I have a AT&T BGW320-500 gateway with the AT&T FIBER — INTERNET 5000 Gbps plan in my garage.
That gateway’s 5Gb ethernet port is plugged into a TP-Link TL-SG1024S and that switch connects to 12 ethernet cables (Cat 6) that connect to the ethernet wall patch panels throughout the house.
The house has 2 flours and my main computer room is upstairs.
I have a NAS in my computer room for video editing. I also have a PC, personal laptop, and work laptop with 10Gbe NICs.
I want to buy 2 switches, one for the garage and one for the computer room. I only care about the computer room having a 10Gbe switch but I believe I need another switch for the garage to send up a 10Gbe connection to my computer room.
I’m looking for some suggestions on how I would go about doing this because I don’t really understand connecting switches like this.
I also randomly have a Juniper EX4200 series with 10G modules. I also have a linksys SR224G and a planet POE-2400 but I don’t think these will be useful.
I attached some photos of some of the current setup.
Connecting switches is easy. You don’t really need to know anything. The main thing you need to avoid is accidentally creating a loop. I know that sounds dumb, but you’d be amazed how often it happens.
How you connect this all up will depend on what you want to achieve. For example, if you want to supply 10 Gbe to all ports in your home, your plan may be different than if you want to supply 10 Gbe to your office, but stick to vanilla gigabit elsewhere.
Hardware wise, you haven’t listed anything that requires a managed switch. That Juniper switch has some 10 Gbe capability, but it’s a managed switch that is way more complicated than you need. Plus you’d have to buy SFP to 10GBase-T adapters. That could set you back a couple hundred dollars.
IMO, your best value is going to be something like the Netgear XS508M, 8-port, 10 Gb, unmanaged switch (currently $450 on Amazon). There is also a 5-port version, but it’s not much cheaper. Unfortunately, that means you won’t be able to provide 10 Gb to all 12 ports in your home. You’ll need one port to connect to the ATT modem/router and one to tie in your gigabit network.
In the garage, you’ll put one Netgear 10G switch connected like this:
[ATT]==[Netgear 10G]==[TP Link 1G]You can connect your patch panel based on your needs. For example, the upstairs office will go to the Netgear 10G switch, while the other ports can go to the TP Link.
Upstairs in your office, you’ll need another Netgear 10G switch. You’ll plug all the devices in that room directly into the switch, then plug the switch into the wall to uplink to the Netgear 10G downstairs.
Since your existing cabling is Cat6, you should be able to hit 5 Gbps without much trouble. 10 Gbps requires really good terminations. In fact, terminations are going to be your primary issue across the board. Gigabit is pretty forgiving. 10 Gbps is not forgiving at all.