Hello Tom and everyone here in the Forum!
I hope this message finds everyone well!
I’m about to start into a rebuild project at home of the home data network. I’m doing this because here in Ontario, Bell Canada has finally delivered Fibre Optical Ethernet to everyone’s home in my region. I think in the end I’m ready to make the jump to 8.0GBps fibre. It’s only $120/month CDN - so it’s pretty decent pricing for what we are getting (full, synchronous 8.0 GBps - that’s a lot of seed for a house the two of us).
So that’s what’s driving the reasons that I’m coming to the Forum with my questions. At work we only sell HP/ProCurve/Aruba. It’s just good stuff. We do sell D-Link in situations that aren’t too big and where budget is a major issue. Data switches have REALLY gone up in price over the decade.
I was just curious what switches people would recommend?
Here are the requirements that I can think of right-off-the-bat:
- I will probably need a 24 port switch
- Minimum 1GB interfaces
- I will need ~12 of those interfaces to be either PoE or PoE+/+
- I would like some option for fibre GBICs or away to connect the fibre directly to the switch using an uplink port.
I can’t think of anything else I would want. I obvious want to add a WiFi (6) WAP to the network, preferably from the same switch vendor. I will probably have 4-10 VLANs on the data switch and several of those VLANs will need to be broadcasted (i.e., VLAN 10 - VoIP Wireless Phones). Or a VLAN for Guest Access (I usually call this SSID/VLAN “Hotel Guests” and people instantly go to it). Ideally because I’m getting 8.0 GBps from Bell, I wouldn’t even object to having a separate VLAN & SSID for “Guest Off Property”. Because I have hide speed, I can add in a credit card processor on that VLAN and SSID and may some of my neighbours wouldn’t mind paying for access to that incredible Internet access speed. This last point is just an odd thing to maybe do, but just trying to find a decent switch that handles all of that.
So as I say, I’m looking for suggestions. I’m pretty sure I will have a pfSense firewall. Not sure if it will be the Community Edition right away or if I’ll just buy a full hardware box, licensing and T-Support? I don’t mind spending money if, if it’s for a good reason.
The question all comes down to this:
Q: What data switch(es) would you recommend for a residential property? I’m very attached to Aruba’s 2600 and 2500 series, but I don’t know if I should be looking at D-Link or Ubiquiti? Ubiquiti seems to have a nice story, but when I spoke with some folks at distribution about warranty they said “it’s better to trash them and buy new ones then to try and repair the issues in most cases.” Just wonder what people are thinking and what they would suggest? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated…
Thank you so much!