WPA2 Fast Roaming. I could not find this feature in the user guide. Can anyone confirm this is a hidden feature?

[Assistant]
As far as I can see the GS305EPP and GS308EPP are switches and therefore have nothing to do with WiFi fast roaming (802.11r).

The WAX214 model if uses only WPA2 then lets the user enable Fast Roaming. Maybe it has its own proprietary roaming in those switches.

My Netgear switches do not roam anywhere. Roamed once in the server racks and still there.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: This USB Ethernet Adapter is dead.

It worked only for 2 years. It was connected to Nintendo Switch. It is dead now.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MK6DJ6M/?tag=snbforums-20

[Assistant]
Sorry to hear about your loss.

For the price, it seems like you got your money's worth out of it though.

L&LD said:
Sorry to hear about your loss.

For the price, it seems like you got your money's worth out of it though.
Yes it's dirty cheap. But a funny thing is Plugable one is still working good with another Nintendo Switch for 5 years.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AQM8586/?tag=snbforums-20

I never liked dirty cheap! Like gambling with my money and my time. Roll the dice and take your chances at that end of the spectrum.

And I'm sure someone out there has the reverse story about the Plugable, too!


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Recommendation on 10Gbe switch

Hello,

I currently have a home network that's managed by 2 Asus AX86U routers in mesh on Merlin firmware.
My home has CAT6 cabling, and the 2 routers are hardwired via their 2.5Gbe port.
I am planning to get a 10Gbe switch so that I can have a quick internal network (file transfer between my hardwired computers and my NAS that currently has a 2.5Gbe port but will be soon upgraded to 10Gbe).
Do you have any recommendations on a 10Gbe switch? I'm leaning towards unmanaged but can be convinced to get a managed switch
Once I get the switch, how should I connect it?
Directly to a 1Gbe port on the Asus
Directly to the 2.5Gbe port on the Asus and switch the mesh hardwiring to a 1Gbe port
Directly to the 2.5Gbe port on the Asus and connect the second mesh Asus AX86U to the switch?

Thanks in advance,

Andrew

[Assistant]
10GE switches typically do 1/10GE not 2.5 or 5GE. If you want to max out the speed internally you'll want to find a switch that has a 2.5 or 5GE port on it for 2.2/2.3.

How many ports you need factors into this as well. If you're just running them to a NAS or PC as a NAS you can just add some dual 10GE NICs for less than a switch in most cases.

5-port - $299 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09CYNHL4S/?tag=snbforums-20
8-port 2.5GE - $160 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XWKF55C/?tag=snbforums-20
8-port $240 - SFP @ $30-$50/port - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0973T7BGL/?tag=snbforums-20
8-port - $370 / POE all ports 2.5 / 10GE - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M1JMJS7/?tag=snbforums-20
10-port 2.5x8 / 10x2 (SFP) - $400 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079Z2SHCX/?tag=snbforums-20

It all depends on how you have things setup and the objective for speed. The basic devices don't really need more than 1GE ports if they're even wired as they don't need more than 100mbps typically to stream media and such. The benefit comes to the high data devices PC / Laptop / etc.

Another thing that might be useful is a USB 5GE adapter on the Asus to boost throughput on each of them for $70/ea you can get -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08977K9D2/?tag=snbforums-20

Those will give you a backbone connection between the routers at 5GE relatively cheap compared to buying new devices that hit 5/10GE.

Thank you so much @Tech Junky . The only thing I don't understand is how to connect the 5GE USB adapter to the router. Will it reach 5GB speeds through its USB?
Either way, here is a diagram of my wired network. Please keep in mind that the ISP's router/modem is not broadcasting Wi-Fi, my AX86U are in mesh, and I have not displayed all the Wi-Fi devices that are connected to the network, but there are a quite a few.

Well, I see 3 device that could benefit from upgrading to 10GE - PC / Laptop / NAS.

Since the modem / hub has a 10GE port as well this is where things get tricky / potentially expensive,

I would push to move the routing / DHCP to the hub with a SFF PC as a router with a dual port 10GE NIC - $450 all in w/ Linux running the network for the best performance. I run this setup after being disappointed by off the shelf options and inflated costs for gear that go beyond 1GE speeds. I run a quad port 5GE NIC since my disks cap out currently at 400MB/s+. I rolled a bunch of functions into a single box to consolidate things and increase the performance. Of course only wired devices get that kind of speed but, over WIFI I still can get 1.5gbps using a WIFI 6 AP + AX411 NIC in the laptop. Since TB NIC's at 10GE are ~$300 I went with the Sabrent I mentioned above for the 5GE at 1/5 of the cost.

I would take the SFF PC and connect one port to the hub and the other to the proposed switch. This gives you a max of 10GE through the WAN/LAN. Then the other issue would be the switch and/or if you wanted to upgrade the speed of the NAS or roll it into the SFF PC with a case upgrade that can house the drives. Rolling the drives into the PC would eliminate the need for the 3rd port at 10GE and would mean only needing to add a 2nd 10GE NIC for $200. This brings things to ~$650.

Well slightly more for a case upgrade for the drives unless it's only a 2-bay NAS you're currently running in which case a SFF PC option might exist with 2-bays inside it. I run 5 drives in a Raid 10 setup - 4 required with 1 hot spare in the array.

FD Node 304 - 6 drives - https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/node/node-304/black/

I used the Node 804 for a prior build and it had 8 drive slots in the hangers plus room to mount some more in alternate spaces. The 304 would be perfect for a router / NAS setup w/ 2 slots in the back for the 2 x NIC's to provide that 10GE speed you're aiming for. Looks like they're going for $100 which is fairly cheap Then you just sell the NAS enclosure to make up the difference of the case price and NIC's to a degree.

The other option would be upgrading the NIC in the NAS. Some offer the ability while others have it mounted to the board itself.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: SF250, SG250, SF350, SG350/350X/350XG, SF550X, SG550X/ 550XG, SX350X, SX550X Series Switches up to Software Version 2.5.9.15

Seems there is a new firmware for Cisco Small Business Switches to 2.5.9.15. With EOL last Oct and End of Software Maint 30 Oct 2022, I am glad they continue to support the switches. Wonder if the RV34X Routers will get one more push?

Software Download - Cisco Systems

[Assistant]
jasonreg said:
Seems there is a new firmware for Cisco Small Business Switches to 2.5.9.15. With EOL last Oct and End of Software Maint 30 Oct 2022, I am glad they continue to support the switches. Wonder if the RV34X Routers will get one more push?

Software Download - Cisco Systems
I don't think so. They just want money. EOL is too short.

Cisco is the best at support. They fix a lot more things than consumer gear manufactures do. If something gets flagged, then they fix it. Consumer gear manufactures only fix really important things. If it gets tagged and they don't think is that important, then they don't bother to fix it. They want to sell more hardware.

I was impressed that they did indeed follow through with another firmware load for the RV34X series routers as well. Though it was released after the end of support date I suspect this was just timing and that the plan was to release alongside the switch firmware load as one last push.

Either way, great support to the end. Still hoping (perhaps foolishly) that a replacement will appear in the coming months.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Recommended Ethernet Cable Brands

Noob question...

I noticed there are a lot of posts about what Ethernet cables not to buy, e.g., any so called Cat 7 or Cat 8 cable, but I have not seen any posts which recommend specific Cat 5e cables. Perhaps I've missed them, however I searched this forum for the word 'recommended' and found one thread applicable for the UK.

What cables do people recommend?

[Assistant]
Monoprice is a great place for patch cables.

HDMI Cable, Home Theater Accessories, HDMI Products, Cables, Adapters, Video/Audio Switch, Networking, USB, Firewire, Printer Toner, and more! - Monoprice.com
Monoprice, Inc. (DBA. MonoPrice.com) specializes in the wholesale distribution of world class cable assemblies for home theater, PC, and high technology industries. MonoPrice.com offers a wide range of products from standard PC products, network cables, and HDMI cables to custom cable assemblies...
www.monoprice.com

This is the version I like best:

Monoprice Cat6 6in Blue Component Level Patch Cable, UTP, 28AWG, 550MHz, Pure Bare Copper, Snagless RJ45, SlimRun Series Ethernet Cable - Monoprice.com
Trusted RELIABILITYMonoprice™ SLIMRUN™ CAT6 UTP ETHERNET PATCH CABLES are designed for high density environments where space is a premium. SlimRun's ultra‑slim 0.149‑inch d
www.monoprice.com

"I noticed there are a lot of posts about what Ethernet cables not to buy, e.g., any so called Cat 7 or Cat 8 cable, but I have not seen any posts which recommend specific Cat 5e cables"

You do NOT need Cat 7, 8, or 9 even.

Cat5e is plenty, Cat6 is fine, no need for Cat6A. No need for shielding, foil, etc.

If you want to go lowest cost:

Products no longer Available

Cat5e, no boot (those kind of get in my way), lots of colors and lengths to choose from.

If you want higher quality

Data Cables at Blue Jeans Cable

They will custom make them for you--and I noticed the UK comment, they ship internationally.

Monoprice UK:

Monoprice UK
Monoprice specializes in high-quality, affordable electronics and accessories. Since 2002, Monoprice offers a variety of products such as home office equipment, gaming accessories, 3D printing and outdoor gear to professionals and consumers worldwide.
www.monoprice.uk

Monoprice is a great example of what not to buy.

Say No to Cat7 Ethernet Cable

Quality Ethernet Cable and Jacks

Monoprice Cable - Not Ok

When I suggest 'quality' cables that usually means avoiding all the 'price too good to be true' offers.

Quality is about buying once, with tested cable specs, and only then... at the lowest price you can find/haggle.

L&LD said:
Monoprice is a great example of what not to buy.

Say No to Cat7 Ethernet Cable

Quality Ethernet Cable and Jacks

Monoprice Cable - Not Ok

When I suggest 'quality' cables that usually means avoiding all the 'price too good to be true' offers.

Quality is about buying once, with tested cable specs, and only then... at the lowest price you can find/haggle.
Click to expand...
Would you post a link to the Ethernet cable you bought most recently?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Linksys LGS116P Bilnking Blue Light

I have a LGS116P switch that has a blinking blue light and nothing else. Does anyone have a firmware or advice to try and get this up and running?
The switch looks to have a 4 pin header installed and two other unpopulated 4 pin spots for more headers.
First unpopulated header has [CLK GND DAT VCC] and other has [VCC GND TX RX].
The populated header has nothing listed.

[Assistant] In case someone is interested it wasn't a problem with the switch instead the power supply was bad.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Looking for Compatible Open Source Firmware for TL-SG108E V3 Switch

Is there any hird party open source firmware compatible with TP-Link Switch TL-SG108E V3, like DD-WRT?

[Assistant]
Isn't that just a basic managed switch? What are you hoping to gain via a 3rd party firmware?

Sent from some device using Tapatalk

To get rid of the default_vlan that you can NOT edit or untagg/tagg or delite at all.
In the lates FW (TL-SG108E(UN)_V3_20171214) Notes it writes:

New Features/Enhancement:
1. The port can be removed from VLAN1
2. The port of VLAN1 can choose tagged/untagged

But you cant do nothing of this at all, you cant remove any ports from VLAN1 and you can NOT choose to tagg/untagg any ports at all.

I have the TL-SG108E. I also cannot change anything having to do with VLAN1, but that is not a problem. I actually don't use VLAN1 in my setup and just ignore it. As long as you have your PVID's set like you want them there should be no problem.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: 2 Modem in 1 Network?

Hi guys,
is it possible that we have 2 ISP in a local network which some user use the first ISP and the other user use another one, also they see each other in that network for local communications?

[Assistant] It's possible if you have the appropriate equipment.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Third party SFP+ transceivers for the Engenius ECS1528P switch?

I have an Engenius ECS1528P switch, and a Ubiquiti UDM-Pro on the way. I want to connect them with a fibre optic cable. I know you can get third party SFP+ transceivers for the Ubiquiti (eg. 10GTek), but are there any compatible with the Engenius? Engenius lists some third party SFP ones on their website; but no SFP+ ones.

[Assistant]
Did you try Amazon? Search for engenius sfp+ and something should come up. Otherwise Google with it on quotes.

You could try this website. I've been using the Generic Compatible 10GBASE-SR SFP+ 850nm 300m DOM Duplex LC MMF Optical Transceiver Module on QNAP and Zyxel switches without any issues for over a year now. But if you want to be safe, you could always ask their Sales Support guys via phone, email or LiveChat. That's what I did. My ISP-provided vendor-locked SFP+ transceiver module's also from there.

10GbE SFP+ Optische Transceiver | Transceiver-Modul - FS.com Deutschland
10GbE SFP+-Modul-Lösungen von FS bieten eine Vielzahl von 10-Gigabit-Ethernet-Konnektivitätsoptionen für Rechenzentren, Unternehmensverteilerschränke und Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Anwendungen. Klicken Sie hier, um Ihre 10G SFP+ Transceiver Module von nahe gelegenen Lagern zu erhalten...
www.fs.com


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: 2.5G Switch with Link Aggregation?

I’m shopping for switches now, and I have the requirement of link aggregation on the switch. I have a Synology NAS that supports it, but they’re only 1G ports. However, I’m moving over slowly to 2.5G for my wired connections.

What’s a good switch they will cover both of these requirements: 2.5G plus link aggregation?

I need 8+ ports.

[Assistant]
Zyxel 8-Port 2.5G Multi-Gigabit Unmanaged Switch for Home Entertainment or SOHO Network [MG-108] https://a.co/d/3iVoXjf

There's also a 12 port but it's several 1ge ports with 3 that can be bundled.

Tech Junky said:
Zyxel 8-Port 2.5G Multi-Gigabit Unmanaged Switch for Home Entertainment or SOHO Network [MG-108] https://a.co/d/3iVoXjf

There's also a 12 port but it's several 1ge ports with 3 that can be bundled.
I don’t believe the Zyxel MG-108 that you linked (or any other “dumb” switch) supports link aggregation.
You need a smart/managed switch.
The Zyxel XGS1250-12 supports link aggregation.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TC3VJ61/?tag=snbforums-20

If you need more then 3 2.5gig/multigig ports you could add a dumb 2.5 gig switch such as the MG-108

bdub76 said:
I’m shopping for switches now, and I have the requirement of link aggregation on the switch. I have a Synology NAS that supports it, but they’re only 1G ports. However, I’m moving over slowly to 2.5G for my wired connections.

What’s a good switch they will cover both of these requirements: 2.5G plus link aggregation?

I need 8+ ports.
Click to expand...
You need a Managed Switch which supports LACP. CISCO, Netgear, TP-Link and more. It's up to your budget.
QNAP fanboys will be here soon.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Netgear MS510TXUP - any similar switches out there? Pros, Cons?

I recently picked up this switch for 2.5Gb fiber internet and 2.5Gb Wifi 6 APs.

[Assistant]
omw said:
I recently picked up this switch for 2.5Gb fiber internet and 2.5Gb Wifi 6 APs.
Pros: None.
Cons: Highly overpriced. 3 Fans.

follower said:
Pros: None.
Cons: Highly overpriced. 3 Fans.
Is there a cheaper switch with similar features?

If the gear you want to connect is all 2.5G max, you don't need a 10G-capable switch (unless maybe you've got a 10G-capable pipe you're trying to connect them all to?). The other questions to ask are whether you actually need a managed switch, or POE. Each of those things adds power budget and makes it more likely that you'll need something with fans in it. So ... what features do you actually need?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Marvell's stupid website has been updated.

Public Driver Downloads | QLogic Fibre Channel HBAs and FastLinQ Ethernet adapters and controllers - Marvell
Download Marvell drivers by Platform or Part Number for Marvell QLogic Fibre Channel HBA and Marvell FastLinQ Ethernet adapters and controllers.
www.marvell.com
Category>Marvell public drivers.
We can see correct Release Date. Wow...It took years. I still don't know the difference between 1.8.0_3.1.121 and 1.8.0_3.1.121a. There are no more new updates since 2021...

[Assistant]
First I thought they were updating drivers daily looking at driver date.

d5aqoep said:
First I thought they were updating drivers daily looking at driver date.
This was happened.
Aquantia AQC10x firmware update
driver 2.2.3 and fw 121 are out It was released about months ago. The date you visit their page doesn't mean the release date. It shows your present date. Don't be confused. Their website is an idiot.
www.snbforums.com

I have posted diag firmware to recover busted AQC107 cards in the above thread.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Phone cable.

I'm have a phone extension lead that I then plug the phone in to but want to replace it with just one wire. The bit that plugs in to the phone is rj11 2pin with a 4pin phone end that plugs in master socket.

Do I need a 4pin cable, or a 2 pin for me to do this also cross over or straight

Tock pick of the phone back etc.

20220903-183211 hosted at ImgBB
Image 20220903-183211 in TrebleTA's images album
ibb.co
20220903-183232 hosted at ImgBB
Image 20220903-183232 in TrebleTA's images album
ibb.co

[Assistant]
in the US, red is positive, Green negative in the current loop connection. Just keep the colours matched up. as you make connections. If it is using the secondary pair, same principle.

@ColinTaylor, your message vanished. Last time I was asking for my asus dsl ax82u cable. This is for the landline

So a 2 or 4 pin, as long as it straight?

One pair per phone line to the demarcation box. Follow the same colour pair throughout the house. It is a current loop. Signal flows from the phone switching station to your house on the red cable to the devices and then leaves by the green cable back to the phone switching station. You only need one pair if you only have one phone line service. There is a limit to the number of devices you can connect to on one current loop pair. i think it was the equivalent to 3-4 phones.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Work poor local network speed - Help me reply to my boss

Hi all,

I have started as IT specialist at an organisation which have chosen to limit their ports on their avaya switches to 100mb/s (which leaves us with a local network transfer of 10mb/s) and I find this unacceptable. I have asked to have the ports changes to auto negotiate and allow the device to choose what it wants. Any devices that have a problem with that could be set manually. I' am constantly told that the reasoning behind this was to stop the wifi network being saturated as the local server only has a 1gb/s connections to the lan.

I can't see any real reasoning to limit the network in this way ....

A quote from an email I received from central IT ( the guy showed an example recommend by Microsoft for remote machines access ... which has nothing to do with local lan speed ). Help me reply

Reasoning behind this as follows:

Servers will still be on 1Gbps connections. The new ones have three Gbps connections ‘split’ between 5 VMs. Even if they had 10Gbps cards (they don’t) the switches from memory don’t have 10Gbps ports available for client use

Contrary to the above performance may be increased if the switches are predominantly doing unicast traffic as opposed to multicast or broadcast; if the servers communication is switching quickly between clients as opposed to pushing to a group simultaneously I assume the connections will use the available bandwidth for that connection instance. My knowledge of exactly how this works in reality is at best hazy though and from second hand conversations with comms; I understand why Matt wants to do this properly as opposed to switching the clients to 1Gbps and hoping for the best.

The planned internet bandwidth increase to 1Gbps help however.

One other thing to note, comments in teams regarding how 100Mb client connections are slow by today’s standards, these are the recommendations by Microsoft only last year.

For internet access, ** quality streaming on iplayer only requires 5Mbps (1.5Mbps standard)

Apart from perhaps SCCM imaging, I’d be surprised if your wired clients are hitting the 100Mbps limit often.

Thanks
Click to expand...

[Assistant]
So they're using the switches as a kind of bandwidth limiter because the servers don't have to capacity to handle the increased traffic if the clients were gigabit. That's actually not too unreasonable (without knowing the precise topology of the LAN). I would agree with their main point that they don't just want to switch all the clients over to gigabit and hope for the best. That's not an acceptable approach for a business. I think what they should be doing is monitoring the load on the servers over time and from that they should be able to predict whether they could handle the increase in traffic.

P.S. I'm not sure what you meant by "which leaves us with a local network transfer of 10mb/s", or did you mean 10MB/s?

Hi Colin,

thanks for your reply and you make some really valid points. But this organisation encompasses around 1500 users in my building alone. I understand using the lan to control the amount of bandwidth. But don't most modern switches traffic shape anyway and you can implement things like QOS.

At the moment downloading one - 4 gig file from the internet saturates my network. If I start PXEBoot'ing a lot of machine at once it crashes my sccm server.

In my building we have 4 switch stacks all with 48 ports and a server room with 2 dedicated servers. We are about to upgrade the internet to 1 gig but it seems pointless if we are limiting clients via lan as opposed to proper traffic shaping. Correct me if I 'am wrong

Cheers

P.S. I'm not sure what you meant by "which leaves us with a local network transfer of 10mb/s", or did you mean 10MB/s?
No I'm referring to the fact if I transfer a file from the server it maxes out at 10 megabytes a second.

The devil is in the network detail (which I can't possibly know). For an organisation that large I'd agree that you'd expect the switches to be configured as gigabit. The switches themselves don't do traffic shaping. If the servers are really the problem then any shaping that's required should be applied in front of them leaving the rest of the network to operate at full speed. But again, the devil is in the detail and I don't know your topology or traffic flows. They also allude to some sort of issue with wireless devices. Again, I don't know how they fit into the picture.

akirru said:
No I'm referring to the fact if I transfer a file from the server it maxes out at 10 megabytes a second.
Yes that's what I thought, megabytes (MB) not megabits (Mb) or millibits (mb).


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Looking for compact PoE switch

Hello,

I'm looking for very compact 3-4 ports (including the Uplink) PoE switch preferably 1Gbps so I can extend PoE to few more cameras and fit that switch inside a very narrow space. Everything that I managed to find does not fit inside. Any suggestions?

[Assistant]
How small does it need to be, and in which dimensions?

TP-SW3G - Tycon Systems Inc - PoE Switch
Tycon TP-SW3G: Compact 3-port gigabit PoE switch for high-speed network connections. Ideal for small setups needing reliable, efficient performance.
www.tyconsystems.com
5-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch with 4-Port PoE+
5-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch with 4-Port PoE+. The total 65 W PoE power budget for the 4× PoE ports opens up a wide range of applications, such as surveillance for offices, dormitories, and small businesses.
www.tp-link.com
DS-3E0105P-E(B)
Hikvision DS-3E0105P-E(B) 4 Port Fast Ethernet Unmanaged POE Switch
www.hikvision.com


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Odd Speed Issue Related to Cable Connection

I have an odd issue with the speed of my Internet connection, and if someone has an answer, they're obviously a genius!

On occasion, I will have a sense that my Internet speed isn't just right, and I'll run SpeedTest to find out that my 1 GB connection is only giving me about a 95 Mbps download. I check my wife's computer which, like mine, is hard-wired to the router, part of a Netgear Orbi RBK853 mesh system, and her speeds are where they should be, typically around 940-950 Mbps. I have found that if I disconnect and reconnect the cable from the switch or the router, my speed returns to normal! I imagine I would get the same result if I disconnected and reconnected to the PC itself, but I haven't tested it. This problem has occurred with two different motherboards, one from ASUS and the other from ASRock.

That would suggest a problem with the cable, but it's the same cabling my wife's desktop uses, and it's Cat 6E, which feels pretty durable physically. What's strange to me is that the fix is instantaneous. That doesn't seem like a cable problem to me.

What do you think?

[Assistant]
About 95Mbps is indeed Fast Ethernet connection, up to 100Mbps. The cable may look fine, but you still may have to replace it.

It's the cable.

There is no Cat6e cable, perhaps it's Cat6a?

It could be as specific as not making a proper connection to that specific port. Test by using another port on the router.

If you can turn the cable around (router end to computer, vs. where it's laid out now), that may also fix things for you 'easily'.

You can also power down the entire network, unplug all cables, USB, Ethernet, etc. from all routers, switches, client devices, etc. and then let the equipment sit there for as long as you can (an hour or more is best, but even 20-30 minutes may be sufficient).

Can you switch your computer and your wife's to test also (with the cables left as they are now)? That would totally eliminate the cable/connections that yours is having issues with.

there is cable cat6E not official standard https://cablesys.com/updates/cat6-cat6e-cat6a-differences/

just buy cat6A cable short one and connect between router and PC and check. if you see up to 100Mbit one or more cable line cold be damages (1Gbit req 8 lines and 100Mbit 4 lines). you can buy simple testers $15 if you want to check
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324578216816


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: 8-port 1/2.5/5/10Gbe w/POE

Does anyone make an 8-port 1/2.5/5/10 Gbe switch with POE? only need 4 ports POE, max 15W

I do want all the ports however to be multigig up to 10, not just 2 that are 1/2.5 or or any other combo, all 5-way.

[Assistant]
All of the major players make them. It just depends on how much you want to spend.

any specific models come to mind? i can't seem to find a pure play model that is what i want. thanks in advance

Code:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075Q66RKF
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BV2VYVF
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0916BNNML
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075Q5T7NH
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KSYP2TD
https://a.co/d/07DMC2F

If you dig into these you get some clues about how to find them. First thing I'm looking / searching for is "NBASE-T" and then the port density. It's still a limited field of players even though you can find options if you hunt for them. I use a QNAP card for 4-port 5GE on my server / router and that fits my raid speed w/ overhead to grow. I went this route because it was $200 for 4 ports and I suppose you could use 2-3 of them to make your own switch using a PC chassis for about the same price as the switches dedicated for use though you wouldn't have the 10GE port option.

When it comes to mGIG it's easier to make your own setup or you pay through the nose for devices prepackaged.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Recommended cable brands for CAT 6, 7 & 8

Hi all,

My first post on here. Relative noob and have enough knowledge to be dangerous!

Anyway, was looking to upgrade my cables, currently have a mix of amazon basics and device supplied.

Current have fttp and up to 500mbps download. So, I am after good quality cables that I can plug and play as don't fancy making them and, there's more choice on amazon than you can poke a stick at!

I don't have much connected, hub to mesh, 2 x nas drives, laptop Dock and 5 port switch.

Thanks!

[Assistant]
What country are you in (it may affect brand availability)?

Ignore (genuine) Cat 7 and Cat 8 cables. Cat 7 is non-standard and Cat 8 is very specialised. (Although that doesn't stop sellers slapping "Cat7" and "Cat8" labels on their cheap cables)

Cat5e/Cat6 will do up to 2.5Gb and Cat6a will do 10Gb. So for most current applications Cat5e is more than adequate, especially for short runs.

Hi @colinthanks for the reply and info on data speeds the cables will support I'm in the UK.

We've bought hundreds of "standard" Cat5e patch cables from Videk in the past and never had a problem with them. They're pretty cheap and of decent quality. You could buy the premium, shielded or Cat6 cables if you want but unless you running them over long distances there's unlikely to be a noticeable difference other than they're stiffer and therefore a bit more difficult to work with.

Network RJ45 Patch Cables | Networking | Videk | Network Systems and IT Solutions
Supplying Network Systems & IT Solutions, visit Videk for Cat6a, Cat6, Cat5e, Fibre, USB, USB Type C, HDMI, DisplayPort, Power to Desk Soultions, Data Racks & KVM Solutions. With leading brands including Videk, Netgear, ATEN, APC, Humanscale, Adder
www.videk.co.uk
Unbooted Cat5e UTP Patch Cables | Cat5e Patch Cables | Network RJ45 Patch Cables | Networking | Videk | Network Systems and IT Solutions
Supplying Network Systems & IT Solutions, visit Videk for Cat6a, Cat6, Cat5e, Fibre, USB, USB Type C, HDMI, DisplayPort, Power to Desk Soultions, Data Racks & KVM Solutions. With leading brands including Videk, Netgear, ATEN, APC, Humanscale, Adder
www.videk.co.uk
Unbooted Cat6 UTP Patch Cables | Cat6 Patch Cables | Network RJ45 Patch Cables | Networking | Videk | Network Systems and IT Solutions
Supplying Network Systems & IT Solutions, visit Videk for Cat6a, Cat6, Cat5e, Fibre, USB, USB Type C, HDMI, DisplayPort, Power to Desk Soultions, Data Racks & KVM Solutions. With leading brands including Videk, Netgear, ATEN, APC, Humanscale, Adder
www.videk.co.uk


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Home Topology Recommendations

I'm moving into a house from an apartment and need to account for the extra size and the physical distance between devices. As such, I have a couple minor challenges I need to account for and am looking for recommendations on doing so.

The internet line and modem are located in the office. My main router is an Asus RT-AX88U. The issue I'm attempting to solve for is physically connecting a bunch of media consumption devices which are all located on the opposite side of the house. At the moment I plan to run an ethernet cable all the way to the other end and connect it to a switch that has enough ports.

My question is this: is it worthwhile/possible to utilize my router's LAN aggregation to run two 1Gbps lines to a switch that can do the LAN aggregation? In addition to connecting all of the media consumption devices to this switch, I may also want to connect another AP given that this is at the opposite end of the house. If this is worthwhile/possible, what kind of switch would I be looking for?

Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
Are you running the cable in the walls ? Common suggestion is to run two CAT6 mostly for redundancy if something goes wrong with one cable. For short distances in a house this should be adequate for up to 10Gbit/s. If you have someone do it, make sure they bandwidth test and certify the terminated cable if you go for the higher link rates.

Since these are all "consumers" at the other end, each would likely only use up to 50 Mbits/sec if streaming compressed video from the internet. Your router WAN-LAN rate may be the real bottleneck. If you are talking local traffic only from a media server, then LAG only helps if 1) all devices in the path support, and 2) there are many users at the same time (like an internet server) trying to access the single device. Usually home setups would not benefit from LAG.

What is your ISP service Down/Up ?

If you are buying a switch, look into one with 10Gbit/s ports, at least a few, that will also adjust to link rates of 1, 2.5, 5, and 10 Gbits/sec. to match future router and other device port capability. Otherwise a switch with 1Gbit/sec ports without LAG would be fine for your current stated usage. Above are un-managed switches. If you need to isolate traffic, then look for a managed switch that supports VLANs. Your router may also have to support VLANs so that may push you away from ASUS.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Building a home server/network rack

I'm buying the Boracade ICX6450 for my sister's new house and will be building on a small server rack from scratch. Since I'm not an expert on rack builds, I might as well ask here. My plan for this rack is (from top to bottom)

1U 24p patch panel
2U cable manager (horizontal finger duct)
1U 48p switch
2U cable manager (horizontal finger duct)
1U 24p patch panel

I'll then use 1-ft. patch cables for everything.

A couple of questions:

Is that a good placement of network gears?
Unloaded or preloaded patch panels? Modular jack type or non-modular/built-in?
For devices in the same rack that need to connect to the switch, do they still need to go through the patch panel?

[Assistant]
Everything to the patch makes it easier to deal with vs random cables hanging all over.

Do whatever is easiest to figure out for your sister not your inner geek.

* I edited my first post to reflect the potential placement of the network gears (from top to bottom). I didn't realized it was in the wrong format.

Well, yeah, at this point I'm more concerned about the placement. Would 2 x patch panels and 2 x 2U horizontal finger ducts make sense? With the cable managers there, it wouldn't really be messy if I directly connect devices in the same rack to the switch because they can go through the passthrough holes of the cable managers and into the switch. This makes everything look uniform from the front.

Well, I'm figuring out the best looks I can get for my sister's server rack. It's in a separate room anyway so I can be flexible.

kevindd992002 said:
figuring out the best looks I can get for my sister's rack.
[Holding back my comments - don't know if we should be discussing your sister's rack in this forum]


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Trednet 2.5 NIC issues?

I installed a Trendnet 2.5 Nic into my rig today, replacing a Gig nic I had in there for years. It detects it hardware wise, but it's acting like I have no internet. What do I do to get this going? I installed both the driver from the disk and a downloaded driver from the site. Neither worked. I'm on a W7 rig, btw. Still says it's compatible.

[Assistant]
Is it an RTL chip? I have issues with those on Linux and have to do some magic to get them to work. However I have a sabrent dongle that doesn't need any intervention on either windows or Linux.

Tech Junky said:
Is it an RTL chip? I have issues with those on Linux and have to do some magic to get them to work. However I have a sabrent dongle that doesn't need any intervention on either windows or Linux.
Yeah, Realtek chip. Any thoughts?

Had something to do with my switch not working. Made sure everything was plugged in and presto, stuff starts working

Hmm.. I would contemplate switching to something based on either Intel or Aquantia if it's having a fit. Maybe even BCM depending on the price.

RTL8125 - this is the onboard I'm dealing with on my Z690 setup that works fine if blacklist the module and force it to use a different version. There's just something not right with it and I'm sure Windows would pick it up with a generic driver that half butt works to just get online to perform updates.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: 2.5Gb ethernet NIC - PCIE x1 vs. USB 3.0

Hi. I have a high speed (2Gb) connection and a router with a 2.5Gb LAN port. I want to utilize this but my PC's integrated NIC is only 1.0Gb. Latency sensitive apps are involved here.

It seems there are two routes to take here. Either a PCI-E 1x NIC or a USB 3.0 NIC.

Is either one preferred over the other in this scenario? Thanks

[Assistant]
Card is more advisable because it won't get knocked off the side / back of the PC / laptop. A single PCIE 4 lane is also faster than USB

I wasn't aware there were PCIE4 cards out since most run on PCIE3 even 10GE. There are even legacy PCIE2 options floating around still.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KVXGT4C/?tag=snbforums-20 - $100 gives you multi-gig 1/2.5/5/10GE speeds on a single card

No you're right. The $30 2.5Gb PCI-E option I'm looking at on Amazon is only PCIE 2.0. This should be fine though since 2.5Gb is still less bandwidth than 500MB/sec that PCIE 2.0 1x offers.

So no latency penalty for going with a USB option? PC is on the floor so being knocked off/disconnected is unlikely.

Thanks

2.5 is probably around 300MB/s with overhead

USB isn't preferred for Ethernet but, it's an option and I use a Sabrent 5GE USB-C when I want to network copy a bunch of data from my NAS and it works great. It's also highly compatible w/o need for driver installs. ~$70 on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08977K9D2/?tag=snbforums-20 They also make a 2.5 version https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08979LXJK/?tag=snbforums-20 $35

5GE options


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: noob question: can i use a switch as primary router, and....?

Noob question: Can I use a switch flashed with Merlin firmware and use it as a primary router (ie, a router without antennae)?

Such that all devices on a 3rd party mesh get their internet connection that goes through an Asus switch that itself is connected to the modem.

[Assistant]
You can NOT load Merlin firmware on to an arbitrary switch or router. It will only work on supported ASUS routers, specifically those mentioned in the Merlin website.

Merlin firmware only runs on specific Asus routers. It doesn't run on switches.

ColinTaylor said:
Merlin firmware only runs on specific Asus routers. It doesn't run on switches.
Thanks. I meant on an Asus switch.

But the fact is, Merlin works on routers only, and no other Asus products.

Thanks for the swift response.

Now I just have to figure out my game plan for a Merlin-Asus based setup.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Multi Port 2.5Gbe Switch

With consumer routers having 2.5Gbe-10Gbe, I'm curious what switches are Forum members using/advocating?
I have been following these on Amazon (sub $200):
TrendNet 8-Port and TP-Link 8-Port

[Assistant]
Not an 8 Port switch, but I have found 2 of them to be extremely stable. And at the time (mid-2021), I bought them for 150 each.

QNAP QSW-1105-5T 5-Port Unmanaged 2.5GbE Switch Broadcom BCM53161 chipset

I have been running the TrendNet switch. It has been working well with no issues.

The only problem I have with it is that every time I see it, I think about how much it cost. No other network switch has ever done that to me. I keep it behind other furniture, out of sight.

I am watching the Cisco small business switches. But until I get faster internet, I probably won't buy one. One gig switches are plenty fast until my internet speed catches up.

I should add large businesses are not too worried as they have plenty of 1 gig switch ports to saturate their 10 gig ports. They don't need to add a heavier load.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: What 2.5gb/1gb unmanaged switch to buy in 2022

Hey everyone,

Looking for recommendations for a 5 port 2.5gb/1gb unmanaged switch

Gonna be used on multiple ax86u's

[Assistant]
While they are much more expensive today, I have been successfully using a couple of the QNAP QSW-1105-5T 5-Port Unmanaged 2.5GbE Switches with my 2x RT-AX86Us since last July.

Seems to me that today, the 8 port versions are a better buy if you can find them in stock and on sale.

cplay said:
recommendations
That's just a can of worms waiting to explode. @Clark Griswald has a thread on this as well.

My POV is figure out the port density you need for higher speed devices / needs and then that will narrow things down quite a bit. Most options start with 4 ports of which 3 are usable.

I run a DIY setup and collapsed ~6-8 devices into a single box and use a 5GE NIC instead of paying threw the nose for a switch. I have 2 ports going to the cable modem to take advantage of the over provisioning and exceed 1gbps. I have 1 going to my AP @ 2.5gbps. Keep one as a spare. $200 for the card and double the speed of a 2.5GE w/o having to deal with the gouging of a 10GE option. I use the spare port occasionally to sync my laptop with the server that has a NAS / Raid setup that pushes 400MB/s+.

For a 2.5GE switch though it's all about finding the right fit / price. On the HW level they all use the same stuff under the hood. If you're thinking managed switches then it comes down to the OS / GUI / CLI options. There's fewer options moving to 5GE though than 2.5GE unless you step up to 10GE and then you only get a couple of ports that do 5GE in the mix.

cplay said:
Hey everyone,

Looking for recommendations for a 5 port 2.5gb/1gb unmanaged switch

Gonna be used on multiple ax86u's
Cheap switches?
1gb/2.5gb
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZHGT2ZP/?tag=snbforums-20
TL-SG105-M2
No shipped and sold by Amazon.
3rd party with PRIME delivery: $129.99

TP-Link TL-SG105-M2 | 5 Port Multi-Gigabit Unmanaged Network Switch, Ethernet Splitter | 2.5G Bandwidth | Plug & Play | Desktop/Wall-Mount | Fanless Metal Design | Limited Lifetime Protection - Newegg.com
Buy TP-Link TL-SG105-M2 | 5 Port Multi-Gigabit Unmanaged Network Switch, Ethernet Splitter | 2.5G Bandwidth | Plug & Play | Desktop/Wall-Mount | Fanless Metal Design | Limited Lifetime Protection with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
www.newegg.com
Shipped and sold by Newegg: $129.99

1gb
SG105 $15.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A128S24/?tag=snbforums-20

SG108 19.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A121WN6/?tag=snbforums-20

Other switches?
Netgear 5gb.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Set Zyxel XS1920 as unmanaged switch

I have a Zyxel XS1920 smart managed switch https://www.zyxel.ch/de/support/download/201962_1/
I want to use it just as a unmanaged switch; like a QNAP QSW-1208. So I don't need it to be smart, I just need it to be simple so I can plug it in to extend an existing network.

Can anyone advise in simple terms how I might do this? I do have access to the Zyxel management interface; I just don't know what buttons to press.

I hope this question is clear but happy to provide any further information. Thanks in advance.

[Assistant]
Yeah, the factory default configuration almost surely does what you want.

However ... do not leave it with the default password. If some hacker manages to get into your network, you don't want to give him free control of your switch.

Thanks for the replies, and thanks for the note to change password (of course).

With factory default configuration, the switch creates a managed subnet on 192.168.1.1. I want the switch to extend an existing home network which I have set up on 192.168.2.1.

Here's a diagram of what the new Zyxel switch gives me by default:

[Home router managing medium-sized network at 192.168.2.1]
--ethernet cable-> [New Zyxel switch creating network at 192.168.1.1] --ethernet cable-> [My computer at 192.168.1.2]

This is what I want:

[Home router managing medium-sized network at 192.168.2.1]
--ethernet cable-> [New Zyxel switch on 192.168.2.2: no new subnet created]
--ethernet cable-> [My computer on 192.168.2.3]

Any constructive suggestions?
https://www.zyxel.ch/de/support/download/201962_1/

Just change the management ip on the switch. The switch in dumb mode shouldn't matter as it's not issuing DHCP.


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: What switch do I really need?

I'm setting up a surveillance system. I have to use a P2P bridge between 2 buildings at 2 different sites. The bridges I'm using are a Ubiquiti bridge. When I was on another forum that dealt with cameras, many said that I should make my whole system Ubiquiti. Well, that may be great for some, but I already have a new $200 + router, and would like to keep it instead of switching to a Ubiquiti one. I am in the need of several switches though. I need ones that are PoE, and will be able to supply enough power to a couple of PTZ cameras. At one site there will be 4 cameras, but 1 or 2 may be PTZ. At the other site, there will be 8 cameras, and 1 or 2 may be PTZ. Do I really need a Ubiquiti switch at those sites. 1- 4 port, and 1- 8 port?

What are your thoughts on this?

What would be a good switch? I'm just looking for a recommendation.

Thanks.

[Assistant]
Unless you need managed switches, just use pretty much anyone's unmanaged switch. Netgear Pro line switches have a reasonable reputation. You can provide POE power by using a third party power injector for those cameras that need it rather than investing in a POE switch.

All cameras will need PoE. That is the only way they will be getting power, so a PoE switch is a must. I don't want to have to buy injectors for 8 cameras. Then the cost will be more than the PoE switch for those alone, even though they are cheap.

POE doesn't have to be embedded in the switch.
Figure out the peak power draw and the voltage for the number of devices for each. It should be on the camera spec. Also, make sure the cable length is within spec. Even though it is DC, depending on cable type, there will be some losses.
Then start looking for a POE switch with more than enough power budget. POE just works as long as you have enough power, so it really doesn't set the spec for the switch. Other features that you need do.

Higher power switches are likely to have cooling fans. Can the situation tolerate the noise ?

Also, pay attention to the environment where the switch will be installed. Does it have adequate air flow and acceptable air temperature ?


[System] You are a professional Wi-Fi router support assistant; I will provide forum posts as background material, and you should learn from them while remaining aware that forum content may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect — when uncertain, explicitly note that you are uncertain and refer the user to official documentation or other authoritative sources for verification.

[User]
Title: Ethernet Cable, Myth or Fact?

Hello All!

New to the Forum.

I have a 2280 square foot home and will be running ethernet cable (6a) for my home network.
I was told by a network engineer (acquaintance) that every room I plan to run cable to needs
to be the same length.

So, If the farthest room is 50' away from the switch, but the other rooms are closer, then every
room cannot exceed 50'? He explained that if you have different cable lengths you will have "Collisions"
and at the point your transfer rate would go to S***.

For instance, I have 2 PCs in my office, each PC is probably 15' away from the switch I intend to use,
He is saying that because the farthest ethernet run is 50', Ill have to use 50' of cable to each PC....
Is that true?

It seems a bit ridiculous to me.. Here I thought for the dual PCs in the office, I would run an ethernet cable
from the switch to the middle of both PCs then use a 5 port switch. At that point I can plug both PCs directly
in the 5 port switch.

And what about WAPs?
Since the switch has POE+ ports that I intend to use for the 3 Unifi NanoHDs which are in different locations,
(one is 40' away the second is 10' away and the other is 40' away) every WAP cable needs to be 40'!?

I have a server (File Sharing/RSS Feeds) and have different devices that will connect to the server via ethernet cable
on my network. I would run the ethernet cable to the server and all these devices that connect to it the same length,
but for everything else, why?

I may be wrong?

When it comes to running ethernet cable for a network, is it fact that ALL the cables need to be the same length
or is he just blowing smoke??

The house is 80' long and the switch will be centrally located in the home.

[Assistant]
I would assume that almost everybody on this board is running a network that includes at least one network switch stuffed to the gunnels with multiple cables of unequal lengths - and do not suffer from data collisions slowing things down thanks to how switches work. Preventing data collisions is why we use switches (even our routers contain switches) rather than dumb hubs. But if you were to use a dumb hub, with equal length cables, you'd get collisions, so what you've been told doesn't make sense!
I'm trying to think where such an idea could come from, and can only think it has to do with radio transmitter systems where cabling needs to be of specific lengths in order to prevent standing waves - not an issue in modern networking systems.

jpn951 said:
It seems a bit ridiculous to me
It should be ridiculous as the only limitation is the longest length to sustain desired speeds.

Category 6 cable - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The Difference Between Cat6 vs Cat6A Ethernet Cable
It is often asked “Is Cat6A cable better than Cat6?” Strictly speaking based on performance, and all else being equal, the answer is “yes.” This does not mean that Cat6A is a better choice.
www.truecable.com
https://www.anixter.com/content/dam/Suppliers/Leviton/Brochures/Leviton%20-Cat6A%20Reference%20Guide.%20051518pdf.pdf

There are some caveats to make it work for 10GE connections that don't apply to other standards but, all runs don't need to be the same length to work properly. The thing that stands out is the mention of sub 90M + 5M on each end to plug into the device.. In your case @ 50F / ~17M there's nothing special to take into consideration.

Now the real question is why spend on C6A when C5E / C6 would suffice?
Cat5e vs Cat6 - Difference and Comparison | Diffen
What's the difference between Cat5e and Cat6? Cat6 cables, also called Category 6 or Cat 6 cables, provide lower crosstalk, a higher signal-to-noise ratio, and are suitable for 10GBASE-T (10-Gigabit Ethernet), while Cat5e cables support only up to 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet). As a means of...
www.diffen.com

I keep things tidy with my physically connected devices with 5FT C6 cables connecting things but, when I need to cable the Laptop using 5GE a 5E cable works just fine @ 20FT length.

Crimliar said:
I would assume that almost everybody on this board is running a network that includes at least one network switch stuffed to the gunnels with multiple cables of unequal lengths - and do not suffer from data collisions slowing things down thanks to how switches work. Preventing data collisions is why we use switches (even our routers contain switches) rather than dumb hubs. But if you were to use a dumb hub, with equal length cables, you'd get collisions, so what you've been told doesn't make sense!
I'm trying to think where such an idea could come from, and can only think it has to do with radio transmitter systems where cabling needs to be of specific lengths in order to prevent standing waves - not an issue in modern networking systems.
Click to expand...

Is a "Dumb Hub" an unmanaged switch?