2.5G stand-alone router recommendations

[MattWeiler]

I live in Ontario so the only fiber internet option available to me is Bell.

Bell recently (less than 2 weeks ago) finished installing their fiber lines in our neighborhood and directly to our houses so I ordered their service and it just got installed today

I ended up getting the 1.5Gbps down and 940Mbps up package which is a huge boost over the 1Gbps down and 30Mbps up that I was getting with Rogers.

 

Are there any 2.5Gbps routers (without Wi-Fi) or will I have to build my own using pfSense?

I assume that I could alternatively get a 10Gbps router as long as it's capable of working with 2.5Gbps connections.

I've read that there are some older 10Gbps devices (switches/routers) that don't work with 2.5Gbps or 5Gbps connections but rather downgrade them to 1Gbps

 

Can the Bell modem be turned into a bridge mode?

The modem is called the "Giga Hub" and it's hardware version is "5690-000001-000".

Basically I want to disable the routing features on this device.

I casually asked the tech just for me to know if/when I can get a new router, but he said he doesn't think it's possible.

But I thought I'd ask here because you never know

 

 

Background

I have most of my house wired with CAT6a ethernet cables, at least to the devices that I want the higher speed, but I'm lacking 1 piece of tech; I have been unable to find a stand-alone 2.5G capable ethernet router.

 

I recently bought a 2.5Gbps 5 port switch that I am using to hookup my gaming PC and NAS/Plex Server for faster connection speeds.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08XWK4HNT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I have several Ubiquity access points, so I really just need a router without Wi-Fi capabilities.

 

My old router was a 1Gbps stand-alone VPN router.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B007B60SCG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But I don't want to use that anymore otherwise I loose out on the additional speed available to me.

[DrMacintosh]

Can you post a diagram of your network? 

[MattWeiler]

4 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Can you post a diagram of your network? 

Thanks for the fast reply

 

I don't think I have a very complicated network, most of my smart-house stuff in either z-wave or zigbee.

 

This is what my network looked like before the installation of the faster Bell modem:

Notice the gigabit VPN router between the modem and my switches.

 

This is what my network looks like now:

The modem is now pulling double duty as the modem and the router.

 

The main issue is that when I switched to the new Bell modem/router, I had to manually add all of my port forwarding and DHCP static IPs to the new modem/router.

This was annoying since the new Bell modem/router only lets me defined IP addresses in the range 192.168.2.* while my previous gigabit router let me define IP addresses in the range 192.168.0.*.

 

The only reason that this was a PITA was that in Home Assistant, most of the integrations that make reference to some device on my network don't let you change the IP address, at least not that I could find.

So I had to delete and re-install several integrations.

 

In the future if/when the Bell modem/router dies, as the Rogers modem did a lot, I'll have to re-do all of my port forwarding and DHCP static IPs again.

 

If I have a solid router between the modem and my switches, then I don't have to worry about that... until the router dies

But I've had no luck finding a 2.5Gbps router or a 10Gbps router that supports 2.5Gbps.

[king_thenorth]

On 11/1/2022 at 8:17 PM, MattWeiler said:

Thanks for the fast reply

 

I don't think I have a very complicated network, most of my smart-house stuff in either z-wave or zigbee.

 

This is what my network looked like before the installation of the faster Bell modem:

Notice the gigabit VPN router between the modem and my switches.

 

This is what my network looks like now:

The modem is now pulling double duty as the modem and the router.

 

The main issue is that when I switched to the new Bell modem/router, I had to manually add all of my port forwarding and DHCP static IPs to the new modem/router.

This was annoying since the new Bell modem/router only lets me defined IP addresses in the range 192.168.2.* while my previous gigabit router let me define IP addresses in the range 192.168.0.*.

 

The only reason that this was a PITA was that in Home Assistant, most of the integrations that make reference to some device on my network don't let you change the IP address, at least not that I could find.

So I had to delete and re-install several integrations.

 

In the future if/when the Bell modem/router dies, as the Rogers modem did a lot, I'll have to re-do all of my port forwarding and DHCP static IPs again.

 

If I have a solid router between the modem and my switches, then I don't have to worry about that... until the router dies

But I've had no luck finding a 2.5Gbps router or a 10Gbps router that supports 2.5Gbps.

I am using this with opnsense installed as a router. I put 32gb of ram (overkill but I run a few other things on it) and use a 128GB nvm drive. It was $200 about 3 months ago. You can probably find something similar for a little less, just look around for these things. Serve the home has a few articles on them as well that I am pretty sure have links

[MattWeiler]

20 minutes ago, king_thenorth said:

I am using this with opnsense installed as a router. I put 32gb of ram (overkill but I run a few other things on it) and use a 128GB nvm drive. It was $200 about 3 months ago. You can probably find something similar for a little less, just look around for these things. Serve the home has a few articles on them as well that I am pretty sure have links

Thank you, that looks like a good option.

I've thought about building a PfSense router in the past, but didn't want a full PC dedicated to it.

But these super small form factor systems look like they could be a good option.

 

I know enough when it comes to networking to be dangerous and get simple things done, but I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to the more advanced stuff such as managed switches and subnets.

 

If I cannot disable the routing capabilities of my Bell modem/router/AP, can I still setup another router in my network; or is that ill advised?

My new Bell modem/router/AP only allows me to connect devices using the IP range 192.168.2.2 - 192.168.2.255.

As I understand it, I should be able to setup a 2nd router that could then create a subnet possibly on 192.168.1.*.

But TBH, I don't know much more about subnets than the above 

 

I should note that the switches currently in my network are all unmanaged switches.

[king_thenorth]

7 minutes ago, MattWeiler said:

If I cannot disable the routing capabilities of my Bell modem/router/AP, can I still setup another router in my network; or is that ill advised?

 

My new Bell modem/router/AP only allows me to connect devices using the IP range 192.168.2.2 - 192.168.2.255.

As I understand it, I should be able to setup a 2nd router that could then create a subnet possibly on 192.168.1.*.

But TBH, I don't know much more about subnets than the above 

 

I should note that the switches currently in my network are all unmanaged switches.

You can, but you will have double nat issues then, as you will be routing then routing again. If you use pfsense or opnsense, you can assign multiple vlans in software, so multiple subnets, if needed. A quick google brings up this for bridge mode, so there will probably be some good things in there to help with that part of the equation. As long as the unmanged switches still allow the vlan tags to pass through and don't strip them away, you should be able to have multiple vlans through the unmanaged switches

[MattWeiler]

50 minutes ago, king_thenorth said:

You can, but you will have double nat issues then, as you will be routing then routing again. If you use pfsense or opnsense, you can assign multiple vlans in software, so multiple subnets, if needed. A quick google brings up this for bridge mode, so there will probably be some good things in there to help with that part of the equation. As long as the unmanged switches still allow the vlan tags to pass through and don't strip them away, you should be able to have multiple vlans through the unmanaged switches

Thank you very much.

It sounds like I just need to find the password for my b1*** username and I should be able to connect a router using pppoe authentication.

 

I've already disabled the integrated Wi-Fi in favor of my own Ubiquity APs.

Now I just have to build a simple PfSense or OPNsense router.

 

Thank you so much, my network will be in my control again

[NobleGamer]

1 hour ago, MattWeiler said:

If I cannot disable the routing capabilities of my Bell modem/router/AP, can I still setup another router in my network; or is that ill advised?

It is not recommended because of what a double NAT might impact, but my network does just fine with a double NAT of an EdgeRouter-X feeding a router+mesh base station. Perhaps it helps that I don't do console gaming, and I don't run an internet facing server. I haven't tried accessing my NAS from the internet since my ER-X install, and I probably should.

 

Unfortunately for your use case, Ubiquiti Edgerouters only have 1gbps or 10gbps ports, and the latter costs a lot. As for a 2.5gbps router without wifi, I'm not familiar with other brands to know what they have. I'm sure there's some consumer router with one 2.5gbps WAN port and one other 2.5gbps port, but it's very likely going to come with wifi (though I would be surprised if it could not be disabled). If you want to build your own router, more power to you, but there may be a consumer solution for $200-$300 if I recall my prior brief search for 2m5gbps hardware correctly.

[MattWeiler]

12 hours ago, NobleGamer said:

It is not recommended because of what a double NAT might impact, but my network does just fine with a double NAT of an EdgeRouter-X feeding a router+mesh base station. Perhaps it helps that I don't do console gaming, and I don't run an internet facing server. I haven't tried accessing my NAS from the internet since my ER-X install, and I probably should.

 

Unfortunately for your use case, Ubiquiti Edgerouters only have 1gbps or 10gbps ports, and the latter costs a lot. As for a 2.5gbps router without wifi, I'm not familiar with other brands to know what they have. I'm sure there's some consumer router with one 2.5gbps WAN port and one other 2.5gbps port, but it's very likely going to come with wifi (though I would be surprised if it could not be disabled). If you want to build your own router, more power to you, but there may be a consumer solution for $200-$300 if I recall my prior brief search for 2m5gbps hardware correctly.

Thank you.

 

Last night I moved all of my network gear out of my server cubby (under the stairs in the basement) to our storage room.

I'm planning to mount the modem on a small shelf that I'll install off of that storage shelf, a little higher than it currently is, just so it's not within reach of the kiddo.

The main reason was that all of the network cables terminating in the server cubby made it very annoying to pull my server rack out to work on it.

 

Upon moving everything and hooking it back-up, I found that the Bell modem that I have has 4 1Gbps ports and 1 10Gbps port.

I just assumed they were all 2.5Gbps ports .

 

For now at least I'm using the Bell modem act as the router with the 10Gbps port feeding my 2.5Gbps 5 port switch and the other 1Gbps ports are feeding my 24 port switch.

I'm going to see how the Bell modem can perform its routing duties and if it is as bad as the Rogers modem was, then I'll have to look into doing something more exotic.

 

Servers Info

I currently have 1 server in my rack which is running my Plex server, Home Assistant (in a VM) and BlueIris for my cameras.

I'm not sure how complicated it would be to ensure that my Plex server and Home Assistant would still be accessible remotely, but I'll cross that bridge if/when I get there

 

Right now this server is running Windows (due to BlueIris), but I just bought a new rack chassis with 12 hot swappable 3.5" bays.

My plan is to put a decent Ryzen build in there, install Unraid and then migrate my Plex server and Home Assistant to it.

Then my original server will just be a backup server possibly still running BlueIris if I can't get it to work in a VM on the new Unraid box.

[Kevin_Essiambre]

On 11/6/2022 at 6:29 PM, MattWeiler said:

Thank you, that looks like a good option.

I've thought about building a PfSense router in the past, but didn't want a full PC dedicated to it.

But these super small form factor systems look like they could be a good option.

 

I know enough when it comes to networking to be dangerous and get simple things done, but I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to the more advanced stuff such as managed switches and subnets.

 

If I cannot disable the routing capabilities of my Bell modem/router/AP, can I still setup another router in my network; or is that ill advised?

My new Bell modem/router/AP only allows me to connect devices using the IP range 192.168.2.2 - 192.168.2.255.

As I understand it, I should be able to setup a 2nd router that could then create a subnet possibly on 192.168.1.*.

But TBH, I don't know much more about subnets than the above 

 

I should note that the switches currently in my network are all unmanaged switches.

You should be able to change the IP address to anything you'd like in the 192.168.X.X range under the DHCP tab when logging into the routers interface on a web browser.

 

I've attached an image for reference.

[MattWeiler]

On 11/15/2022 at 12:21 AM, Kevin_Essiambre said:

You should be able to change the IP address to anything you'd like in the 192.168.X.X range under the DHCP tab when logging into the routers interface on a web browser.

 

I've attached an image for reference.

I don't know how I missed that

Thank you.