Setting up home network

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

Hi All,

I was wondering if I could get some guidance or a slap on the head for sense abdout my network setup. I am moving to a new house so taking this opportunity to try "lock" things down, or setup things right.

Here is a diagram of my thoughts, but am still a little unsure of how or if I should do things like this.

Network Setup
Network Setup2484×1200 130 KB

Explanation.

  • Router 1 is from the ISP, and this would be the modem that would forward only those ports I want up the chain to Router 2
    • Thinking 192.168.0.1
    • Also has WIFI, so was thinking of leaving this on for IP CAMS and guest network. It means would be seperated from "main" router.
    • Downstairs
  • Router 2 is my main router running OpenWRT 22. Used to run things like mwan3 on it for load balancing etc. but never messed with subnets and stuff like that.
    • 192.168.1.1
    • Upstairs
    • LAN Port 1: would connect to Switch 1
      • PC's connected to this as the "main" network with the power.
      • 192.168.1.x? Not sure if this would need a subnet.
    • LAN Port 2: Connect to Switch 2
      • This would be the server section.
      • TrueNAS
      • BackupNAS
      • etc.
      • 192.168.10.x
    • LAN Port 3: Connect to Switch 3
      • This is the IOT section
      • Smart TV's and other wired IOT devices on the network.
      • 192.168.20.x
    • LAN Port 4: Unknown, was thinking a place for the OrangePi running PiHole for DNS and maybe DHCP

Router 2, would have its own WIFI that would be part of Switch1 network.

Am I thinking this through correctly or should I do things differently? Also, would the best way to set this up be via VLAN's or some other method. On the servers I might run some game servers, so ports would be forward through there. My OrangePI runs Pihole, Tailscale, Swag and Searxng. Currently pihole runs my DHCP service as well, but unsure how this will work in a multi subnet network. Also, Should it go in the server section instead or connected to ISP router? Again, really not sure how this will hang together

Also, most of my servers have 2 ethernet ports, so Would it be advisable to maybe connect the TrueNAS one to the main network as well to "shorten" the route for maybe using iSCSI connections?

For the WIFI was originally thinking of only using Router2 wifi and then connecting another AP for downstairs or seeing if I can turn the ISP router to a WIFI AP. This would mean all that stuff could be routed through the PiHole.

Any advice or how to's would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

2

If what you have labelled as "router 1" is just the ISP modem, you should switch it into bridge mode if available. You don't want two routers daisy chained.

Why are you using multiple physical switches? If you want to isolate networks, you can use a single switch and some VLANs.

3

Not sure If it has a bridge mode, but essentially all it will do is forward specific ports to the OpenWRT Router. I have used similar setups before as well as with mwan3 when I had 2 ISP's and load balanced them before. Didn't really see this as an issue tbh.

I have a bunch of switches lying around, so thought it an easier way to isolate the various networks. I was messing about on the router, and just changed lan4 to separate network with its own DHCP and got it working, so I know I can use it this way. Honestly though, I have no idea how to use the VLAN properly. Been trolling through Youtube stuff but they are never direct to the point and seem to go all over the place with wishy washy stuff for example I am using openwrt 22 I really don't care about previous versions and how to setup stuff in that. IF you know of a good tutorial on setting up a VLAN to multiple subnets on a single cable, I would love to see that.

The whole multiple subnets on a single cable does confuse me tbh.

Also, my switches are 8 and 5 port Gigabit ones, so its not those big arse ones.