Ok – So, take one of this project didn’t go as planned. I don’t regret the choices I made, and while I’m very happy with how everything is working today. it’s not the setup I had hoped for. So, where did I end up?
Firstly – I ended up ordering a firewall from Protectli, the VP2420, which I ordered with Coreboot BIOS. Performance has been great, it was easy to setup, and the 2.5Gb ports work great. My only gripe is that the console port on the unit isn’t a true serial port. It’s a USB serial adapter, for which only drivers for Windows exists. Call me a Luddite, but I still like to have serial consoles available to me on network hardware, and I like them to just be dumb DB9 ports. That being said, the unit has other display outputs so it’s not a deal breaker. The other thing this unit doesn’t have that I wanted was an SFP+ port, for use with a GPON adapter. This would have allowed me to not use the little fiber to Ethernet adapter box from the ISP. Long story short, after much testing, I don’t have the option of using a third part GPON adapter with my ISP, at least not today, so this one is moot. I had already done my testing to confirm that before this unit was ordered, so I chose this model, over others from Protecli that did have SFP+ ports, to save on cost.
For switching – I did stick with the TP-Link SG3218XP-M2, which have been great. No complaints. These are 16 port 2.5Gb switches. All 16 RJ-45 ports run at 2.5Gb, and the first 8 ports also offer PoE+. Additionally, they also each have a pair of SFP+ ports for 10Gb interconnects. I have had no issues with these and am very happy with them. They do have fans, but they aren’t too bad. Nothing something for the living room, but not screamers you can hear through walls.
Next up was WiFi – This is where I always needed to make compromises. What I wanted were WiFi 7 wall-mounted access points with 2.5Gb uplink ports and some 1Gb (or faster) switch ports as well. Many companies make devices like this, but no one makes exactly this device. I can find WiFi 7 wall mounted APs, and I can find WiFi 6 APs with switch ports, but the device I wanted doesn’t exist anywhere I can find it. I had tried devices from FS that were WiFi 6 with 2.5Gb uplink ports and 1Gb downlink ports. These devices were a mess. Nearly impossible to configure, even with their dedicated WiFi Controller. I was never able to get the WiFi working and the downlink ports. The WiFi Controller was insistent on being it’s own DHCP server, a setting only manageable via their command line. I found getting WiFi setup properly, across reboots, was seemingly impossible. I’d have it working well and then I’d reboot my router for a patch or whatever, and the WiFi controller would be hand out IPs on a different network… I got so frustrated that I just pulled it all out. Nothing made sense, nothing was reliable, and making certain changes to the config was bricking the access points. The APs have a serial port on the side, requiring a special $30 cable FS doesn’t even sell… 10 days later I could get into the unit and do the factory reset to try the config again…
So, I went back to looking for APs, and I made different choices this time. Instead of preferring an AP with a switch, I preferred WiFi 7 instead. In the end, I chose the TP-Link EAP772 which is a comparatively simple, 2.5Gb uplink PoE+ powered ceiling mount style access point. I chose the ‘best’ one with a 2.5Gb uplink port, instead of 10Gb. It has both Bluetooth, and 6Ghz, which are two features missing from the EAP723 from a hardware standpoint, and few other software features like MLO. I was interested in seeing how 6Ghz worked but I’m not sure I have a use case for the Bluetooth side — time will tell.
I also bought a TP-Link SG2005P-PD, a PoE powered 4 port gigabit switch. I had no immediate use for this unit but wanted to see how it worked and integrated. (It has already found a use, and I may order another…)
When I ordered all this kit it was my intention to just manage it via accessing each unit and setting it up by hand. I did my initial setup this way but have since moved to using their Omada management platform, which I am running in a podman container at home. The initial setup was fine – It all worked great and I had no issues. But, when it came to setting up the WiFi, I wanted to ensure I could do seamless hand-offs for clients between the two APs I have today. Call me crazy, but keeping a video call going as you hop to another AP without any blip brings me joy! The alternative would have been a 1/2 second blip, so you can make your own choices.
The Omada platform works great, is easy to use, and makes management a breeze. I rarely need to access it, now that my initial setup is done, but it’s keeping an eye out for firmware updates and logging different bits of data. I love graphs and performance info, so it’s scratches that itch for sure. The only downside I’ve found is that, just for the WiFi APs, once they joined the controller they stopped reporting their full metrics data over SNMP. The switches still do, and the APs still respond over SNMP, just not with the info I was seeing previously. The data is available via Omada, so it’s not a big deal, but … again … Luddite.
WiFi 7 is WILD and, for the devices that support it, I am easily able to saturate my 2Gb internet connection. It’s so fast. I am so glad I decided to go for WiFi 7, even though I have lost those hoped for down-link Ethernet ports.
This is a setup I’m happy with and has quickly faded into the background. No issues. No hiccups. Everything works as exected and, aside from patching, has required no further time from me.