IPTV multicast question - "switch mode" for 2 ports

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

I have at home this wired setup:

Some router → IPTV box
…|…|______ → computer
…|___________ → computer2

Multicasting is enabled and IPTV box kinda works… There are some problems, which annoy me.

IPTV provider suggests this setup:
simple switch ->Router ->computer
…|…|____ → computer2
…|__________ → IPTV box

That means, the IPTV box is accesed form internet not through router, but through switch, which is before router. It works both ways after I enabled multicast on the router, but there are times when service freezes, some IPTV software updates do not come throught etc. All of them are solved if I connect IPTV to switch, but that extra box annoys me a lot…

I am looking to upgrade router to hEX or hEX lite and want to ask:

Is there a simple posibility to configure it to act as a switch AND a router? I know it sounds weird, but I need that “switch” part not on the home network, but on the WAN → IPTV. I could reserve 1 port for IPTV box to be it simple.

Is it possible with hEX or hEX lite?

2

I’m guessing here, but I’d say it is possible.

I assume both hEX and hEX lite have a switch chip for ethers2-5, so you could set let’s say ether4 and ether5 as a switch. plug your internet connection to ether5, iptv box to ether4, assign an IP address to the master-port of the switch (manually, dhcp, etc…) so you could masquerade your outgoing traffic. Then you’d create a bridge and add ethers 1, 2 and 3 to the bridge to enable communication between your computers with the bridge IP address as a gateway.

I’ve just set up this config on my RB951-2n and it works.

I hope other people will confirm this can work :wink:

3

well, if it works for you it will work for me :slight_smile:
thank you! will buy hex lite to test it