While doing some home renovations, I took the opportunity to with the house with CAT6.
So instead of 2 LAN computers and 1 printer, and everything else on wireless, I need to accommodate 19 LAN connections plus wireless clients. Initially, I was just planning on adding an inexpensive unmanaged switch and connecting to my current D-Link DIR-655, but I am sensing an opportunity to deploy a more robust solution and define a couple of VLANs for access control and to isolate different parts of the network. Ideally, I'd like to be able to restrict access to the Media Server to a few rooms, set up a separate VLAN for VoIP, and another for network management. I've never gotten involved in networking to this level before, so I need some guidance on hardware selection and letting me know what I need to consider.
My biggest question surrounds the VLANs and what equipment might be required to support them.
Are VLANs defined by IP address or by the port on the switch? And can you use DHCP with VLANs, or do I need to define static IP's for everything?
And this is probably related to the previous questions, but would the router or the switch define the VLAN? In what info I have found so far, it sounds like both are options, so if that is the case, which is preferable?
And lastly, what should I be looking for in terms of a router in addition to the VLAN question? Would a consumer-grade router be sufficient, or should I get a SOHO router? I do not need a modem as I have FIOS and connecting directly to ONT box.
So instead of 2 LAN computers and 1 printer, and everything else on wireless, I need to accommodate 19 LAN connections plus wireless clients. Initially, I was just planning on adding an inexpensive unmanaged switch and connecting to my current D-Link DIR-655, but I am sensing an opportunity to deploy a more robust solution and define a couple of VLANs for access control and to isolate different parts of the network. Ideally, I'd like to be able to restrict access to the Media Server to a few rooms, set up a separate VLAN for VoIP, and another for network management. I've never gotten involved in networking to this level before, so I need some guidance on hardware selection and letting me know what I need to consider.
My biggest question surrounds the VLANs and what equipment might be required to support them.
Are VLANs defined by IP address or by the port on the switch? And can you use DHCP with VLANs, or do I need to define static IP's for everything?
And this is probably related to the previous questions, but would the router or the switch define the VLAN? In what info I have found so far, it sounds like both are options, so if that is the case, which is preferable?
And lastly, what should I be looking for in terms of a router in addition to the VLAN question? Would a consumer-grade router be sufficient, or should I get a SOHO router? I do not need a modem as I have FIOS and connecting directly to ONT box.
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