I could definitely use the ISP router as well, and just add a 2.5/10G switch, but it is very limiting and when I first tried it, it would reset my settings every time the IP changed (anywhere from 1 week to 1 day). I definitely want the NAS, HV and my main PC on a faster connection.

Technically they can handle 300 clients, if none of them are talking. With any wireless communication, only one device can talk at a time, maybe two if sending and receiving works on different frequency, which WIFI is not. So no matter what manufacturer says, on 2.4GHz, fewer clients can talk because bandwidth is lower and sending/receiving packets takes time. Whenever possible, stay away from WIFI. The more you use it, the worse it will get.

The 3Gbps line is new to me, just upgraded from 1.5 as it was only $5 more per month, so I’m looking at how to actually utilize this now, not actively “giving up” 2Gbps 🙂. I also didn’t have any devices that could take advantage of it until some upgrades, so here we are.

Since VLAN isn’t officially part of the standard, you’d need all your network devices support it. And I wanted to give a device-load-balance. So not increase coverage but reduce the amount of devices per AP. Separate SSIDs and VLAN aren’t helping that it just makes it easier to track, wich group is causing the load

You wouldn't need that many 10Gb devices. Just one(s) that split up the traffic to other devices. Either the ISP router needs to split it up or the device that does the splitting should be 10Gb. If you go with 2.5Gb youll be losing 0.5Gb, assuming you actually get 3Gb from your ISP.

The intent isn't to get 10Gb to every device, but to actually be able to use the full 3Gb you're paying for. Right now it looks like you're wasting 2Gb of your bandwidth because everything goes through your personal router which is limited to 1Gb.

Also 10G is really cheap if you go with used SFP+ gear. Like I've got a managed 48x 1G + 4x 10G Dell switch I got for AU$78 running my network. The NICs are about US$40 used, ConnectX3s seem the cheapest, I usually use Intel X520s which are a little more (watch out for clones though).

For the accessories: DACs are AU$20 new from fs.com, and because you'll probably need ethernet for that router, a 10GBaseT transceiver is AU$90 new off eBay. Those you could probably buy cheaper used too.

Additionally you wouldn't be adding 10G to all your devices, I'd just definitely do between your router so you can have 3 1G devices maxing out your 3Gb internet, and maybe add it to a server or two.

And if you do your own runs, in my experience, fibre is slightly cheaper for the longer runs than CAT6 itself too.

from a diagramming pov, remember to document the link speed at each end as well as the ethernet cable type. if your cable modem supports 10GB I would really really look at 10GB network devices pretty closely, budget allowing. I would steer cleared of managed, it's just a PIA for your setup.

You might want to experiment with modem <-> switch <-> wifi vs (modem <-> wifi <-> switch). remember wifi is just ethernet. so the order may or may not matter as much (vendor gets a vote). there does not appear to be a reason to march ethernet cable traffic thru the wifi router, but maybe there is???

def agree an 8 port switch might be better for you, use a 5 to split a single cable at a single location (say, tv + game console + speaker combo)

Remember if you need a WiFi mesh (multi access-point) to connect your devices, if possible, link the mesh backplane together via ethernet cable so that you don't chew half the speed with wi-fi backplane chatter.

Ooookay.. Took me a second to wrap my head around the layout.. Originally I only looked at the picture, which only shows a single switch.

This is an odd topography. Typically when working with switches, you want them connecting directly to the router and not connected to another switch.

You are going to have bandwidth issues out the ass, along with having a troubleshooting nightmare when something goes wrong and you need to trace packets.

Right now you have a hub and a spoke inside a hub and spoke.

Since it looks like your Asus is just an AP in this scenario, you'd be better off:

• hooking both switches to the ISP router
• enabling DHCP on the ISP router for the 2.5g switch
• set your 1g switch to a different subnet, with default gateway to your ISP router
• enable dhcp for different subnet
• add Asus for WiFi ability on new subnet

You can then play around with VLANing on the managed switch. You won't be able to separate IoT and Personal WiFi signals with VLAN. Youd need to create a guest SSID for that functionality and change the channels to 6 and 11 so you get good bandwidth

Edit: this is assuming you have a layer 3 switch, if its a layer 2 I would use the Asus as a router/AP and hook it directly to the ISP router and hook the switch up to the Asus.

This is exactly my case, where it’s built into the ISP provided router. Previous model had a removable SFP and some were able to use that on their own hardware, bypassing the ISP provided gear.