3x small switch+2x Mesh Wi-Fi recommendation

cyb3rtr0nian

Hi guys,

I would like to upgrade my current 3x unmanaged switches to 3x managed switches + 3x Wi-Fi AP’s. My use case is a home lab, where I am learning IT.

I like to optimize everything (e.g. examining with Wireshark if there are any kind of security or performance issues) and my next step is to employ VLANs to segment my networks.

I hear this helps with reducing chatty devices from causing issues, I seem to notice in my network a lot of retransmissions, I read this might cause congestion or devices waiting on each other. I’d also like to further improve security this way, by segmenting my untrusted IoT devices to their own section, as well as phones, computers etc.

Any good recommendations for switches and AP’s that work well with PfSense and support VLANs and are secure? I’d like to create a mesh of the AP’s as well so I can move throughout the house (it works well with my current mesh setup). Minimum 1G for switches and AP’s, preferably cheap but reliability and comprehensive options to secure the devices are important.

Thanks for your time!

-Cyb3rtr0nian

AndyRH

Budget is the hard part.
I found an old NIB Aruba S2500 on ebay really cheap, this is now my switch. Being an enterprise switch it does more than I can. This approach may help you.
For APs a popular choice is Unifi. They are fast and support VLANs. I have 3 SSIDs across my 2 APs.

BTW, retransmissions are likely a bad cable or port. I would chase that one down before you move it to new HW. My last one was a squashed cable. Who knew, the label did not say to not put your desk on it.

Gblenn

@cyb3rtr0nian Buying used on ebay might be a good idea, but if you are looking for new, perhaps TPLink could be an option. As @AndyRH mentioned there is Unifi which is a good option, but TPLink have pretty much copied their UI in their Omada series. I have Omada at home and run Unifi at our vacation house and my mom's place and I actually think Omada is a bit more "clean" and simple to navigate.

Retransmission might be cables, but it's perhaps more likely that it is due to your wifi network. What mesh system are you using today?
Some of them seem to reuse the same wifi channel on all AP's which is completely wrong from a radio standpoint.

Phones or other devices will change to the next cell based on radio conditions and don't need to be on the same channel to be able to roam in your home. And you can control their "behaviour" via the settings for the AP's. At what signal strength they should be "pushed off" an AP so they connect to the next etc. But I'd say that is not at all necessary to mess with in a normal home with just a few AP's.

Placement and channel selection is important however, and you will be trying to minimize interference. Having all AP's on the same channel creates tons of interference, from the AP's themselves as well as all the devices.
There are apps on Android you can use to check signal strength of wifi from you neighbours on each channel (Wifi analyzer and Ubiquitis WiFiman). Wifiman has a nice mapping feature that you can use to create a "heat map" showing the signal strength or expected speed in your own home as well.
On 2.4Ghz channels are much wider than the numbers suggest, already at 20 Mhz channel width. So channel 6 also covers channels 4, 5, 7 and 8, meaning that the only non overlapping channels are 1, 6, 11 and 14. And don't use more than 20 Mhz... in theory it should give you higher speeds but you will likely get more interference and lower speeds.