Ubiquiti router acting as a switch, can I create Vlans on it?

[Enspist]

I am currently living at home as I start my first job and save up to get an apartment. Currently my family uses Verizon Fios as out ISP and use the provided diaper geanie router to provide internet access to the house. I would love to use ubiquiti stuff instead of that because I host my own home server and would like to set up Vlans and other stuff. the Fios router provides almost no customizablily in this regard. If I were to get a ubiquiti router now, in preperation for when I move out, could I set it to only act as a switch and then set up Vlans on it? I do not want to run it as a router behind my families router because I will run into double NAT issues with my server when services need to access the internet. If I set it to only act as a switch would I still be able to set up Vlans or is only a function of it being a router?

 

 

[AbydosOne]

1 hour ago, Enspist said:

If I set it to only act as a switch would I still be able to set up Vlans or is only a function of it being a router?

I don't believe you can set up any Unifi gateway as just a switch.

I'm just conjecting, but you could get a layer 3 switch (as opposed to the simple layer 2 kind) that can do routing processing on board, but I don't know if you still need a router to manage the VLANs, etc.

[Enspist]

5 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

I don't believe you can set up any Unifi gateway as just a switch.

I think in the most recent ShortCircut Jake said the new cloud gateway could be used as a switch? unless I miss understood him. thats kinda what got me thinking about this. 

 

7 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

I'm just conjecting, but you could get a layer 3 switch (as opposed to the simple layer 2 kind) that can do routing processing on board, but I don't know if you still need a router to manage the VLANs, etc.

layer 3 would be a managed switch right? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

I'd argue double nat isn't that bad, you just have to do port forwarding twice. Yea its not optimal, but hosting anything on a residential connection isn't optimal.

 

What would these vlans do? Normally if you want vlans get a switch, not a router. I think vlans are a misused term at times as people often mean subnets, and vlans just make the wiring easier.

[Enspist]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

 

I'd argue double nat isn't that bad, you just have to do port forwarding twice. Yea its not optimal, but hosting anything on a residential connection isn't optima

 

Omfg I haven’t thought of that. I’m running an offense VM currently that I’m using as a firewall for my server stuff but trying to forward my Plex VM from behind the second firewall was being a pain. I didn’t think I would have to port forward twice…

 

 

as for what I’m trying to use Vlans for: 

 

I would want to set up some extra firewall rules from some of my VMs because they access the internet. I don’t want people hacking a VM and then messing with my stuff (it’s probably a slim chance of that happening but I’d rather be safe than sorry)

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Enspist said:

Omfg I haven’t thought of that. I’m running an offense VM currently that I’m using as a firewall for my server stuff but trying to forward my Plex VM from behind the second firewall was being a pain. I didn’t think I would have to port forward twice…

 

 

as for what I’m trying to use Vlans for: 

 

I would want to set up some extra firewall rules from some of my VMs because they access the internet. I don’t want people hacking a VM and then messing with my stuff (it’s probably a slim chance of that happening but I’d rather be safe than sorry)

You probably want multiple subnets. Then you can make multiple rules of how the subnets can talk to each other. 

 

IDK the hypervisor your using, but there are often filewall options in the hypervisor that could do this aswell.

[NobleGamer]

8 hours ago, Enspist said:

If I were to get a ubiquiti router now, in preperation for when I move out, could I set it to only act as a switch and then set up Vlans on it?

 

7 hours ago, AbydosOne said:

I don't believe you can set up any Unifi gateway as just a switch.

As an Ubiquiti Edgerouter-X owner, yes there are steps for configuring VLANs that may not require it to run as a router, though I havent used VLANs myself: https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/sections/360008199833-EdgeRouter-Routing-Switching-Configuration

 

I don't have experience with Ubiquiti gateways to know what they can or can't do.

 

6 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd argue double nat isn't that bad, you just have to do port forwarding twice.

As someone with 5G home internet who perpetually lives with double (CG)NAT and has even lived for a while with a triple NAT (5G >ER-X>Mesh Wifi), I don't think I've experienced any issues, but I also don't host a server and I rarely play games online. I also rarely configure manual port forwarding.

[LAwLz]

On 9/14/2024 at 12:27 AM, Enspist said:

I would want to set up some extra firewall rules from some of my VMs because they access the internet. I don’t want people hacking a VM and then messing with my stuff (it’s probably a slim chance of that happening but I’d rather be safe than sorry)

What kind of firewall rules? 

It's it for incoming or outgoing traffic? 

 

Anyway, if you want to do this then a simple switch won't really be enough. You need something with firewall capabilities (which some switches has but in very limited capacity). 

 

 

How do you plan on routing the various VLANs if someone told you "yes, you can use it as a switch"? Because I assume you would want to do some routing, not just have a little island that can't be contacted.