Need help with small home network

[Warak]

Hi everyone. So Iam planing my home network now, got few problems, looking for tips and suggestions :)

few explanations...

1. Red are basically different rooms.

2. Number of cables is more or less according to what I got, all of them already inside walls, so any new wires would have to be outside.

3. Both PCs got 2 RJ45 outlets near.

4. Left PC not exactly close to other things in this room

5, In theory both NAS would need 2 TPs in them, but lets say 1 per each would be enough.

 

So my main problem is with my ISP, he use optics so he gave me Chinese-basement level ONT, its got only 4 ports, not enough. 

1. I will 100% not be able to use any other ONT.

2. ISP will not give me any other ONT...not sure how they work with small and big offices, 4 ports is a damn joke.

3. ISP will not give me SFP module to use with my own good equipment.

4. I will not be able to use my own SFP, afaik you cant just put optic cable in it, it all depends on ISPs equipment. I head some people here do something with specific SFPs, change firmware or something, but result is pretty unstable.

5. There is a very likely possibility that I even will not be able to put ONT in Bridge mode or have any access to its settings.

 

As you can see 4 ports are not even close to what I need. I need 10+. So what can I do?

1. Use both TVs and consoles wirelessly, but I dont want to use Wi-Fi if I can use more stable, secure and fast wires + even if I do this I stil gonna need 4 ports minimum, so 0 room for future expansion.

2. I can connect one of ONTs ports to my normal Router(or Switch?) WAN port and go from there like usual. Not sure how and if it will even work, but It suppose too I think.

 

Too bad I cant just use SFP, I heard its pretty easy for ISP to allow use of them, they just dont want to do it, and Iam not sure I will be able to find "friend" among ISP workers. SFP module would be ideal option I think.

Any other options? Perhaps some tips? Am I missing something? Iam new to this stuff, for about 20 years ISPs just gave me simple UTP with internet near front door and rest is up to me, how I use it...plug straight into PC, or use Router. Now I have to deal with ONT and Iam not sure...

[mail929]

I'm not totally familiar with ONTs but I'd say use one RJ45 in the left room for the computer for the PC and attach the rest of the devices with a switch of some kind. You can use a old router as a switch most of the time by just attaching all the devices as well as the wall connection to LAN ports (note not the WAN port). But most routers also only have 4 LAN ports so that wouldn't be enough. A simple 8-port switch should do the job.

[Electronics Wizardy]

29 minutes ago, Warak said:

4 ports is a damn joke.

use a switch, a router/mode, really only needs one port

 

just get a few switches like this guy and yuour good. https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-8-Port-Gigabit-Ethernet-Unmanaged/dp/B07PFYM5MZ/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_147_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WKT5BXK612PAN18TCYGQ

[Donut417]

4 hours ago, Warak said:

Any other options? Perhaps some tips? Am I missing something?

Buy an 16 port switch and call it a day..... 

 

Id add a switch where the ONT is. Plug one cable from the ONT in to the Switch. Plug everything else in to the Switch. 

[Warak]

So as I suspected not a lot of options, thanks... at least they give me lots of speed, true unlimited traffic and extremely cheap price, not the worst thing, but still I dont understand why limit their customers so much, I even agree to pay more for convenience...its funny when you want to give money to someone, they just want to take it.

 

Guess I go and look what switches we got here...

I like this beast MikroTik CRS125-24G-1S-IN, too bad its not black\orange like routers + I guess its little too much for my small network, no reason to pay almost 200$.

[Donut417]

8 hours ago, Warak said:

ut still I dont understand why limit their customers so much

Because this is residential service. Their tech support staff is only trained to fix problems with their equipment and not customer owned. Plus with Fiber is a lot of complicated because you dont have hardware you can just plug n play. As far as only having 4 ports, thats pretty much an industry standard.  

[Warak]

2 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Because this is residential service. Their tech support staff is only trained to fix problems with their equipment and not customer owned. Plus with Fiber is a lot of complicated because you dont have hardware you can just plug n play. As far as only having 4 ports, thats pretty much an industry standard.  

Well I never asked support to fix problems with my own equipment, all I need from them is just simple wire with internet

As for fiber complications, as far as I understand SFP module only needs to be registered on their equipment, this is it, some people got friends working at this ISP and they use their own SFPs and routers. + I bet there is very easy way to just allow any SFP usage, ISPs with classic twisted pair dont restrict usage of any routers and they can, one time I had to change my router and all I needed to do is to call support and ask them to delete my previous routers MAC so I can connect and register new, 0 problems.

 

But I see your point, they just dont want to create potential problems like any big company, it will not give them significantly more money cause I bet Iam part of, at best, 1-2% of their clients who potentially can require something more serious than some noname 10$ router.

 

I still wonder how they do business with small\medium enterprises, with few big servers and all. I cant believe they just give them same 4port routers, too bad internet prices are crazy, in/out 6Mbps/0.7mbps - almost 100$ per month for business customers, its not even funny considering I can get 1000Mbps for 23$ per month. You cant even get 500Mbps as business customer, their top option is 20/1 for unbelievable 220$ per month, its a lot even by USA standards I think and I know Americans got very shitty offers most of the time... very slow, traffic limits, with useless things like 100000 cable channels bundled with internet and all this good stuff from 20th century when internet was like magic

[PsyOpWarlord]

Is there a reason you can't add your own network switch and add as many ports as you want?

[Warak]

16 hours ago, PsyOpWarlord said:

Is there a reason you can't add your own network switch and add as many ports as you want?

I can and I think Ill have to, not much options. What I dont like is ISPs router, I dont know what it is, what holes and exploits its got, how secure my network would be + its very possible I wont have access to its settings, I will have to call support to change damn wi-fi password, at least it was like this few years ago. I found good MikroTik router, its got enough port + Wi-Fi + SFP so with it no need for anything else like switch.

 

One other possibility - If I will be able to put ISPs router in bridge mode I will connect my own router to it, pretty stupid construction if u ask me but atleast I will have some kind of security and safety.

[Warak]

So I looked at what we got, Netgear is basically nonexistent here, home or enterprise, at least at normal "consumer grade" shops, but we got literally hundreds of D-Links

So, right now Iam looking at Linksys LGS116P or Linksys LGS116 or Netgear GS116. Like their looks, it would be very cool to see one of them on a wall or stand + so far cant find too much problems or complaints about them. And Netgear would be little harder to find, but I think possible.

Not sure about PoE, almost 2x price difference, I dont really need it right now so not sure there is much reason to pay for PoE, and if I will need it in the future I can always buy another smaller switch right?

 

Also...am I missing something? LGS116, GS116...they even look pretty similar, I know Linksys is Cisco, but Netgear suppose to be by themselves.

Another fun thing, it looks like NA GS116 looks differently form European GS116, yours looks better  

[schizznick]

Fiber is a little more complicated than you might realize. For example the ISP I work for uses ActiveE and GPON. Both are fiber but one (ActiveE) can use generally available SFP's the other (GPON) is often proprietary and may require vendor specific ONT's. We also do allow bridging in certain instances, but for 99% of our customers a 4 port ONT works great. Using switches solves the port density issue. For the few that require a different option bridging solves most of those.

[Warak]

10 hours ago, schizznick said:

Fiber is a little more complicated than you might realize. For example the ISP I work for uses ActiveE and GPON. Both are fiber but one (ActiveE) can use generally available SFP's the other (GPON) is often proprietary and may require vendor specific ONT's. We also do allow bridging in certain instances, but for 99% of our customers a 4 port ONT works great. Using switches solves the port density issue. For the few that require a different option bridging solves most of those.

We got GPON. Tbh so far I dont really like this thing, classic tp seems way more convenient. My ISP use SERCOMM and I think ZTE ONTs, never even heard about first brand, I bet they got SFP modules so compatibility issues should not to be a thing. But you are right, as I said I never used fiber before, less than a month ago I saw cable itself for the first time , it may be more complicated than it looks to me. Btw its was very interesting experience...its so thin, especially w\o all of its protective cover , hard to imagine how it is able to send information with such speeds ...I just hope workers dont broke it already, very fragile thing compared to tp.

 

Perhaps in the end it wont be as bad as I think... I mean switches, possibility of limited access to router settings...perhaps its just a matter of habit, for more than 15 years it was always tp, got used to it. In the end all I need is internet and more or less secured wireless network, nothing too special or specific.

It even can be more interesting in the end, today when I woke up I had this strange idea...why not try to use small server rack, lets say 8-10U ? Switches Iam looking at already can be mounted in the rack, UPSs are not much more expensive, too bad NASs are extremely expensive compared to desktop versions, not sure why...I can always use desktop NASes and rack shelves...anyway, thing to consider, can look pretty interesting as a part of room design