Hello,

We are 8 friends who don't have good access to fiber in our area. A fiber company agreed to provide us with a 1GBPS 1:1 connection but nothing less.
As you've guessed by now, we all plan to share this connection but like independent 125MBPS connections for (personal reasons) so ideally my job here is to setup a mini-ISP.

I WILL seek professional help for this at some point for sure but for now I need a basic plan.
I would like to deploy Ethernet cables to all 7 houses and mine and each should have a 125MBPS (200-250MBPS burst) connection. The ethernet cables will then go directly to their devices/switches/AP (up to them) without need for another router at each house.

I believe I'll need one router and one managed switch for VLANS? Is that correct?

P.S. Also for my personal use, I'd like ALL my traffic to go through OpenVPN. Can this be done on the same router?

What are the distances and lines of sight? Have you considered wireless?
What is your budget?

I am not interested in wireless to cut costs. Wireless would require the wireless receivers and routers at each house.
Deploying Ethernet is very simple cause we are all living in flats in one building. I do not have a set budget but it shouldn't be an issue since we are all sharing the costs. Max Ethernet distance is no more than 50 meters while others are less than 10 meters.

Can this be done with just 1 router and one managed switch (with VLANS at switch level)? And then further switch and an AP at each house obviously.

Can this be done with just 1 router and one managed switch (with VLANS at switch level)? And then further switch and an AP at each house obviously.

You could do this with just one router, a RB1100AHx4. Does the ISP provide a copper ethernet connection to their NTU?

Yes, the ISP provides a copper Ethernet to their device.
The suggested router seems great. Out of curiosity, can this also be done with say a hEX and a managed Cisco gigabit switch (I have the latter lying around) with VLANS?

Yes, the ISP provides a copper Ethernet to their device.
The suggested router seems great. Out of curiosity, can this also be done with say a hEX and a managed Cisco gigabit switch (I have the latter lying around) with VLANS?

I don't think an hEX can, realistically, cope with 1GiB up/down. It can route a little more than that - but we are talking about pure routing, no queues, no complication, no nothing. To be used in any meaningful way, I'd say an RB1100AHx4 would be the first reasonable option.

You could try an RB3011, but I'd advise against that. This unit has some weird caveats, and is far less capable than the 1100AHx4.

Thanks a lot man. That helped a lot for our estimates.