In the ceiling above me, there is a UPS Device with cabling wired to it which runs to the outside of my home. It goes into a box attached to the house wall. My assumption is that it’s for PoE and that there is some sort of switch in the outside box since that is where the fiber terminates after coming to the house from the utility. Right next to it there is a Cat5e cable. THAT cable is terminated to an RJ45 which is plugged into a keystone. The cable continues after the keystone and eventually leads to the wall jack where my router patches in to. Now the question;
Is it possible to in some way SPLIT the INCOMING Cat5e cable into two runs? One will go to the existing router. ANOTHER CABLE RUN will stay in the ceiling space until it exits one building and enters a small workshop. (Direct Bury Cat6 most likely). I hoped to set up a second independent network in the workshop, with, of course, another router. Can I just use an unmanaged switch for this? Can I plug the incoming ISP into the switch and then run two cables from different ports to the two router locations?? Am I on any sort of correct path with this thought?? TIA and I appreciate your help.
Where is your ISP modem in this configuration? Do you have a modem/router combo unit? or is the modem separate? If you are provided more than one IP address from your ISP, and your plan to split is AFTER the modem, then there shouldn’t be a problem to do it that way.
If it were me, I’d prefer to use one router, and create a vlan for your workshop network, and through firewall rules, keep it isolated. Not sure if physical space permits this or not in your case. Using a vlan would simplify the management of the entire network, and give you potential to open up access from workshop clients to your main building clients/servers possibly down the road easier.
As @Manipulate said, two separate firewalls is only going to work if your ISP provides you with at least two IP addresses. If you’re already receiving IPv6, this shouldn’t be a problem, since in that case you’re probably going to be assigned a /64 block. If you’re still getting IPv4 or DS-lite and are assigned only 1 public address, you’d have to double-NAT one of the firewalls in which case it would be way easier to just use one firewall and set up VLANs, as Manipulate suggested.
I have, however, never heard of an ISP providing uninterupted power to a modem. But then again, as I’m from Germany, I’m not used to the concept of having the modem outside the house. Here, the connection is usually terminated inside the building. Anyways, what would the UPS have to do with Power over Ethernet? I don’t get that part entirely.