Upgrade Your Router by Adding a Network Switch

The new smaller routers are awesome, but they lack one thing; Ethernet Ports. That is where a Network Switch comes to save the day. Today I show you how to add a switch by upgrading my 8-Port switch, to a 16 port switch to give more devices a dedicated Ethernet connection.
TP-Link 5 Port Network Switch: geni.us/eprW9A
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#TechWithBrett #HomeNetwork #NestWifi #NetworkCabinet #HubStorage

[@TechWithBrett]

Is my network room under control or a complete mess? Did I miss anything?

[@AnthonyGoodley]

Looks well thought out, arranged and cable managed etc. I'd say more than good enough imo. Especially for a room dedicated to just this one task.

[@mattlovestech]

Nice video Brett

[@gwinster]

Surprised you didn't go with POE, it's always a good option to have in the future.

[@ktsang6544]

I wanna start building my smart home network and Im gonna copy your network room. Haha

[@forreal4643]

Brett, how were you able to plug your TV into the network switch? The TV's ethernet cable has to be extremely extremely long, from the living room, to this little room? Thanks for an answer!

[@georgeyoung2684]

I believe it’s recommended to mount the equipment with the plugs facing downwards, so that dust and debris can’t get into any of the unused ports

[@ayu4uya]

I dont think he has any unused port. 😂

[@lqueryvg666]

Where are the cooling vents/holes on the switch? Obviously they should be top and sides if mounted appropriately :) and this one is NOT mounted appropriately.....

[@noest1431]

you can always get an anti dust cover...

[@lqueryvg666]

@@noest1431 Maybe simple preparation before performing the job would be good too? ;)

[@paulphillips675]

I would rotate the switch 90deg so ports are protected from dust but lights easily viewed

[@popquizzz]

To help translate some of the stuff you didn't understand: First off the switch is operating in Full-Duplex natively but auto-senses the connection speed and connection type being either full-duplex (meaning like having a conversation over a normal phone call where one person can talk over the other), versus half-duplex (like having a conversation over walkie-talkies where only one person can transmit at a time and the other must listen). This full duplex effectively allows for 1000mbps transmission simultaneously in both directions giving your new 16-port switch a 32Gbps non-blocking (i'll get to this in a second) switching fabric. Now non-blocking basically means what it says; the switch does not block other ports from communicating when another port is busy with traffic. Jumbo frames are great to use if the high use devices on your network support it. Otherwise stick to the traditional 1500 bytes MTU size. The reason Jumbo frames work better in high use is less decoding of header traffic and more transmission of payload data per Ethernet Frame at layer 2, the datalink layer.

[@riopato2009]

Wow this a great summation! I always felt that using an unmanaged switch wouldn't take advantage of his gig internet and would have to share that data rate cross all 15 devices if he had all of the ports active. Not as dumb of a switch as I thought. I currently have the same 8 port switch that he replaced and only have devices connected that don't need gig speeds. I might see if a more demanding device can access the full duplex through one of my switch's ports.

[@GW._.]

Yeah but can I still get porn 😆

[@DB-47]

Also there is one thing where wired networks have great advantage over Wi-Fi. Wired networks are working almost everytime in Full Duplex mode and also switches have fast backplane, that can handle a lot of traffic among multiple ports. That means if for instance NAS communicates directly with PC and takes 800 Mbit/s of bandwith in direction PC -> NAS, then there is still free 1 Gbit/s bandwith in direction into PC, then second PC can pull 800 Mbit/s for instance from internet uplink to the switch. On the other hand Wi-Fi can be imagined as "wireless hub". Hubs used to resend incoming packets to all other ports and could run only half duplex so for example 100 Mbit/s Ethernet line was shared bandwith for both directions. The same applies for Wi-Fi. As an example: If Wi-Fi has theoretical speed 400 Mbit/s (practical 250 Mbit/s), then you can either use whole bandwith in single direction and get full 250 Mbit/s, but not 250 Mbit/s on Rx and Tx at the same time. However if Full Duplex Gigabit ethernet has 1000 Mbit/s, then there is dedicated 1000 Mbit/s Tx link and dedicated 1000 Mbit/s Rx link and they can be used at the same time unlike on WiFi or archaic hubs.

[@5280Woodworking]

Good, simple video on basic networking with a switch. I recommend you ensure your modem/router from your ISP is in bridge mode so you can avoid double NAT situations and get unexpected conflicts at random times, especially after a power outage and devices power back up.

[@Engineer9736]

You mean to say, you have to make sure there is only one DHCP server in the network.

[@5280Woodworking]

@@Engineer9736 No I meant to say bridge mode. You're mixing DHCP with NAT. They aren't the same thing. There is a reason it is called double NAT not double DHCP.

[@davidbell7094]

@@5280Woodworking what do these letters stand for DHCP & NAT thanks 👍

[@ggttuuxx]

@@davidbell7094 20 years ago you could not google these terms. Today you can.

[@Ronythethird]

@@ggttuuxx you are the styoooobid

[@JeffBreuer]

What a perfectly simple, straightforward, and comprehensive beginner's guide to home networking! My setup in our basement is shaping up to be very similar, so I may take a page out of your book and screw a piece of plywood to the studs and mount everything that way. Keep up the great work!

[@TechWithBrett]

Thank you! It has been a great way to keep everything organized.

[@adetunjioye]

One of the best "fools guide to home networking" available. I surely cannot mess up my setup now. Nice one.

[@loudclearavsystemsllc1909]

Couple things I would recommend: Make sure that you not only disable WiFi from a modem/router combo but, that you also setup DMZ, as bridging an ISP modem/router is not always an option. This is based on a couple comments that I read. Next, consider a more robust mesh network, like Netgear Orbi, as their units are able to be wire back hauled, creating a hardline Wireless Access Point wherever you place the satellite. But don’t bother with the smaller version of the Orbi, similar to the Nest, as they too are not very strong. Get models like the AC3000 or AX4200. You could go down the road of Unifi, Pakedge or Araknis, however it will be quite a bit more expensive in most cases. A solid WiFi network needs to be established for toys like the Ring cameras that you touch on in another video. I recently retrofitted.a home with new wire, even to the ISP box, and installed the AX4200 with wired back haul, the client is getting over 600 down throughout the two story home, which won’t improve until they have fiber.

[@GW._.]

You lost me at dmz 😂

[@michaelparker5030]

Thanks 😎✌️

[@michaelparker5030]

Do you have to setup DMZ when running WiFi and Ethernet. Which systems are you running under DMZ, gaming?

[@dennisanderson8663]

This video is about adding a switch to your network. WTF does DMZ have to do with a switch when a Level 2 switch doesn't even have an IP address?

[@juliopena2098]

@@dennisanderson8663 lol ¡

[@grgnfl05]

Thanks for explaining what the network switch is and how to use it. Best explanation I've seen yet.

[@gustavinus]

5:49 32Gbps nonblocking switching is the max summed throughput possible. For example, if you have all 16 ports uploading and downloading at max speed at the same time. Which will probably never happen, but is good to know.

[@ronk9830]

A simple and easy solution. And switches aren't expensive at all. I had to get one as my video camera system needed ethernet connection. It's plug and play, with no headaches.

[@vachegabrielyan42]

I would suggest connect your switch directly to router, and connect your wifi to your switch. So when your wifi router stops working the entire network will not go down.

[@1935Charm]

Yep, my thoughts too. I don’t know how good the Nest Wi-Fi DHCP settings are though (for avoiding the addresses allocated by the router).

[@victor2410]

My guess is the router+modem is in modem only mode and the nest wifi is doing all the routing hence his setup. So his switch is connected directly to the router which is the nest WiFi.

[@rouster2]

That isn't really possible with the Nest WiFi since you can't disable DHCP on it. I have one, and I verified in the settings. The best you can do is change the pool of IPs. I suppose limiting it to 1 device is effectively turning it off, but as victorescu said, he's better off just using the router as a modem than doing that.

[@riopato2009]

Yup. But that would defeat the purpose of the wifi network if he's managing everything through the nest and not through the isp router.

[@radkeb2]

I tried this setup with a Motorola modem connected to my TP-Link smart switch and a Linksys wireless router. Changed out the modem with a Netgear CM11000 and then the I could not get the wireless to work anymore. Any ideas if I have to setup a different vlan settings on the switch?

[@dayadam16]

To simplify if it even more, the switch is like a power strip to give more plugs to more devices. Or it basically adds more connections to the router.

[@n.lyndley.9889]

Yep! Saves thirteenth minutes of your life.

[@dennisanderson8663]

Level 2 switches are a great way to expand your network. They are typically cheaper than routers and usually have more ports as well. In a home environment, there is no reason to have more than one router.

[@chease9132]

If you upgrade from an older router, you can disable the routing functionality on the old one and basically just use it as a switch/wireless access point. Good way to repurpose older stuff

[@superhardgel]

I love your clear articulation and explanation. Easily one of the most pleasant sounding narrators on KZbin! (IMHO)

[@PhannyObsession]

Surely it would make more sense to have the Router connected directly to the Switch and then the MESH connected to the Switch instead of the Switch getting its Internet data via the MESH

[@markbrozey]

^^^^^ YES!!!! WTF??? WHY???

[@liampayne6165]

Llllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllll!!!!!! llllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllll to work on it for a while now but I'll be there in about a half hour to work on it again in a restaurant tpp to bed

[@lazereth45]

Yes this

[@Mucho-Taco]

🤫

[@pbrigham]

You should connect the Internet directly to the switch and after from there to the Nest, if the switch is good it will distribute the internet faster than the Nest WIFI internal switch.

[@brucebaltazar441]

I was thinking the same.

[@conniekai]

I think the problem is the mesh create it’s own subnet from the router. If you want to share file and media there will be problem. Best solution is connect internet to switch and change the mesh to access point

[@Digmen1]

I have a 4 port switch and its great for me at the moment. I did not know there were so many devices you could connect to a switch!

[@simduino]

You'd be amazed to see a switch weighing 150kg and having 192 ports. 🙃

[@jpbeauch1]

In some case you might want to use a switch with link aggregation. Some NAS make use of this. Generally you would need a managed switch to achieve this.

[@TampaTec]

0:03 Wait, how did you know I was going to ask that?! Love that setup you did for your home Network, 👍 earned.

[@TechWithBrett]

Lol.

[@popquizzz]

Brett, the proper way to wire your network is from your modem/router to the switch and then the Nest WiFi Mesh point should be cascaded down from the switch along with all your other devices. Unless of course the Nest WiFi device is performing some type of firewall. Which leads me to my next point, using a broadband supplied modem/router from your provider could leave you very vulnerable. Get a good firewall/router behind that modem and use cloudflare as your DNS. I've been doing this for over thirty years and cut my teeth on some of the first routers in the industry from Wellfleet and Cisco and worked with some of the first switches from Kalpana and Creshendo so I'm glad to help with advice.

[@genericeric0102]

Please make a video on ethernet cable making, running cables through walls?

[@TechWithBrett]

Will do!

[@PaulPhillipsUK]

Second this, I want to do this myself

[@ch0lito]

Support this comment!

[@jhoungsombath]

@@TechWithBrett cat6?

[@pacificadventures9919]

Eagerly waiting for this one!!

[@missyd0g2]

My start was Hayes 1200 baud dial up. The IBM 3705 were connected to Racal - Milgo 4800 or 9600 leased line modems. Like 1980 IBM mainframe data center. Buildings were full of coax for 3270 terminals.

[@sportsguy2891]

You should change the title to "Add Ethernet Switch ports To Your Home Network" as your not upgrading the router by swapping the switches.

[@firstname7330]

Correct. But come on....SciEnCe!!

[@NickyHendriks]

One thing that you missed is IGMP snooping. It is very very very important with routed IPTV (which a lot of providers use if you are not using cable-tv) or any other multicast streams with traffic going through that switch, the Chromecast for example. Every switch in a home-situation should be one with IGMP Snooping if people don't know what they are doing. Buy a switch without this and very weird problems can occur on the network from speeds slowing down back to 10Mbps or just plain lost data-sessions with the ISP. Unfortunately I see this more than often at my job working for an ISP.

[@cattigereyes1]

The switch max speed 1000 gigabytes, I believe fast switches exist topping 10,000 gigabytes. Also the cables used matter speed wise. Cables shielding matters as well. Cable length also matters depending on the run.

[@clashwithmoi8926]

If you put a door hinge on the right side of the wooden board, you can route the wires behind it and use holes in the board for routing them to the devices. The swivel board will let you manage the cables easily

[@werra3254]

Love the video! Would love to know why you chose for Google Nest Wifi. Since most people with big smart homes use unifi gear.

[@TechWithBrett]

Great question. My original reason was for simplicity and the fact that I am already controlling most of my home through the Google Home app so it it just made the most sense. Lately I have been hearing great things about the Unifi system and might possibly upgrade after I have 1GB fiber in the home. It all depends if the Nest Wifi can push those types of speeds without an issues.

[@philipperostin]

I use the Archer AX 6000 from Tp Link, have 3 floors plus terrace and front porch. Wifi goes full blast everywhere ( About 900 sq feet per floor, 3 floors). Unifi is the apple of routers, very expensive, well designed, but not better

[@lucaslegz]

@@philipperostin, can you tell me more about your setup? I have three floors and connection in basement. Second floor is spotty. Thank you

[@philipperostin]

@@lucaslegz My house has TV cable (Coaxial) installed everywhere so I use a MOCA adapter connected to my router that send Ethernet back in the CABLES , and with anotheranotherM0ca adapter at any available cable outlet you can have ethernet any where in the house, thus you can connect an access point (or an old wifi router) any where You may need it. Its an expensive solution because these adapters are expensive but I have full speed on 3 floors and 2200 sq ft

[@MarkSmithMCS]

@@philipperostin Does moca support full gigabit Ethernet speeds?

[@David_Quinn_Photography]

nice quick video on setting up a simple switch, I was looking for a guide on how to set one up, and just so happened to be the same switch I bought

[@TechnoGenuine]

Always comes up with great tips. I have been looking for something like this for years! Thanks a lot!

[@jamess1787]

These switches by TPLINK are superb. I bought them for a project and theyve seriously out performed. Don't expect more than the box claims tho

[@John-iv2oz]

Brett, if you exchange the position of the switch in your network with the Wi-Fi router you should increase your speed a bit more. The wifi router should be after the switch because it is slowing your network speed down. By placing the switch first inline you will allow your wired peripherals to receive data even faster without the switch slowing that down. Years ago, I had my Cisco CCNA and let it expire but I am fairly sure that what I am saying is accurate. If anyone can correct me on this, please do.

[@vonrodriguez9811]

John, having said that, will the devices connected to the wifi and connected via ethernet in the switch be connected “in the same network”?

[@John-iv2oz]

@@vonrodriguez9811 Yes but because they split off before the wifi, the data does not get slowed down by the wifi as it reads it. You basically get to skip a step for those 8 plus devices he has hooked up to his network that do not need the wifi.

[@lothalopolis]

Depends on what device is the DHCP server. In the video, because it is a mesh "router" and nowhere is it mentioned that it is in access-point mode only (I have not worked with mesh routers, so not sure if that is even possible), it will have its own DHCP server and provide its own set of IP addresses. The switch will have to be AFTER the mesh router to have all WiFi-connected and switch-connected devices to have same set of IP addresses, it cannot be directly connected to the internet router which will have another set of IP addresses that cannot collide with the IP addresses of the mesh router.

[@VincentFSW]

Where do you have your DHCP server? Seeing that you have several devices that can act as a DHCP server. Also plugging in two ethernet cable to your Synology NAS does not automatically give you better speeds. You need to setup link aggregation ... (LAG port).

[@Weeem]

I don't think Synology works with Network bonding. I think you'd do that with a managed switch instead (correct me if I'm wrong). The 2 NAS Ethernet ports more for redundancy or, as as it can run applications like docker or VMs so, you can reserve the 2nd port for alternate traffic.

[@Josh_Quinonez]

Brett was is one of the biggest technological advances you've seen in your day?

[@TechWithBrett]

It would definitely be the change in the internet of going from 56k modems, to broadband to wireless internet. Lol.

[@Josh_Quinonez]

@@TechWithBrett Lol

[@EsotericArctos]

I use to have a lot of different hubs like you have and I just found it was painful to try and look after them all. I have just moved to one central hub now, in my case Home Assistant, but there are others around as well. It took my Home Automation from 5 hubs, 5 ethernet cables and 5 power outlets down to 1 power outlet and 1 ethernet connection and a central place to configure everything. :) Thanks for the great video . I have been considering the Nest WiFi and wasn't sure if the router base had an additional ethernet port.

[@pip5461]

Nice idea, but having to have ethernet cables all over the house will take some planning.

[@smarthome2660]

IKR, my home is 86 years old so cables were tricky for me.

[@1snowbird]

I think you did a fine job, I have one question what was the program on your phone to check you lines - thanks Gary

[@simduino]

Here the cable/fibre modem should be in NAT mode with a firewall using a fixed local IP at the output. This is your front door so you should have mayor security there. The wifi modem arguably could be the second device in the line to the switch. From a speed point of view it would be better to have the output of the modem directly plugged into the switch and plugging the wifi access point into one of the switch ports. Access to the NAS from a wifi device would be much faster that way as the packets only go through the switch, not up the line that's used for internet access. Another thing to consider is not using firewall functions in a modem or wifi AP device. These device work much faster in bridge mode because they tend to have limited cpu power. Using a dedicated firewall device (like cisco, ubiquiti or mikrotik) will give a far better overall throughput and way better security as they don't have ARP table overflow issues that result in lost connections. This is very noticeable when using home IOT. Thus the setup would be: modem -----> firewall -----> switch -----> wifi AP and others.

[@n.gineer8102]

For the truly paranoid connecting the switch directly to ISP modem and the rest to the switch means the ISP won’t see any of your internal traffic, which might matter when there’s a NAS.

[@badboyv360]

Wouldn't it be best to have your own modem instead of connecting it to that and having to trouble running double nat

[@robertsteich7362]

Plus the fact that he can save about $12 a month in rental fees.

[@TurboSpeedWiFi]

You won't get a double NAT as long as you put the modem/router combo unit into bridge mode.

[@robertsteich7362]

@@TurboSpeedWiFi That maybe true. But when the cable company pushes a firmware update. Modem won’t be in bridge mode any more. At least that has happened in the past.

[@TurboSpeedWiFi]

@@robertsteich7362 Yes that stinks. I really wish ISPs would do away with these modem / router combos.

[@PeterHonig.]

Contrary to what is written on the box, I would not consider that switch a "business solution". For about 50% more in price, you could have gotten a Cisco managed switch with layer-3 inter-VLAN routing, Link Aggregation Grouping (LAG), SNMP and a whole lot more, which really is a business solution. Also, the switch should connect directly to the router and everything else should be connected to the switch. Even though your switch is a layer-2 device, it can transfer packets far faster than your router.

[@Dannyuh7]

Was thinking the same thing. Though some people just want plug and play.

[@davidpetersen566]

maybe this is a crazy question, but why do you run hardwired internet through the nest router, and not connected direct in the modem ??

[@snoflahke6575]

Yah. That cable modem has two Ethernet ports and two telephony ports. Though I think the modem is crap really.

[@nikitamorozov7553]

@@snoflahke6575 Even if it has only one lan-port, it’s better to connect switch to the modem, and then router to the switch.

[@snoflahke6575]

@@nikitamorozov7553 the switch is def higher quality and more secure than the router and the midem, no doubt about it. They would be better off buying any cable modem from Walmart over that Comcast nonsense

[@donearnhardt6336]

I have fiber to my home, and no modem is required. My router is plugged directly into the wall and everything works great. Speed tests are extremely variable depending on which site I use and the time of day. For example, my download speed has been less that 1 Mbps to over 888 Mbps depending on which site I use. My best upload speed is about 506 Mbps. That's in the late afternoon.

[@riopato2009]

He most likely has cable internet and not full fiber line since he mentions that his isp's box is a modem router most likely a docsis router combo. If he's mistaken about this, then yeah he's stacking 2 routers for no reason and can use his nest as his main router. Also he's getting robbed for renting a router he doesn't need because all he would need is a moca to ethernet adapter or ask his isp to change the signal from coxial into cat 6/5e. When I got my fiber, I made sure the installer gave me an ethernet connection 20 years ago. Now they do this by default since they realize than a dedicated cat is better than splitting coax for gigabit speeds.

[@donearnhardt6336]

@@riopato2009 probably.

[@SebastienLang72]

Is there an advantage to plugging the modem to the router and then the switch, rather than plugging the modem directly to the switch and plugging the router to the switch as a device?

[@TechWithBrett]

Great question. The benefit of doing it the way I did is those devices can then be secured under the the router settings I have set and it allows me to monitor their usage as well, instead of relying on the modem to do that. It would work as your have mentioned but then there would be no tracking of those devices.

[@marklabonte2925]

Many routers required to have a direct connection to modem. Putting the switch before the router will not work.

[@HamstarTG]

Really helpful video! I just got a network switch and this video helped me get some more ideas.

[@hankbochenski6630]

Question! Could you connect the switch first to the modem and then all your devices including the router to the switch?

[@RolloC84]

I believe the answer to this is no. Reason being, most residential Internet Service Providers (ISP) give you one public IP. That IP allows you to access the internet and the amount of bandwidth your ISP has allocated to you. Your modem (unless it has a built in router) has no ability to create or manage a private network or private network addresses. A basic switch also has no ability to dynamically manage a network. That is what the router does. If you plug the switch into the modem before the router, multiple devices into the switch and then the router, whichever device grabs your public IP first will be the only device with internet as there is only one IP address available and nothing left for the other devices to use. By connecting the modem to the routers WAN port, it will get the public IP and bandwidth from the ISP, then it creates a private network and assigns private IP addresses to each device on your network as well as manages all the traffic to ensure each device maintains a clean connection to the internet as well as doing its best to allocate the amount of available bandwidth to each device as needed. (Disclaimer: I took a couple networking classes about 8 years ago so some of this may not be fully accurate so anyone currently in the field, feel free to correct any inaccuracies)

[@TechWithBrett]

That is correct and way more detail than I could ever be. The Switch needs to come after the router so that is can do the routing of the internet on the switch.

[@TurboSpeedWiFi]

@@RolloC84 This information is absolutely true today. I can confirm this as a network admin / admin engineer. On my home network I use a switch between my modem and router. I have 3 static IP addresses from my ISP. One is programmed into my router, one into a game console, and one into a VoIP system. I think for my setup the static IPs are well worth the minimal cost.

[@TurboSpeedWiFi]

@@TechWithBrett It is true, unless you have multiple public IP addresses. Most people probably do not.

[@mohanadrahiem]

Helpful video,Will your router be the dhcp server ? Or the switch will ?

[@postnick]

Take your old switch 8 port and make that the switch for just hubs. Keep the 16 for other ports. Do you have other google home wifi access points too?

[@TechWithBrett]

Great idea. I have a Wifi point but it is just mesh. No port available on it.

[@nto-ro4pd]

really helpful video. Your modem, router and switch are all physcially close to each other. Could I place the router+switch in a different room to the modem, and just connect them via a cable?

[@PsyChoBelGian07]

You need to take care of that cable management! Maybe a good video idea?

[@TechWithBrett]

You should've seen what it use to look like... Definitely something I have thought about covering. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do it.

[@Rico11b]

Ya need to flip that over and let the ports be facing down. That stops dust and also the possibility of a water leaks from getting into the switch. If you were to get a leak at a higher level in the house the water would travel down that cable and into the port the way you have it now.

[@adambonneruk]

I dont think your unmanaged switch supports link aggregation with that Synology NAS you may want to take a closer look into it

[@sportsguy2891]

No way that thing is doing any kind of link aggregation.

[@angrynerd2103]

The switch doesnt the nas does. Afaik both dont need to.

[@sportsguy2891]

@@angrynerd2103 true aggregation requires bo th sides. The NAs may be able to do load-balancing or active-standby on its own.

[@qohena6195]

Good on you for populating all those ports!!

[@lany_07gaming]

Nice info, great video as always.👍

[@Kurobuta35]

great effort at organizing.. i would say, try mounting your ports downward facing to avoid build up of dust and crud.. cheers

[@poekimalu]

Why not Modem -> Switch -> Wifi and the rest equipment?

[@riopato2009]

Ha I just asked the same question. If the nest is managing the routing it would make sense to connect to the nest but if the nest acts as a Wifi access port, then it wouldn't matter since the switch and nest would be on the same ip address. He would be better off just getting a cheaper modem the way he has it setup now instead of stacking 2 routers.

[@avivb2766]

You need a router that will give internal IP addresses for the devices (DHCP is required when you are using more than a single device) and a simple firewall is a requirement these days.

[@geekicusmaximusben9650]

@@avivb2766 Normally thats the cable modem unless its setup in bridge mode (if you say, wanted to use a pfsense firewall, or ubiquiti security gateway, for example).

[@lothalopolis]

16 ports x 1Gbps full-duplex = 32Gbps transfers overall. Also, for people who are new, you forgot to mention that if 15 ports are connected to devices and 1 to the router to the modem, then the cumulative speed the 15 devices will get for internet traffic is 1Gbps, not individual speed, because the bottleneck is that 1 port. Though intra-device 1-1 transfers will be 1Gbps full-duplex.

[@AaronAbernethy]

When’s the next Queens of the Stone Age album?

[@billpancake]

Mate, this cracked me up 😄

[@TechWithBrett]

Haha!

[@discomfortzone]

Bahahaha

[@riopato2009]

LOL, Thought Brett looked familar!

[@RayIT560]

Nice video. Suggestions if I may, with so many types of devices you really should be using a router that supports VLANs and a smart switch that supports VLANs and separate out your network for security reasons. For instance make a VLAN for your IoT devices, make a VLAN for your Synology NAS, Make a main network VLAN and a guest network VLAN and so on. If you have security devices such as an alarm and cameras make a VLAN for them. Your already using the great NAS by Synology pickup one of there routers and you'll have a great router that supports VLANs and built in security and reporting all FREE of charge. Just my 2 cents

[@bhippler100]

Yooooo what's up I'm a network engineer XD

[@TechWithBrett]

Hey Brett, am I doing this right?

[@MrMcMuffinJr1999]

@@TechWithBrett I am too and a couple of things. the lights on the switch have nothing to do with internet. They are simply link and activity lights. The internet isn't everything. All it is, is another form of data that can be routed through network.

[@yogi9631]

When I saw that network room of yours @0:57sec, I clicked subscribed immediately 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@TechWithBrett]

Just trying to set the right expectations for what you can do. Haha!

[@joestack78]

This was tough to watch. When your router fails you'll be mad at your isp for no reason. Seeing this setup and an unmanaged switch, clearly budget was priority and not security.

[@Weeem]

It looks like the ISP modem is still handling the DHCP, DDOS, firewall etc

[@andy_warb]

As another commenter said, I would have connected the wifi to the switch rather than using it as a pass through, but the way you have it means you can treat wired devices like they’ve wireless (I.E setup parental controls, disable devices from your phone etc)

[@2002SLPSS1991]

U need better wifi devices, those speeds are slow for 1GB connection but could be you laptop.

[@tcntad87]

Probably beacuse mesh network and interference

[@sportsguy2891]

There's a million reasons why he is getting just 250Mbs. With 65 devices he would have to fire up a good wifi analyzer and do some analysis of SNR and channels.

[@aussieprincess]

I am very jealous of your Internet speeds. I live in Parkes, which is in CW, NSW Australia (4.5hrs west of Sydney) and the highest speed we have managed is 25mbps ⬆️ & 5mbps ⬇️ Our service is Fibre to the Node then Copper to our house, 4yrs ago we were only getting 1mbps so this was an upgrade but with the update in technology it’s starting to play up.

[@kbhasi]

I find it interesting how you have your stuff just mounted to a wooden panel, as I use an IKEA SKÅDIS pegboard instead and mount most of my networking stuff (and the power boards for those) to that using the variety of accessories available for it. I recently switched to a new ISP and on the plan the salesperson recommended to me (after I told them what I had with my previous ISP), they provide a combined modem and router that doesn't have Wi-Fi, then provide two separate Wi-Fi mesh units that are solely access points. I replaced my network switches to match what the ISP provided for their pay TV service. StarHub, my previous ISP, provided D-Link DGS-1005A for connecting multiple receivers to their Fibre TV service (that they stopped offering to new residential subscribers but still offer to business subscribers), but Singtel, which I switched to, provides the TP-Link TL-SG105 instead for Singtel TV, and the contractor handing the installation mentioned that the D-Link switch caused video lag issues in their testing. As such, I replaced my second D-Link DGS-1005A and DGS-1008A with TP-Link TL-SG105 and TL-SG108 respectively, just so they they'd match. I can't really use a 16 port switch because the router doesn't support link aggregation. However, I didn't stop there, as instead of buying the regular SG108, I went for the SG108E as that's what I would consider to be semi-managed and that supports link aggregation, then I'll replace the regular SG108 already in my bedroom with another SG108E. I do like how TP-Link coloured the regular network switch and Easy Smart Switch models differently!

[@georgeburns7251]

Glad to know you admit you don’t know what the specs means

[@tsurukame]

On my devices mounted like yours, I always orient them so the side that the cables are plugged into are facing down. A small matter, but may prevent debris from entering. I also put the switch before the Wi-Fi, not after.

[@riopato2009]

A switch like his, I would orient it vertically since the design has the vents only on it's side. Those switches get warm the more it has to work and heat rises. I also agree that the switch should go before the Wifi but it looks like he is using the nest as his managing router which would mess up the purpose of expanding his ports. It all depends how he setup the nest and if that isp box is actually a modem or not.

[@RTnc870]

Always hidden your IP address before upload the video

[@johnherbert2545]

Jeezo I thought I had a lot of devices connected, one thing I would probably do though on the switch is make small labels as to what each ethernet cable is connected to? As per love your work dude, very natural and easy to follow. Keep up the good work.

[@TechWithBrett]

That's a great idea! Have you tried anything that doesn't fall off after a few years?

[@wentak430]

Your videos are very informative and easy to understand for beginners. New construction home being built should I have light switches and dimmers pre-wired? Basic smart package is run by Amazon. Thank You

[@MrMcMuffinJr1999]

“wifi fiber” 😂😂😂😂

[@Wrexhavik]

Hello Brett. so you said you didn't know what "32GBps non-blocking switching capacity" meant. Well you have 16 gigabit ports and each is capable of full duplex (sending and receiving at the same time). So, 16 ports x 1GBps per port x 2 for full duplex = 32GBps. Easy peazy!

[@TechWithBrett]

That is easy. Thanks for taking the time to teach me!

[@prestonmccarty1709]

9th hi btw

[@cdiff07]

The best and smartest network for the money is all Ubiquit my man! I keep everything ubiquiti! I have UDM Dream machine pro router/firewall/NVR/security gateway with 8 ports. Than I have 5 ubiquiti AP's that broadcast a wireless signal through out my home. I have a 16 port ubiquit unifi lite switch. I also have a ubiquiti 5 port switch. All of this is controlled via a built in controller on the UDM dream machine pro and monitored on a dashboard URL. I also have 2 ubiquiti wireless g3 instant cameras and a Ubiquit G4 doorbell camera! This is the best solution I have found ,but it does cost a pretty penny, but you get what you pay for!

[@StylinRed]

Thanks so much! I was confused on how to approach adding a switch to my WiFi mesh system!

[@dadkesavan]

GREAT JOB DONE. WHEN I WAS RUNNING RJ45 CABLE TO ALL THE ROOMS AND ALL THRU THE HOUSE, I WAS INFORMED IT IS TOTAL WASTE WHEN WIFI AND EXTENDER AND REPEATER ARE AVAILBALE. BUT THE SPEED FOR ALL CONNECTIONS WAS NOT ACHIVED THRU WIFI EVEN WITH THE HELP OF EXTENDERS. THANKS A LOT NOW I AM ALSO PLANNING TO USE THE NETWORK SWITCHES WHERE EVER REQUIRED TO GET THE FULL INTERNET SPEED. THANKS AGAIN KESAVAN RAM FROM BANGALORE, INDIA

[@firstname7330]

My refrigerator's bandwidth demands a full duplex 1Gbps connection. LOL

[@dawgle9292]

Gotta love that WiFi fiber connections :)

[@surtifamily9130]

I have modem that have built in 8 port switch and all my device connect to modem and it’s work great

[@jarraheissa]

I like your guide and how you explaining everything, do u have a review of Managed Switch? :(

[@Mearyeaurng]

very concise explanation. thank you, from a non-tech savvy person. :)

[@Pendaws]

I started my comp time with DOS 2 and the first modem I got was a 28.8 which cost me almost $300.00. I still cannot believe I loved the speed I had then :) haha

[@JChadWard]

You should get a pfsense router/firewall and do a video of that. With all the smart apliances you want to put them on a separate VLAN

[@roshi98]

If you have free ethernet ports available around your home you might consider switching to a mesh network that supports backhauling. It's a great way to ensure your wifi maximizes the bandwidth you're paying for.

[@johnqsak]

Nice, I went with the TP-Link 8-Port POE 4/4 switch, to go along with my 3 TP-Link EAP225. To which I'm seeing 600 Mbps on wifi, 950 Mbps Wired (AT&T Fiber).

[@dadplays_live1576]

Thank you for this video, helped me a lot. We recently got fiber optic internet in our rural area and I have made it my current task to get a wired connection to every bedroom, living room, and office. After watching this video it gave me a better understanding, though I still have a few questions. I'm interested in starting with a 16 port switch and my question is, is a patch panel necessary or does the switch itself adequate enough? Thanks again for the video.

[@JJFlores197]

The panel is not absolutely necessary for home networking, but it can make for a neater installation and setup. Panels are typically used in office and business settings where there are many connections.

[@Guyatwo-m]

Damn Brett you with the business! I love it

[@a1locjaw]

Hey bro, good video! Do you mind one question? I'm connecting my first switch at home and I just wanted to check something out. I'm adding the switch to behind the TV because at this point I have only one internet connection coming from the router. In this location. Both the TV and the DVD machine require an access to the internet for updating so I bought a switch. Now the cables that go back to the router and the cables that go to the TV and the DVD machine are all the same correct? Again, always enjoy your videos. Very helpful.

[@TechWithBrett]

Yes that is correct. So you would just need to have one Ethernet cable going from your router to the TV and plugged into the switch. Then you have the TV and the DVD plugged into the switch and everything should work.

[@a1locjaw]

@@TechWithBrett thank you very much!

[@RobHartmann2024]

Hi, great video. Would you mind sharing which app you use to manage your wifi / internet? It would be great to be able to identify who is on the wifi and which devices are on as well. See 9:19 on your video you display your mobile device using an app to manage your home. Can you share this information. Cheers

[@TechWithBrett]

Hey Rob, good question. This depends on what type of router you have. The one in the video is using Nest WiFi and seeing the data in the Google Home app. It allows me to see what device is using data. Most modern routers have their own app that has some controls to see and manage who is connected to your router.

[@RobHartmann2024]

@@TechWithBrett Cheers Brett, unfortunately my provider, Trooli, does not have an app as yet. I will look firther into the Google Home app. Thanks again.

[@davidlomax4524]

Thanks for the great video, I am pretty internet savvy, but think I am missing the ball with my own internet. I currently am an ATT user. Like you I would love to not use anything in that ATT modem. My current configuration of my equipment is. ATT modem using DHCP from that I go to a 16-port TPlink switch which feeds to each room in the house. In my office I have another TPlink 16 port switch, which feeds the equipment in my office and a few outbuildings for wired network. I then have 3 Samsung smarting’s V3 for Wi-Fi 1 of these come off the 16-port switch in my office while the other 2 come off the switch in my garage by the ATT router. (Side note one of those is in the living room which has another small switch on the line coning from the 16-port switch in the garage.) I then have full home automation including google homes in every room. I continually have issues with my network losing connection to things. For this example, I will use the google home devices. I have about 15 of these types of devices when I am trying to set them up from a MFG reset and add them to speaker groups they tend to suddenly not be available on the network I am on, keep in mind I only have one DHCP the ATT router, So that means 1 network. I can make each individual speaker connect and see the internet, but Google home says they are not all on the same network. Your video and google home seem to point a bit as to the hap hazard way my network is set up. I am thinking I need to completely disable even the DHCP in the ATT router and have it just feed the network to my Samsung smarting’s hubs making them the DHCP in the network. Then branch all wired devices off the Samsung device. As you might be able to tell I am a bit of a power user and have ATT’s fastest internet for my area. I do not seem to be having any speed issues when I am connected, however connecting and cross talking to all the devices within my Intranet is more where my problem is. Can you give me any advice or recommendations on how I should proceed with this issue. Thank you in advance for any suggestions or help you can give me. Let me know if you need more input. Dave

[@travruhl]

Awesome video. I actually am getting ready to do a mesh wifi router but was a little bummed about losing my ethernet hard wire. But now with this video I can now connected my devices. I have a question. Did you run your ethernet cables thru the walls yourself. And what would you recommend? Thank you for this video.

[@TechWithBrett]

Glad this helped. I was lucky enough that someone had already done it in some of the areas by buying the home. That is the hardest part that I will cover in another video, but I would just look up some videos on how to do it. Each place is going to be unique and some harder than others.

[@travruhl]

@@TechWithBrett thanks for your fast reply. I'm definitely going to be watching your videos.

[@TurboSpeedWiFi]

If you have wires in place do not use mesh. it is a downgrade and not an upgrade. Mesh performance is not as good as using proper access points connected via ethernet back to a switch.

[@Arabeon]

Nice overall, worst thing about your setup is the Nest WiFi! You'll get better WiFi speeds if you change it.

[@qx747srr]

Thanks for the video. Very helpful. I am working on the same and wondering whether you can plug your switching hub directly to your modem, and plug your router into the switching hub?

[@badventist-petite]

No, you can’t really do that because the router needs to come before the switch in the line. So it’s the modem then router then switch. The router is what enables your home devices on the switch to get out to the internet. The switch cannot get to the internet on its own. Routers communicate *between* different networks, like your home network and the internet. Whereas switches help the devices on the *same* network communicate with each other and the router. Hope this helps!

[@dam_enchiladas]

Quick question. Could you connect another switch from one of the cables from the first switch? Very informative video, thank you.

[@kevinvlsqz]

Technically yes. It's called daisy chaining; just a short cable between and they're good. The problem with this is that you create a bottle neck from the second switch to the first so it's not advised. Example: this theoretical and ideal but its the basic gist. you have 1gb internet and a network storage (nas) on switch 1 (sw1). On sw2 you have 10 internet hungry devices . That means each device can still have 100mb of internet because of the gig connection from sw1 to sw2. The problem comes in if any of your devices start accessing from the nas at high speeds. Let's say one computer downloads from the nas at 200mb per second. Because of the bottle neck every other device on sw2 now has to split 800mb of throughput (about 90 mb each) even though your internet is faster. That may not sound like a lot but when you consider all the devices in a home that can talk to each and in some use cases it can be a major issue. Most everyone will recommend a bigger switch but some cases can't be avoided so its a matter if your situation has the wiggle room to not have it be an issue.

[@dam_enchiladas]

@@kevinvlsqz Very informative. Explained it perfectly, thank you.

[@OldLordSpeedy]

Yes.

[@falkens_maze]

One thing missing from this. Documentation and/or labelling! With so many devices and cables you need a way of keeping track of what things are what and where they go.

[@hajow9303]

Didn't know the guy from Queens Of The Stoneage knew so much about networks 👌🏼

[@Atlink]

I did this a few months ago because of the issue you mentioned. I have a mesh network and for whatever reason, the connection between the “pucks” is horrid and I get terrible speeds on Wi-Fi. I ran cable to each puck and plugged everything into a switch. I also hardwired a hand ful of other items such as my PS5 since that can take full advantage of the speed.

[@storm_shadows]

Thx for the video. Question. All my hardwired devices is in the living room 20 meters from my router. Should I put the switch by the router,and then drag 8 cables to the living room,or put the switch in the living room and take one cable to there ,and then from the switch put smaller cables to devices. Is there any lag or does it not matter what way I do it.🤔

[@OldLordSpeedy]

Answer: The line between device and switch or switch and router can be maximum range of 100 meter, if you use a maximum of one gigabit in your network. So can it be save cable length to place your devices near the switch. The maximum is normally of four switches behind what mean: "router - 100m - switch - 100m - switch - 100m - switch - 100m - switch - 100m - device" => also 500m far of your router as maximal length. If you use two bridges (copper2fiber and fiber2copper) behind last switch you can start again with four switches. The length of fiber can be between 500m till 5km depends of the fiber and bridge. Do not forget, all devices (router, switch, bridge, end user device) need continuous power!

[@rugfixr]

"I didn't drop it" hahaha This was so easily explained. Excellent video!

[@TheProgrammerGuy]

You can also add a switch to every room if you need more connections. I have 4 sub-switches connected to my main switch.

[@TechWithBrett]

We just did this as well in my parents home. We have now wired all of the things.

[@cordellboss]

Can you connect an ethernet cable from the main switch to each switch and get the best connection or is better to run an ethernet cable from the router to each individual switch?

[@TheProgrammerGuy]

@@cordellboss I assume by "main switch" you mean the modem (?), so, the modem has only one output which has to go to the router and everything goes from there. I don't know any other way.

[@TurboSpeedWiFi]

@@TheProgrammerGuy Main switch refers to the first switch in the signal chain and not the modem. A modem is not a switch.

[@TheProgrammerGuy]

@@TurboSpeedWiFi Exactly why it is in quotes and with (?)...

[@muhsin_sultan]

Hey Brett. I have a similar setup at my home with a 16-port switch (also from tp-link) and I realized that for me, you gotta just reboot the switch once in a while to avoid hiccups/slow connections. Not sure if this is applicable but just putting it out there

[@TechWithBrett]

Great recommendation. Getting everything setup I had to once but since then it was been working well. That will be my first troubleshooting steps of issues come up.

[@sportsguy2891]

Small switches like this typically don't need to be rebooted as they don't really have any intelligence. The routers should be rebooted once in a while.

[@davejohn255]

You must have Comcast/Xfinity...Have never had to reboot anything with FIOS...Xfinity was everyday.

[@NickyHendriks]

It's not the switch at fault but probably something else. Usually a switch needs no reboot at all except when it stops working entirely, from the small 5-port switches by TP-Link up to de 48-ports. My switch had an uptime of over a year without any problems. Had to reset it because I messed up some settings in the SDN. Some switches aren't even ment to be rebooted as a bad IT guy didn't save the config into boot.

[@simduino]

@@NickyHendriks You are correct. The switch is not the problem. The problem got solved because all connections in the router were closed when the switch got rebooted. This is because the ARP table in the router got emptied. The loss of connections is mostly due to filling up the ARP table to its limits, overflow results in connection loss. Small routers are known to have these problems. Wifi routers typically have a 32 connections limit because of the limited cpu power.