Network topology question

[ruxCYtable]

We have an eero 6+ system and currently the gateway and two extenders are connected wirelessly. Our home is equipped with ethernet ports in all rooms, which they never connected in the basement, but I am pretty comfortable with doing that. I want to eventually get the eeros on a wired connection for a little bump in speed to each. The diagram below from eero shows the modem to eero gateway to switch and then to two other eeros. My question is, if my modem is also a gateway (with wi-fi turned off) can I put the switch in front of all three eeros. My wife also has a gateway from her employer so we have another wireless network just for her. Can I plug all three eeros PLUS her gateway to the switch?

 

[Agclone91]

My understanding (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) is that if you put the switch directly after the modem, any signal coming out of the switch would not have any security. If you're only plugging gateways into the switch, this would be fine because the gateways will add security for the network they're creating. The idea of placing the switch after the gateway is that anything coming out of the switch will be secured and on your home network.

 

[zarnold56]

We have an eero 6+ system and currently the gateway and two extenders are connected wirelessly. Our home is equipped with ethernet ports in all rooms, which they never connected in the basement, but I am pretty comfortable with doing that. I want to eventually get the eeros on a wired connection for a little bump in speed to each. The diagram below from eero shows the modem to eero gateway to switch and then to two other eeros. My question is, if my modem is also a gateway (with wi-fi turned off) can I put the switch in front of all three eeros. My wife also has a gateway from her employer so we have another wireless network just for her. Can I plug all three eeros PLUS her gateway to the switch?

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Did the Eero come from the ISP or did you buy it? If its your mesh system, you will want the main eero connected to the modem do all the networking/firewall. Then you connect the switch behind it to to connect to everything else including the other eeros. If she is using the other gateway for just her own wireless network, I don't see a reason to connect it to the switch. If you want a wired connection to her office, just plug the enet cord that is assigned to her room directly into the gateway.

 

[ruxCYtable]

My understanding (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) is that if you put the switch directly after the modem, any signal coming out of the switch would not have any security. If you're only plugging gateways into the switch, this would be fine because the gateways will add security for the network they're creating. The idea of placing the switch after the gateway is that anything coming out of the switch will be secured and on your home network.

Did the Eero come from the ISP or did you buy it? If its your mesh system, you will want the main eero connected to the modem do all the networking/firewall. Then you connect the switch behind it to to connect to everything else including the other eeros. If she is using the other gateway for just her own wireless network, I don't see a reason to connect it to the switch. If you want a wired connection to her office, just plug the enet cord that is assigned to her room directly into the gateway.

The eero is mine. The ISP modem also includes a gateway. I've got the wi-fi turned off because I'm using my own wi-fi. But the ISP gateway should be functioning as a wired router, basically. That's why I'm wondering if the switch can go in front of everything else because it would simplify the wiring. But if not I can absolutely make it work, just trying to do it as efficiently as possible.

PS your suggestion will work, it would just require an additional step for me because of where everything is coming into the house but that is how I'm leaning toward doing that.

 

[zarnold56]

The eero is mine. The ISP modem also includes a gateway. I've got the wi-fi turned off because I'm using my own wi-fi. But the ISP gateway should be functioning as a wired router, basically. That's why I'm wondering if the switch can go in front of everything else because it would simplify the wiring. But if not I can absolutely make it work, just trying to do it as efficiently as possible.

PS your suggestion will work, it would just require an additional step for me because of where everything is coming into the house but that is how I'm leaning toward doing that.

If your modem/gateway is only setup as a router and only giving out private IPS, then you can put the switch behind it if you want. I just like to control everything on my own network through my router/firewall.

Does your wife's gateway use a static IP for business? Assuming you're switch is not a managed switch, you won't have any ability to control what device routes to what gateway unless you're able assign her computer a specific IP, the non-managed switch will let anything connect to it. Having multiple gateways going through the same dummy switch is not efficient networking with no way to control what connects to what.

 

[GBlade]

You could have 2 networks over your LAN, but you would have to put them on different subnets (and the devices connected) and they wouldn't be securely isolated.

I would put your router between the ISP modem and switch as I don't trust them to keep it updated.

 

[ruxCYtable]

You could have 2 networks over your LAN, but you would have to put them on different subnets (and the devices connected) and they wouldn't be securely isolated.

I would put your router between the ISP modem and switch as I don't trust them to keep it updated.

I just found that the Comcast gateway has two outputs. So what do you think about this? (I wish switch wasn't necessary but eero router only has one output.)

 

[dmclone]

I have multiple switches so this may make it a little hard to understand

Same Eero, here is what I would do. You have Metronet modem/Eero Router/Dumb switch

1. Black Cat 5 coming out of the modem goes to Eero Router
2. Blue Cat 5 in Eero goes to any port on the dumb switch
3. Any of the remained 7 ports on the switch can then send Cat5 to a device or whatever powers all of your ethernet ports around the house

 

[ruxCYtable]

I have multiple switches so this may make it a little hard to understand

Same Eero, here is what I would do. You have Metronet modem/Eero Router/Dumb switch

1. Black Cat 5 coming out of the modem goes to Eero Router
2. Blue Cat 5 in Eero goes to any port on the dumb switch
3. Any of the remained 7 ports on the switch can then send Cat5 to a device or whatever powers all of your ethernet ports around the house


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Excellent, thank you

 

[houjix]

I have multiple switches so this may make it a little hard to understand

Same Eero, here is what I would do. You have Metronet modem/Eero Router/Dumb switch

1. Black Cat 5 coming out of the modem goes to Eero Router
2. Blue Cat 5 in Eero goes to any port on the dumb switch
3. Any of the remained 7 ports on the switch can then send Cat5 to a device or whatever powers all of your ethernet ports around the house


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This is similar to what I did with my Google Fiber set up. They initially set you up with just two of their wi-fi pucks. The main one is hardlined to the device they attach to your wall and the other is meshed to the first. Those pucks only have a single out port, so I got a dumb switch to connect to the hardlined one and ran lines to the devices I wanted greater speed on.

Really was fun to watch my kid's reaction to connection tests on his game system after hardlining it, especially after being on 40 Mbps DSL and connecting via wi-fi.