My work gave me a L2 switch because they were going to toss it out. Is there any reason for me to use that over the built-in switch from my ISP’s router/modem?
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Anything connected to that switch can continue working when the router is unavailable due to restart or whatever
That’s something I hadn’t considered.
It also means that the majority of your intra-network traffic won’t be forwarded to your router, even when the router is online. The switch will just pass it on to the correct MAC address directly.
Edit: for reference, this is know as the router on a stick configuration
The next part is decoupling your your dhcp and dns and firewall from your ISPs router. I’ve done this with a raspberry pi, but you could buy or acquire a drop in replacement.
Get control over your core and edge network. Then you’ll have the freedom to do lots more with your home network, and the privacy to do it with.
For example, my streaming devices go over dedicated vpns to different countries so I can get different content, but the rest of my devices don’t. I can still connect, control and cast to them because my phone is on the same network, just going to a different gateway.
My current plan is to drop my ISP line speeds by half, and pick up a competitors line to have a dual-WAN load-balanced setup at home. I’m sick of being beholden to one company’s whims on when it wants to reboot my router for ‘maintenance’
More ports? Faster ports?
More total throughput between pairs of ports that want to talk to each other at the same time maybe?
Also while unlikely, if it’s PoE you can power stuff with it
It is PoE but I don’t have any PoE-powered devices.
…yet
Now you need an access point.
The two main benefits I see are:
- A dedicated L2 switch is probably going to be faster when transferring between two connected clients
- You could set up VLANs, if you have a desire to. Not sure if your wifi router has that option.
And the most obvious one: you can connect more devices! The reason why I have one tbh.
probably going to be faster when transferring between two connected clients
Pretty much all switches are wire-speed these days, even the cheap ones.
By “wire-speed” do you mean they’re just as fast as if you didn’t have a switch in between?
Yes :)
A gigabit switch is going to give you the full 1Gbps between any two ports on the switch. Same with 2.5Gbps and 10Gbps switches. You should see very little variance between different switches.
Usually the only time you’ll find slower speeds is if it’s a router rather than a switch, and the ports are all routed. This is uncommon, and for example a 5-port router is usually really a 4-port switch plus a router in a single device.
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Just gonna play devil’s advocate here.
If it is not a fanless switch, it is going to make a hell lot of noise.
Also consider your electricity bill. You will probably be better off buying a small Netgear from Amazon for 30 bucks than having an old Cisco 2960S running 24/7.
So, what switch is it exactly?
It’s a D-link DGS-1210-28P. in terms of power, without PoE it’s a max of 30W, according to their website.
You’re right that it is pretty noisy. If I decide to use it, I’ll probably swap out the fans for something quieter.
I agree. Unless there’s a definite need, the most tangible difference may be in the electric bill.
Having more than 4 computers wired directly because the ISP provided one only has 4 ports? That’s all I got.
