we will be moving in to our new house in a few months, and I am planing a completely new infrastructure for the whole house.
The connection from my ISP will be an ethernet connection RJ-45. That is my WAN entry point, from which I would like to create the infrastructure for the whole house. Alltogether I have:
1x HomeLab Server / NAS with 3 Connections: 10G Ethernet (RJ-45), x2 Gigabit Ethernet (RJ -45)
22x wall sockets (Cat 6a RJ-45) Edit: Not all wall sockets need to be connected all the time. Alltogether 24 ports for the whole house should be enough.
3x interior AP (POE)
1x exterior AP (POE)
4x security camera (POE with recording to HDD over SMB)
1x workstation (2.5G Ethernet RJ-45)
and of course other PCs, TVs, gaming console, media players, receivers, printers, IOT devices, …
The entire networking infrastructure in the house - all cables in the walls are Cat7.
My question is, what kind of devices would you recommend for this type of network. I need to connect 4 cameras and 4 access points over PoE, 1 server over 10G Ethernet, and a workstation with also at least 2.5G ethernet.
I originaly wanted one of the following:
RB5009UPr+S+IN with the CSS326-24G-2S+RM - with these 2 devices beeing connected over SFP+ ports, and the 2nd SFP+ port of the switch beeing used with the S+RJ10 module to connect to the 10G Ethernet on the homeLab server. But that this will not be enough, since I would not have a free port for the WAN connection going to the router, and I would need to dedicate 1 port on the switch for the WAN connection, which does not seem to be the right aproach.
CRS328-24P-4S+RM - but I am not sure if the device itself is good enough to be used as a router and switch
Regarding the APs, I wanted to buy the APs from TP-Link, or Zyxel, since my experience with the cAP ac was terrible in our current home. (I replaced it with a zyxel AP and got 10-12x better speeds). Or has the situation changed and are the new cAP ax better?
Apart from device selection: IMHO avoid S-RJ10 for 10Gb connection. It gets FREAKING hot unless you use an external cooling device.
If you still have the option, see if you can use put in fiber for that 10Gb connection. Much more power friendly ánd future proof.
Device to device, use DAC cable. Cheap and easy.
If in the past you never used wave2 drivers on cap AC, you’d be pleased to hear it makes a HUGE difference.
Obviously cap AX is again a step forward (but those devices also got a LOT bigger dimension wise, I really love square case of cap AC. I still have 2 of them running with a client).
As for CSS326, my personal preference is CRS-line. Much more customizable (RouterOS is a lot more powerful then SWOS in that aspect).
Downside for CRS326:only 16Mb of storage. For a switch it should be sufficient but you never know what the future brings.
If only planned to be used as switch, should be fine.
RB5009/CRS328: the former is a lot more capable as a router (see test results, routing 25 filter rules as base comparison).
I am also not really in favor of putting too much eggs in 1 basket. If you go for CRS328 and it breaks, your complete network is down.
If only the switch dies, you can still continue (and usually it’s a lot easier to get a replacement switch then a router with 24 ether ports).
Thanks for the input. But the question still remains… What would you use for such a network infrastructure, where you need PoE Out on 8 ports, and at least 2 SFP+ ports? Or maybe use 1 router, and 2 switches? (the CSS610-8P-2S+IN for the PoE cameras and access points and CSS326-24G-2S+RM for the wall sockets, but in this case, what router is realy required? I mean, if I realy want to use a SFP+ connection between the router and the switvches, then I need at least the RB5009.) Also, If I have 2 switches, how would you connect all the devices together?
IMHO avoid S-RJ10 for 10Gb connection. It gets FREAKING hot unless you use an external cooling device.
I planed using the S-RJ10 only for the homeLab server hoping that the temperature should be ok, since both of the devices are in the same rack. In a worst case scenario, I planned to buy an additional Intel Adapter X520-DA2 PCIe card for my server, which would give me additional 2 SFP+ connectors on the server, and then also using the XS+DA0001 between the switch and the server (and hoping that this works I currently do not have any experience with SFP+ and I am not sure what is required to use/configure it).
Device to device, use DAC cable. Cheap and easy.
To connect the router and the switch I plann to use the XS+DA0001.
I am also not really in favor of putting too much eggs in 1 basket.
I agree, that is why I would prefer a configuration of router+switch (both rack mounted), I am just looking for the right combination to do the job.
If in the past you never used wave2 drivers on cap AC, you’d be pleased to hear it makes a HUGE difference.
Obviously cap AX is again a step forward (but those devices also got a LOT bigger dimension wise, I really love square case of cap AC. I still have 2 of them running with a client).
Could you please elaborate? I do not know anything about the wave2 drivers, and I still have the cap AC in a closet somewhere. I could test it out again.
I had S-RJ10 between RB5009 and CSS610. No traffic at all, simply having that link idle at 10Gb, already resulted in 95C and occasional log entries about temp too high for SFP device on RB5009.
Added complexity: that S-RJ10 can by no means be set to a lower speed. Impossible to do so unless you connect a device to it which e.g. is only capable of 2.5Gb (tested with AX3, it has 1 ether port for 2.5Gb), then it will comply. But no SW setting can otherwise make you lower that speed.
I still have 2 of those RJ10s, I plan to use them again once I know there is a max 5Gb device on the other side. Should be fine then.
Sometime this year I plan on upgrading my internal network to 2.5Gb, then will be the time to take those RJ10s out of the drawer again.
Upgrade device to at least 7.13
Remove wireless package
Add wifi-qcom-ac package
Configure and enjoy …
Caveat: given the limited storage space on cap AC, you should be fine running it as access point only.
Adding other stuff might be pushing it too much (e.g. don’t try to add zerotier, you may run out of luck).
But purely as AP, no problems at all and a big difference between those wave2 drivers and legacy wifi (stability and performance-wise).
I agree with holvoetn on not using the 10GB electrical SFPs. Use fiber SFPs.
As for the POE, you may be limited to what kind of POE you actually need. If it’s active POE (802.3af or 802.3at) the requirements are different than if it’s passive POE, and at what voltage. So you need to see what your cameras need. I have a few cameras that use active POE that I am using stand alone POE adapters that I bought on Amazon. I also am using passive POE as one of the two power sources for each of my routers and switches in my data cabinet. Those are passive POE and use stand alone adapters that take either 48 or 24 volts DC into the adapters - I have GOBS of both 48 and 24 volt DC available. Lastly I am feeding three paths of Ubiquiti microwave that each take passive POE from a Mikrotik CSS106-1G-4P-1S. So you need to determine what the cameras really need.
I currently do not have any experience with SFP+ and I am not sure what is required to use/configure it).