Smart Panel - Router or Firewall?

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Pyros2080

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Aug 27, 2013
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Hi all,

Wife and I are having a house built that will include a "smart panel" for ethernet, phone and cable. Ethernet will be patched from 8 rooms back into the smart panel (8x Cat 5e). At the smart panel, I will have a Motorola SB6141 cable model with 100Mb service.

What I need are suggestions for firewalls and or routers that tie in between the cable modem and ethernet/smart panel. Possibly even a decent unmanaged switch (cable modem to firewall, to unmanaged switch, to wall block/smart panel, to rooms/more unmanaged switches). I'm not sure what brands/lines are good for wired router/firewall situations, having only dealt with consumer grade wireless routers in the past.

I do not need a wireless router at that point. One of the ethernet connections runs through to our master closer which happens to be the center of the home/lot. I planned to either go with 2 wireless routers (5 and 2.4) or one dual band that will be attached on the ceiling. Aside from being password protected, security will fall back to the router/firewall at the smart panel.

I planned to go with 100/1000 unmanaged switched as most end points, splitting each connection to other devices.

In all, we will be connecting a majority of our devices over gigabit, having 4-6 computers in total and up-to 20 other ethernet devices (including QNAP NAS). This will be for gaming and entertaiming primarily (movie/tv streaming from NAS and hosting an occasional dedicated game server). I do VPN into work occasionally.

Thanks for any help or advice!
 
Solution
MartinWilson
You have a few choices, but I would locate the router beside the cable modem & smart panel. This is the gateway out of your home and so should be the location for your router.

No need to get a Wireless AC router, as you won't be using the wireless here anyway. Unless you already have a good router. A well reviewed non-expensive router is the Asus RT-N66U - http://bestwirelessroutersnow.com/asus-rt-n66u-review/ - which has Gigabit LAN ports (they shouldn't need to be used as Gig ports, but just in case you decide to route between networks in the future, this will come in useful.


Then depending on where you want to position switches, and the port density of the switch, I recommend installing Gigabit Netgear switches at both the...
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MartinWilson

MartinWilson

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Aug 13, 2013
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You have a few choices, but I would locate the router beside the cable modem & smart panel. This is the gateway out of your home and so should be the location for your router.

No need to get a Wireless AC router, as you won't be using the wireless here anyway. Unless you already have a good router. A well reviewed non-expensive router is the Asus RT-N66U - http://bestwirelessroutersnow.com/asus-rt-n66u-review/ - which has Gigabit LAN ports (they shouldn't need to be used as Gig ports, but just in case you decide to route between networks in the future, this will come in useful.


Then depending on where you want to position switches, and the port density of the switch, I recommend installing Gigabit Netgear switches at both the router location, and in the rooms around the house where you desire to have extra ports. Make sure you get Gigabit Netgear switches so that you can utilize your NAS box to it's full potential - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_89_2?rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A172504%2Cn%3A281414%2Ck%3Aswitch%2Cp_89%3ANetgear&keywords=switch&ie=UTF8&qid=1377671826&rnid=2528832011


You can then use a Wireless Access Point(s) where you want to have wireless. These come in single band or dual band. If you have an old wireless router, this could be an option too, but you need to make sure it is set up correctly so as not to cause cause conflicts in your existing network. http://www.newegg.com/Wireless-AP/SubCategory/ID-335?Tpk=wireless%20access%20points

Hope this answers your questions :)
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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Not sure if you have considered UPS power or not. Because you can't move it you will need UPS power on the smart panel to keep your main switch and modem up. You get into the trade off of do I distribute my equipment (like the NAS) and buy more UPS or do I centralize it to cut my UPS costs down.

I would not be real concerned about a firewall in a home environment. You seldom need to protect from attack between the devices inside the house and the connection to the internet will likely be your standard single IP shared with NAT. NAT alone by default provides the vast majority of the protection a firewall does. Yes someone could run DoS against the router but most routers now have some basic protection built in.
 
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