Choosing router+switch pair for home net

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hi all, n00b here :slight_smile:

So I just bought a new flat with cabling and stuff already crammed in walls, stuck with Cat5e CCE cables, at least gigabit tested and working.
A quick recommendation on what minimum router and switch I need for my scenario would be greatly appreciated.

Basically I have 2 gathering points:

  1. Entrance with WAN and 5 ethernet cables going to different rooms plus planning to put DVR and stuff in there, 5xGigabit + 4-5x 100m would be sufficient
  2. “Lab room” with a bunch of PCs (not gonna be more than 5 IMO) - 10 gigabit would rock, at lease in this one room, if by miracle anything over gigabit works on my cat5e then really would like to have

Looking at models got little confused, for example RB2011iLS-IN says it needs 1.25gb SFP but compatibility table lists many 10G SFP transcievers such as S+31DLC10D compatible but not S+RJ10 which looks like my only hope (no drilling and optical cabling please). So do devices which have SFP port but not SFP+ support anything over 1.25g?

As an example, if I get an EB2011iLS-IN for entrance, CRS305-1G-4S+IN for lab and connect them with SFPs what’s going to be maximum router-to-switch bandwidth?

2

Hi

2011 is aging, don’t go for it.

For router would suggest 3011 or 4011 (with wifi). Then you could plug all cables into that one box. (The 4011 can do 10g on one port, but cabling you are stuck with won’t support it.)
For the lab, that depends on what you are planning: if just local 10g and nothing else, would suggest unmanaged 10g switch connecting over 1g to your main router.

Edit: or indeed the CRS305, but given your wiring, I would suggest to use eth port for link

3

sorry for hijacking the thread, but I had a similar question.

Is there any downside anyone can see running the CRS305-1G-4S+IN in RouterOS mode using the 1G copper SFP’s, over something like a Hex S as the router?
Other than the cost of course, I was trying to be a little more ‘future proof’ with a router that can have more than 1 SFP capability (either 1 or 10GB) - wasnt sure if I was missing any other features on the traditional router (such as IPSEC hardware acceleration) that the 305 would be missing compared to the 3011/Hex S.

4

CRS is “just” a (smart) switch. It won’t do regular routing at speed, like hex or 3011.

5

CRS is, as names suggests “router switch” … but it’s more switch than router. It might be capable of wirespeed routing (e.g. inter-VLAN), but far from performing firewall tasks …

6

The CRS can do wirespeed Switching, All routing (Incl Inter Vlan Traffic) goes via CPU and limited by that

7

It most certainly isn’t.

8

Aha - that was the critical thing I was missing - thanks for the clarification team!