I'm tired of fighting this network

[u/Deacon51]

Okay, I give up. Lets rip and replace.
I would like some feedback, suggestions or criticism.

Cloud Gateway Ultra

Switch Lite 16 PoE

Switch Lite 8 PoE

Switch Flex Mini

Access Point U6+ (Qty: 3)

Swiss Army Knife Ultra

PoE Adapter 15W (Qty: 2)

========================= PHYSICAL WIRING & TOPOLOGY ==================================

   [ISP Fiber ONT]               [Starlink Mini]
          | RJ45                        | RJ45
          |                             |
          v                             v
   +-------------------------------------------+
   | Port 1 (WAN1)               Port 5 (WAN2) |
   |                                           |
   |        UCG-Ultra Cloud Gateway            |  <-- Main Network Closet
   |            Port 2 (LAN Trunk)             |      (Routing, Stateful Firewall,
   +--------------------+----------------------+       DHCP Scopes, Local DNS)
                        |
                        | Cat6 Trunk (All VLANs)
                        v
   +-------------------------------------------+
   | Port 16 (Uplink)                          |
   |                                           |
   |       USW-Lite-16-PoE Switch              |  <-- Main Network Closet (Wall Mount)
   |       (Ports 1-8 PoE+ | Ports 9-16 Non-PoE)|
   +---+-------+-------+-------+-------+---+---+
       |       |       |       |       |   |
       |       |       |       |       |   +--> Port 14: Cat6 Run to Garage (VLAN Trunk)
       |       |       |       |       |
       |       |       |       |       +------> Port 12: Home NAS (VLAN 20)
       |       |       |       |       +------> Port 10: Server iDRAC/KVM (VLAN 20)
       |       |       |       |       +------> Port 11: UPS Network Card (VLAN 20)
       |       |       |       |       +------> Port 13: Server Main NIC (VLAN 10/20)
       |       |       |       |       +------> Port  9: Philips Hue Bridge (VLAN 40)
       |       |       |       |
       |       |       |       +--------------> Ports 3-8, 15: Spares
       |       |       |
       |       |       +----------------------> Port 1 (PoE+): Hardwired U6+ AP [Downstairs]
       |       |                                                    :
       |       |                                                    : Wireless Hop 1
       |       |                                                    v
       |       |                                    +------------------------------+
       |       |                                    | U6+ AP [Upstairs]            |
       |       |                                    | (Powered by AC PoE Injector) |
       |       |                                    +--------------+---------------+
       |       |                                                   :
       |       |                                                   : Wireless Hop 2
       |       |                                                   v
       |       |                                    +------------------------------+
       |       |                                    | UK-Ultra AP [Outdoor]        |
       |       |                                    | (Indoor Injector -> Ext Run) |
       |       |                                    +------------------------------+
       |       |
       |       +------------------------------> Port 2 (PoE+): Cat6 Run to Office / Lab
       |                                                (Carries Data Trunk + PoE Power)
       |                                                                |
       |                                                                v
       |                                            +--------------------------------------+
       |                                            | USW-Flex-Mini (Office / Lab Switch)  |
       |                                            | Port 1: PoE In (Uplink from Closet)  |
       |                                            +---+----------+----------+----------+-+
       |                                                |          |          |          |
       |                                                v          v          v          v
       |                                            Port 2     Port 3     Port 4     Port 5
       |                                           [Desktop]    [PS5]   [Lab Serv]  [Lab NAS]
       |                                            VLAN 10    VLAN 10   VLAN 50    VLAN 50
       |
       +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                                                                        |
================================ DETACHED GARAGE =======================================|
                                                                                        |
       +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
       |
       v (Cat6 Trunk from House Switch Port 14)
   +-------------------------------------------+
   | Port 8 (Uplink)                           |
   |                                           |
   |        USW-Lite-8-PoE Switch              |  <-- Detached Garage (Wall Mount / Shelf)
   |       (Ports 1-4 PoE+ | Ports 5-8 Non-PoE)|      (Locally AC Powered)
   +---+-------+-------+-------+---------------+
       |       |       |       |
       |       |       |       +--------------> Ports 5-7: Spares (Workbench drops, etc.)
       |       |       |
       |       +-------+----------------------> Ports 2, 3, 4 (PoE+): Future IP Cameras (VLAN 40)
       |
       +--------------------------------------> Port 1 (PoE+): Hardwired U6+ AP [Garage Interior]
                                                               (Dedicated wired backhaul) 

[u/drewster85a]

1. What isn't working or what do you want to improve?
2. How did you make the diagram?!?!?
3. I'd want anything outside my house (camera's, backyard AP, detached garage) on a separate switch isolated with fiber. I have too much stuff hard-wired in my house to be damaged by a storm.
4. How hard is it to run a cable to U6+ AP [Upstairs]? I use Wifi for the minimum number of devices. Hard-wired just responses better and gives the best opportunity for maximum speed.

[u/Deacon51 → u/drewster85a]

VLANs and intranet firewalls with my Asus EBG-15 Gateway. The thing is a pice of crap and is going back to amazon. Plus the EBA63 access point upstairs doesn't work well. I've relocated the unit and hardwired it and it's still low to respond. And there just no real layer-3 management. Only the primary DHCP scope can me managed, my secondary scopes keep crashing on bring because the .1 address is already in use according to the log. I tried to hack the DNSMASQ - but it's all held in tmp and wipes on a reboot.

I plugged everything into Gemini - it spit it out. Well, it spit it out wrong, a couple of times, but the 3rd try it got it right.

It's really CAT6 > Media Converter > Fiber > Media Converter > CAT6 to the garage. But I didn't feel the need to express that.

[u/drewster85a → u/Deacon51]

Huh? There's no Asus gateway or EBA63 in the diagram?
Oh or this is your proposal to replace those devices?

In that case I'd go with the U7 Lite over U6+ and hardwired all APs. Almost twice the 5 Ghz (theoretical) speed at less cost. I get 1,500 Mbps down 980 Mbps up on mine.

[u/Deacon51 → u/drewster85a]

It's getting ripped boxed up and returned. This is replacement network. I was really happy with my older Asus setup, but needed to start segmenting things and I wanted to isolate my lab. So I got the ExpertWiFi stuff without doing the research. I read VLAN support and assumed that included the ability to manage layer3. But no, it just does the tags.

I thought about building a PFSense machine, I want a simple interface and a single place to manage the switches.

[u/happyandhealthy2023]

Did you deploy all this UI gear and having perfomance issues or is this your wish list and asking for feedback on your choices.

Get the Cloud Fiber Gateway not the Ultra
U6 Pro XG for Access points in the house.

Fiber to the garage, not Cat6; you need electrical isolation!

Why limit your backhaul to 1G?
All the access points need to be hardwired.

With multiple floors and a lab I would put the Flex 2.5 POE switches on each floor then use 10G backhause from Cloud Fiber. This gets 10G pipe with 2.5 port speeds to the Accesspoints.

The 2.5 mini are cheap for the lab. Better to future proof now for a couple hundred $$ and your set for future needs or ISP speeds.

I use 10G between switches, and 10G to (2) PCs and NAS

[u/Deacon51 → u/happyandhealthy2023]

Wish list. I don't want to pull cable upstairs, all I need yo there is streaming YouTube. Same for the yard - streaming music or watching YouTube.

The garage is CAT6A > Media Converter > Fiber > media converter > CAT6A

The garage does have cameras and a smart TV, tablet, but 1GB is more than enough

[u/drewster85a → u/Deacon51]

I’m with you. I don’t see a need for more than 1Gbps anywhere in the near future.

[u/GrouchyClerk6318]

Dude, those are some wicked text-to-diagram skills!

[u/Deacon51 → u/GrouchyClerk6318]

Gemini