awediohead
Occasional Visitor
I've managed to install OPNsense on a Fujitsu S920 and I'm wondering how to make best use of the 5 ports I have available. I also have a 16 port Netgear plus switch (GS116E) which is a managed switch.
Neither of these are actually in use currently - I've got a lot of wiring to do from four rooms, through the attic (it's a bungalow) to a patch panel in a central closet where the rest of the gear and my server will eventually be installed.
The router has an onboard single port Realtek 1Gb NIC and an Intel based four port 1Gb PCIe NIC.
For now I've set up the router to use the onboard Realtek NIC for WAN (since our internet is less than 100Mbps) with the idea that I'd then have the Intel x4 Gb ports to play with for LAN connections.
One of the (many) things I'm not clear on is whether I'd be better off keeping both WAN and LAN on the same Intel based NIC and ignore the onboard NIC?
I've just no idea how to weigh up the pros and cons or even whether it makes any difference. Just lots of internet opinions about Intel being generally more dependable than Realtek - though my experience over years of having Realtek NICs on various motherboards is I've not noticed any difference.
I was thinking that if I use the Realtek NIC for WAN then I could have one port of the x4 for LAN to the switch, two ports connected as a LAGG to the switch and maybe the last port connecting directly to an AP.
Again no idea id there's any benefit in having the AP connected directly to the router vs connecting it through the switch?
Eventually I'll have two ethernet runs from each of four rooms (making eight in all) wired to a patch panel and from that to the 16 port Netgear switch.
While I can and doubtless will tweak things after the wiring is done and we're actually using this hardware - I'd prefer to have a reasonably solid plan for how all this will fit together in advance.
My wife is housebound by her disability and so very reliant on a solid internet connection.
She'll manage perfectly well for a couple of hours without internet while I install and connect stuff up, but ideally I'll have it all configured and ready to swap out for our existing (off the shelf all in one router/wifi) set up by running everything in parallel and testing what I can before taking the plunge.
Any advice gratefully received - I'm very likely not to have even thought about a bunch of things I should be considering at this stage as I'm very new to all this!
Cheers
Neither of these are actually in use currently - I've got a lot of wiring to do from four rooms, through the attic (it's a bungalow) to a patch panel in a central closet where the rest of the gear and my server will eventually be installed.
The router has an onboard single port Realtek 1Gb NIC and an Intel based four port 1Gb PCIe NIC.
For now I've set up the router to use the onboard Realtek NIC for WAN (since our internet is less than 100Mbps) with the idea that I'd then have the Intel x4 Gb ports to play with for LAN connections.
One of the (many) things I'm not clear on is whether I'd be better off keeping both WAN and LAN on the same Intel based NIC and ignore the onboard NIC?
I've just no idea how to weigh up the pros and cons or even whether it makes any difference. Just lots of internet opinions about Intel being generally more dependable than Realtek - though my experience over years of having Realtek NICs on various motherboards is I've not noticed any difference.
I was thinking that if I use the Realtek NIC for WAN then I could have one port of the x4 for LAN to the switch, two ports connected as a LAGG to the switch and maybe the last port connecting directly to an AP.
Again no idea id there's any benefit in having the AP connected directly to the router vs connecting it through the switch?
Eventually I'll have two ethernet runs from each of four rooms (making eight in all) wired to a patch panel and from that to the 16 port Netgear switch.
While I can and doubtless will tweak things after the wiring is done and we're actually using this hardware - I'd prefer to have a reasonably solid plan for how all this will fit together in advance.
My wife is housebound by her disability and so very reliant on a solid internet connection.
She'll manage perfectly well for a couple of hours without internet while I install and connect stuff up, but ideally I'll have it all configured and ready to swap out for our existing (off the shelf all in one router/wifi) set up by running everything in parallel and testing what I can before taking the plunge.
Any advice gratefully received - I'm very likely not to have even thought about a bunch of things I should be considering at this stage as I'm very new to all this!
Cheers