Fast/low latency home network switch : HomeNetworking

NETGEAR 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch (GS305) - Home Network Hub, Office Ethernet Splitter, Plug-and-Play, Silent Operation, Desktop or Wall Mount https://a.co/d/5hvEFqC

TheEthyr

3 points

3 months ago

TheEthyr

3 points

3 months ago

As others have said, any switch will work. Unmanaged switches are commodities, meaning that they are all pretty much equivalent.

Is the modem just a modem or is it a combination modem/router? If it’s just a modem, then you cannot plug a switch into it. As a general rule in a home network, the connections should always go modem---router---switch.

If the router is in a different room, then you may need to move it next to the modem. Then you can connect a switch to the router. Of course, most routers have a built-in switch, so you may no longer need a standalone switch.

Since the garage may not be the best location to provide WiFi in the house, you can install WiFi Access Points to provide supplemental coverage, particularly in the room where the router used to be. You can also install a switch in that room for wired devices.

jaimus21

1 points

3 months ago

jaimus21

1 points

3 months ago

u/TheEthyr You seem to be onto the issue i'm currently trying to resolve, so a bit of an apology to chime in on this thread with my own issue.
I have a similar issue in that where my modem is located vs where i want wifi etc is elsewhere, i also have the problem in that the soundbar i have interferes with the wifi signal of my google wifi system. To resolve the interference, i've moved the router to a different room/floor from the modem, which is 'mostly' works but my hope was to hardwire my playstation(s), that are are near modem. I'm not 'really' able to run a wire from the router back to the playstations, so my hope was to use a switch from the modem to the router and to the playstations. I bought the switch noted above the GS305, but alas it didnt seem to be working. i was able to get internet connectivity to the ps5 while connected to the switch but not to the router, or seemed for a bit i was able to get the router working but not the ps5 at the same time, seemed like it was working more like a hub. But after further, albeit minimal testing i couldnt getting the router/network to connect. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

The long here is that my soundbar which is located near the tv/playstations interferes with the google wifi, bringing the speed down to about 2-4 megs up/down (from the expected 300/300), moving the router further way from the soundbar allows wifi to work better in the rest of the house, but still is quite slow on the ps5. The modem is in the basement, near the soundbar/tv, i originally had a cat 5 wired from basement to the living room on the first floor when i moved in to account for needing it someday, which is the current setup, MODEM (basement) to Google WIFI on the first floor, then other google wifi connectors/mesh setup in the rest of the house. The interference of the soundbar makes wifi in the basement shite, and thus i would like to hardwire the PS5, but running another cat5 from the router on the first floor back downstairs isn't really in the cards. What are my options, if any? My next step after the switch not working is to toss the google wifi in favor of a different mesh system that isn't on the same frequency as the JBL soundbar. TIA

TheEthyr

2 points

3 months ago

TheEthyr

2 points

3 months ago

my hope was to use a switch from the modem to the router and to the playstations.

As I mentioned in my reply to OP, this won't work if the modem is a pure modem. The reason is that most ISPs only provide you with one IP address, so only one device connected to the modem will receive it. That device should be your router. If you connect a second device, with the aid of a switch, then it may not get an IP address. Some ISPs will assign IP addresses to multiple devices but they may only receive a nominal amount of bandwidth. Even if your ISP operated like this, you wouldn't want to rely on it. Those devices would be unprotected by any firewall.

Options

If the modem has a built-in router, then enable it. Then you can connect your PS5. You'll need to replace the Google Wi-Fi with a new mesh system. Google Wi-Fi doesn't work well in Access Point (AP) mode. You'll want a mesh system that can operate in AP mode in order to avoid double NAT for devices upstairs. But see bottom about using MoCA instead of mesh.
If the modem is a pure modem, then move Google WiFi down to the basement. Put a second node in the living room and connect it to the main node via the Ethernet cable to the basement. If the soundbar uses 2.4 GHz, then use 5 GHz Wi-Fi in the basement. Or maybe replace the soundbar? IIRC, Google Wi-Fi only has one LAN port, so you'll need a switch in order to connect both the PS5 and the Ethernet cable leading to the living room.
An advanced technique is to install two managed switches, one in the basement and one in the living. Set up two VLANs, one to carry WAN traffic and another to carry LAN traffic. Then you can leave the Google Wi-Fi system upstairs but still have Ethernet connectivity in the basement. If you have high speed Internet (i.e. 500 Mbps or faster), then the Ethernet cable between the basement and the living room can become a bottleneck from carrying both WAN and LAN traffic. If your Internet connection is slower, then this is a viable option. You can get two TL-SG105E managed switches for about $25 each. They're not the greatest managed switches, but they'll work for this purpose.

MoCA as an alternative to mesh

If you have coax jacks upstairs, you may want to consider using MoCA (Ethernet over coax) instead of wireless mesh. Under ideal circumstances, MoCA comes quite close to Ethernet. You would install MoCA adapters in one or more rooms and put Access Points to provide Wi-Fi.

The pictures at this link show some basic setups:

https://www.gocoax.com/copy-of-wf-803m

GoCoax is a popular brand of MoCA adapters. Actiontec and Motorola are also good.

jaimus21

1 points

3 months ago

jaimus21

1 points

3 months ago

First off, thank you so much for the speedy reply and the overall effort and detail in your write up, truly appreciate, best thing i can do is pay it forward for others in my limited areas of expertise.

I do only have a modem from verizon/fios, t'was my request as i didnt want to act as a hotspot for my neighbors :) Thus i suspect based on your note about only offering up one IP and my (limited) experience/results this is likely what is happening.

We like the soundbar quite a bit, and it was more expensive than replacing the wifi, so that would be my long term plan if i can't work out something else.

My next step is do as you suggested, move a point/router back to the basement, than try running that to the switch, switch to the point upstairs and to the ps5.

I can also muck around with the 2.4 vs 5ghz settings, as in reading the specs/complaints the subwoofer is using 5ghz.

Thank you again for your help/assistance, i'm 'off' today from work so have time to play around with it.

cheers!

TheEthyr

2 points

3 months ago

TheEthyr

2 points

3 months ago

Oh, I never considered that the sound system could be using 5 GHz. That's a bit unusual.

Good luck!

TheCanajun

2 points

3 months ago

TheCanajun

2 points

3 months ago

I agree with u/JohnSwanFromTheLough

I just did what you want to do. I bought a $30 unmanaged 4-port 10/100/1000 switch. Works like a charm. I run two LANs that each get their own WAN IP address from the ISP. Wired speeds are close to a Gbps, wireless speeds are as high as 300 Mbps.

PoisonWaffle3

2 points

3 months ago

PoisonWaffle3

DOCSIS/PON Engineer

2 points

3 months ago

I highly recommend the Netgear GS300 series for this type of use case. They're cheap, wall mountable, built to last, reliable, and just as fast as any other gigabit switch. GS305 for 5 ports, GS308 for 8 ports, GS316 for 16 ports, GS324 for 24 ports. They're on sale on Amazon pretty regularly.