Hello,
It feels weird to begin straight with the topic just after the greetings. Hence this paragraph.
Situation
In our home, we use the modem/router/switch (gateway?) given by our ISP (FTTH, +0,9Gb/s best throughput). It comes with four 1Gb/s LAN ports and of course one WAN port connected to the ONT.
We can't use WiFi and always let it off, except when we need to use our printer. Also, we are 6 at home, and we have an Android TV box, and I want to host services on a dedicated device.
Issues
(most to least important)
-
Ethernet cables stay on the floor as we need to move them and sharing them is annoying. It would be fixed if everyone had one just for him so we could make a definitive installation.
-
The printer only has a USB B port, and turning the WiFi on then off just to use it is annoying. We want to be able to print from our phones even outside the network.
-
I'm testing services with a YunoHost server on my desktop computer, installed Coturn and tried to open the required port range on the router, but got this message:
You can't use the following ports:
- 1287/tcp
- 1288/tcp
- 1290-1339/tcp
- 2427/udp
- 5060/both
- 35500-35599/udp
- 68/udp
- 8254/udp
- 64035-65535/both
So I just use an other port range. At the end there's no issue but changing the router has been on my mind for some time. Custom softwares like OpenWRT aren't compatible with our current one (NB6V-FXC-r0) and neither the other model the ISP gave us after installing FTTH (NB6VAC-FXC-r1).
Considerations
(most to least important)
-
WiFi is out of the question.
-
For the modem/router/switch, the server and a new TV box the budget is 265$ (250€), and if it is particularly appealing it can go up to 315$ (300€). I will very probably buy a new TV Box and use a Raspberry Pi 4 4Gb (65€;68$) for this purpose.
-
I can't just buy things then it just doesn't work at all. I'm here not to go in a direction that will lead me there. It must be why the Raspberry Pi is more reassuring to me. At least if things don't work out we'll have one TV Box/print server and a versatile little computer (+ a switch).
-
I don't want to split the Internet throughput, especially for the server. For LAN either, I want to keep 1Gb/s when transferring files from one device to another.
My research
I was occasionnally searching for routers with one WAN port and eight 1Gb/s LAN ports, but quickly drowned in the choices and questions as I always do when searching on the Web for something to buy. And above all, it's expensive, too expensive. Surely because no home use that much ports.
Yesterday, I searched the Web for a Raspberry Pi in order to create a print server, and at the same time use it as a TV Box, as it's in the same location and would be a waste to use it just for that. Of course it's out of stock, so I searched for other options, but they were less reassuring and generally more expensive. Except the Odroid-XU4 (53$) but 2Gb of ram isn't enough for this use (playing videos up to 2K from the network essentially, and I want a margin for smoothness and to keep it a while). Edit: Odroid M-1, but it's too much for the use now and better suited to be a server
On the way I found the RPi Compute Module 4, which can be plugged to some motherboard, like this one that has two 1Gb/s ethernet port.
Searched for switches too, which are much cheaper than routers and found this TP Link (manageable version). But as it's not a router, I don't know at all if it would work if installed as in the drawings below. It appears you can create a VLAN to do that: a diagram ; one person doing it in a video. All my knowledge about networks comes from the PowerCert Animated Videos channel.
Questions
- Can a switch connected to a modem/router be able to provide Internet connection to other connected devices like in the diagrams? If yes are there speed or link issue compared to a router?
Diagram above: not my preferred way, we have one cable less and no OpenWRT
- Can the RPi CM 4 combined with a 2 eth ports motherboard be able to work as a modem/router when between the ONT and a switch?
- At the same time, can the RPi CM 4 run the services I want to host? Will there be noticeable issues? I suppose maintenance would be more problematic but I can manage.
Do some of the things you read seem unreasonable to you? It could be an issue if bad assumptions remain.
I would really appreciate an outside view. I am asking for help.
Redirect me where you feel the topic is more appropriate.