I could get a small Cisco business router and an access point for about $350 and it would probably be more durable and reliable than any of these consumer devices. The real issue I'm having is finding good parental controls. I have tweens with iPads, phones, laptops, Alexas, Roku, Nintendos, Play Stations, and who knows what else. I need a way to manage time on all these devices. I have a Disney Circle device and it works well but it has one major flaw. It's uses ARP spoofing to work. That's traditionally a tool a hacker would use in a public place to steal passwords and credit card info. So, web browsers are getting better at detecting it and it causes all kinds of issues. Getting a router with Circle built in should work better. That pretty much limits me to these Trendnets. R7000 R7000P R8000 X6 R8000P X6S Orbi RBK50 None of these are an upgrade over my Asus AC68u that I've had for 5 years. To some extent the Orbi Mesh is a bit of an upgrade but it's hard to get an apples to apples comparison to say an X6. The X6S is the newer version of the X6 but it seems like it might get worse performance. Same with the R7000P. Newer, but maybe not better.
I don't know how much a Trendnet costs. But you can do that for $35 with a Raspberry Pi. https://keexybox.org/ Also, you can use a Raspberry Pi as a DNS server to block adult targeted ads for your kids. https://pi-hole.net/ Can you give me name/model?
I haven't looked too deeply at the business solutions, but a Cisco AP with Mobility Express built in, like an Aironet 1815 or 1830 is needed. They're about $160 to $260 new. I'm not sure how they are sized for spaces. You might need more than one. The router could be a Cisco RV160 for about $125. You'd need to know a bit about Cisco Mobility Express and Cisco IOS. A lot of these devices can be bought used as well. Businesses buy them and them leave them behind when they move.
Overthinking is what I do. The Orbi might give me a faster connection to my office but the X6 might be faster for the rest of the house. Anyhoo I bought an X6S. I'll have benchmarks in the future.
@bfun if i were to buy a 10Gbe switch with only SFP+ ports. Can I use a SFP+ -> Cat6a converter on the switch end and plug right into a 10Gb ethernet port on the PC end? Per my internet scanning it seems the SFP+ is intended to go from network device to network device. But 10Gb ethernet port switches are actually 3x more expensive. edit: damn amazon links don't work on this shitty site... 10G SFP+ RJ45 Copper Transceiver MikroTik 5-Port Desktop Switch, 1 Gigabit Ethernet Port, 4 SFP+ 10Gbps Ports (CRS305-1G-4S+IN)
I'll start by saying SFP can be a pain in the ass because of compatibility issues. Mismatching vendors, mismatching speeds, mismatching anything can cause them not to play nice. Copper seems to be a bit more reliable than fiber but still... I hate SFP modules. I've had so many issues with them. I read the one review on Newegg for that switch, and the guy said his Cisco brand of SFP was not compatible so he returned it for another brand that was compatible. Anyway, I don't believe I've ever tried to connect one to a server NIC. In theory it should work, but maybe make sure you can return everything if it doesn't, or do a lot of research and confirm all brand parts are compatible. I guess the high cost of real Ethernet ports comes with the luxury of knowing it will work without too much hassle.
FS.com are really good for fibre SFP transceivers, they give you all of the comparability info. I've used transceivers from them for both Cisco and Dell switches and have a couple that go from SFP to 10G-T (RJ45) for a Dell stack as I have a couple of SuperMicro servers with 10Gbps RJ45 ports. Otherwise happily use a mix of copper and fibre in other applications such as 40Gbps NICS.
Thanks. They have good prices on that site too. The fiber cables would cost the same as I was going to pay for Cat6a on Amazon. Maybe I'll just do that instead between rooms.
So I'm an idiot... this thread was created nearly 6 years ago about trying to wire my place for ethernet. Turns out the phone jacks are run using CAT6, so it was wired the whole goddamn time! I just had to go around and redo the ends to use all 8 cables instead of 2 for phones. After a few failed tries it was surprising easy to make the ends and cost $20 in tools! So if your house was built after like 2000 you probably have atleast Cat5 in the walls for your phone jacks.
So... I followed a YouTube tutorial to make a VPN on a $35 Raspberry Pi. It works crazy well given the low effort and cost. So my question is, the video I followed says it's completely secure but other videos say my whole network is a risk. Do you guys do any of this stuff? Should I be worried about the open port on the router that goes to the Pi? I feel like tech has gotten so cheap people like me can do stupid shit too easily. Almost 30 years later I'm finally beginning to understand this guy...
So how do you use it? Does your phone or whatever remote devices, makes a VPN with the Rasberry Pi system at home? If that's the case I'd be a little worried. Anything that has a public IP address is reachable by the bad guys. You might be totally safe today but sometime in the future there could be a vulnerability in the Pi system.
Lol yeah. I let someone connect and drop files off on a computer. We were doing FTP before this. But apparently thats even more unsecured. The alternative is to use a middle man like dropbox. But that effectively doubles the delivery time. I was reading more. If I got a router that could do vlans and put the Pi and drop-off PC on their own vlan. Would that keep the rest of my stuff safe?
If you're going to replace the router for something that can do vLan, then why not just put something in that can also handle the VPN? Like a Draytek for example, they can do IPsec VPN and have MFA built in (last time I set up a VPN on a Draytek the did anyway, you just use an authenticator app which you give a secret key to that the Draytek generates).
A vlan might make it a little safer but not much unless you plan to have a firewall or access list between vlans. China is already port sweeping yo shit.
Thanks! I'll do some investigation. Doesn't look like I can get that Draytek here but I found some alternatives. I guess I'm kinda old school where I think specific use devices "work better". But I guess computing has become overkill in the last few years. Well I've "solved" the problem for now by just keeping an extra laptop connected to the VPN slot 24/7 lol.
I ordered the Wifi 6 sequel to the Nighthawk X6 while it's on sale and there's no sales tax in Florida. Will report back on how it is. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PNR2VMD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I have two newish laptops that support Wifi 6. My X6 from 2015 still works but it's getting pretty old. If this works I'll retire the X6 and keep it as a spare. I've never kept a router this long. My past ones always flaked out after a couple of years.
The non-wifi 6 R8000P I bought last year has been good to me. I didn't go with a wifi 6 model because I saw too many reports of devices dropping from the network on those routers. I figured it was growing pains for a new protocol.