Networks·41,467 discussions

Home network switches

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Tags: Hardware, Networking

Hi everyone.

I’m trying to do 2 things to my home network:
1. Increase the number of devices connected
2. Improve total network efficiency and speed

My current config is Netgear CM500 cable modem -> TP-Link AC1750 router and Netgear GS108 8-port switch -> about 10 client devices consisting of an Ampedwireless wi-fi range extender, NAS, 4 computers, smart tv, 2 Roku devices.

My network is split into 3 physical “segments” if you will:

1. House – modem, router, devices
2. Garage – wi-fi range extender (for garage, yard, etc.)
3. Outbuilding – off-sight NAS (backup)

I’m out of available network ports, and I was able to get a few of our old enterprise Cisco switches from work. They are:
3750 (48-port)
3750 POE-48 (48-port)
3750G POE-48 (48-port)

Assuming that all of these old switches work, I’m considering properly configuring and installing one of the Cisco switches into my network (I’m guessing directly between my cable modem and everything else).

I’d also like to use either the Netgear GS108 8-port or the 2nd best Cisco switch out in the outbuilding, thereby further segmenting and increasing available ports both in the house and out there as well.

I’d appreciate your advice on the best/proper order of networking device connectivity, and I hope that is enough info to begin with. Please let know your thoughts, and if/what additional detail would be helpful.

Thanks again!

Topic

Seems fine.

In reply to Home network switches

I don’t see any reason this won’t work. I do however find folk floored by what it can take to provision (i.e. setup) some Cisco gear. I take it you have to tools, training and skills to do that.

[Just Curious839]

Reply To: Home network switches

In reply to Seems fine.

I have a USA-19SH USBtoSerial adapter and a serial console cable, and can successfully access them via PuTTY. I have very basic config knowledge, and of course most of that can be found on YouTube (though I’d welcome any good resource you can offer for best completeness and bulletproof security). I also have both CCNA Routing & Switching books and Network+ book as well.

Although I don’t need POE, I’m guessing that the 3750G is the only Gigabit switch out of the 3, so that’s the one I’ll use for the house.

I’m currently using my wi-fi router for DHCP, with a /24 mask, but will be switching to a /26 to provide ample addresses for both the switches and wi-fi.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Just Curious839.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Just Curious839.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Just Curious839.

Reply To: Home network switches

In reply to Seems fine.

I reset the switch and I think that it’s cleared (the name and vlan info is cleared), but one thing that bothers me is this stuff that comes up after boot:

%STACKMGR-4-SWITCH_ADDED: Switch 4 has been ADDED to the stack
%LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Vlan1, changed state to down
%SPANTREE-5-EXTENDED_SYSID: Extended SysId enabled for type vlan
%STACKMGR-5-SWITCH_READY: Switch 4 is READY
%STACKMGR-4-STACK_LINK_CHANGE: Stack Port 1 Switch 4 has changed to state DOWN
%STACKMGR-4-STACK_LINK_CHANGE: Stack Port 2 Switch 4 has changed to state DOWN
%SYS-5-RESTART: System restarted —
Cisco IOS Software, C3750 Software (C3750-IPSERVICESK9-M), Version 12.2(55)SE1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2010 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Thu 02-Dec-10 07:46 by prod_rel_team
%STACKMGR-5-MASTER_READY: Master Switch 4 is READY

I’m sure that this switch was part of a stack when it was used at the office, but it’s obviously not going to be in a stack here, so should I clear the above settings, and if so how?

This is where your Cisco training kicks in.

In reply to Reply To: Home network switches

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/training.html

I took it you are a Cisco trained person. Otherwise my advice would have been to sell this and get a normal unmanaged switch for 20 or so dollars.

Sometimes folk expect free Cisco support. Maybe https://www.reddit.com/r/Cisco/ is next because there’s a lot more Cisco folk there.

Reply To: Home network switches

In reply to Home network switches

I hope expert help you !

[Just Curious839]

Reply To: Home network switches

In reply to Reply To: Home network switches

No, a little IT trained, but definitely not Cisco. The 8-port unmanaged switch I’m currently using was fine until I ran out of ports, and we were disposing of these old 3750’s at work (still work fine, just upgrading), and I know that a managed switch (especially an enterprise Cisco one) has more and much better features and performance, and since they were free I decided to use them.

I did in fact try looking for a 24-port unmanaged switch, but they start at $75+ not $20. I could get another 8-port like the one I’m already using, but again I had the better one for free.

I mistakenly took this forum to be a helpful place to discuss all technology (as the main page states), and this being in the “network” group I thought that I might find some folk who have worked with and are quite familiar with “Cisco” brand hardware (being that they’re a bit popular within the real world market).

No hard feelings though, I do appreciate your time and the link suggestions that you offered.

I did find quite a lot of helpful videos on YouTube last night, but they’re all pretty disjointed and all contain some, but none contain all of the useful information for configuring these switches.

I think that perhaps I would like to gather my research, glean it for relevancy, and then make my own article and YouTube video of the benefits of using a Cisco enterprise switch in a medium home network (it’s really not that uncommon, according to the amount of folk on YouTube doing it) and the theory and how to for configuring the relevant features.

Good day and God bless friends.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Just Curious839.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by Just Curious839.

Because Cisco is all over the map

In reply to Reply To: Home network switches

What I know is just a fraction to cover their entire product line.

That’s why I must advise you go the the Cisco reddit where you’ll get a lot of Cisco feedback and maybe how to set it up.

I am familiar with Cisco gear but that doesn’t mean I can work every device they put out or when it is one of their products that you essentially RENT to use it.

I have seen folk melt down when they get a free Cisco bit of kit then discover that operation is only possible by paying Cisco for a license!

-> Go to the Cisco Reddit where there are thousands of cisco people.

Reply

In reply to Home network switches

S0 the Cisco 3750 are a layer 3 switches. So I recommend replacing your router with one of them so you can do things like vlan. I would say use the 3750G as your core since it does gig. Don’t daisy chain your switches, run all the uplink connections back to your core switch. Also I saw your note about dhcp about switching to a /26 address so I’m assuming you want to vlan. Because you will have to setup NAT on your core switch anyway I would say your dhcp scope mask doesn’t matter that much because you can technically use the whole 10.0.0.0/8 network anyway, so plenty of room. You will also need to setup access lists if you want to really segment your network in a way to control access. Also, I would recommend moving dhcp to your core switch instead of the wifi router.

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In reply to Reply

Thank you very much abartkiewicz, I really appreciate your items for me to research and implement. I wasn’t sure if the 3750’s were layer 2 or 3, so that’s great to know that I can actually get better control using it vs my wi-fi router. I don’t “need” to segment for security or acl or anything (it’s just the wife and I and our occasional family guests), though I do fancy the idea of using a guest vlan which simply goes to the internet and is disconnected from my home network. The trick there is that most if not all guests will always use wi-fi as do some of our home streaming devices, so I’ll have to think about how to split up the different (will have to be multiple) physical links from my wi-fi router to my core switch. See, THIS is the “fun” stuff that I wanted to get into (and appreciate help with) planning!! I’ll do some research and post a LAN map soon.

[Author]

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