Do you even need two switches?
Do you even need two switches?
Make sure you have a standard PoE power source like 802.3af/at before starting. You might buy a small switch to act as an injector for your Power over Ethernet, which would let you control how many devices connect at once. I think something like a 5-port TP-Link PoE switch will work just fine. You need to check what power your AP needs compared to the total power the switch can give you. It should be easy to get a router and a small switch in one box, probably even using a patch panel instead of messy loose cables coming from different rooms.
Hey there, thanks for getting back with me. They are recommending the UniFi Access Point U6 with Long Range, and it uses PoP power. Will that cause any trouble for you?
So I looked into Unifi APs and they need 18.6 watts max power each. A TP-Link SG1005P only gives out 65 watts total, even though each port can handle up to 30 watts. That works fine for now but you won't be able to add a fourth one later. The price goes way up when you need basic PoE devices that support over 100 watts like these. Netgear has an 8-port model that uses about 85 watts, which is roughly $20 more than the TP-Link option.
After reading and researching a bit more, I think an even better plan might be: Starlink -> Asus RT-AX88U -> 3 Ubiquiti PoE+ Adapters -> Cat 6A wire to the outlets behind each of the 3 TVs and connected to Ubiquiti Access Point U6 In-Wall devices. Those have LAN ports so I can hardwire my Apple TV stuff to the access points and use the AX88U settings to route Apple TV data through the VPN while letting the rest go out on the open Internet. Any opinions for that setup? That cuts down the number of APs from 6 to 3 and saves me needing any switches. Thanks!
I also want to mention a few people suggested removing the Asus VPN router and installing an Ubiquiti system instead. But based on everything I've heard, it seems they don't support WireGuard client connections well. The installers are promising they can make it work, but I'm not sure if I really need something that isn't officially supported. Any thoughts in this? Thanks again.
Your plan won't work, because extra ethernet ports are really uncommon in APs. They usually act like a 2-port switch instead. The Ubiquiti router is okay if you have many APs and want to manage them all from one place, but you can load that software on your PC too. In general, a home user just needs a router to handle NAT functions, which almost every router does anyway. I haven't checked the docs recently for Ubiquiti routers since Asus doesn't seem to have similar features. Maybe they support VLANs or something since they focus more on business gear. When it comes to running a VPN, the Merlin image is usually one of the best options. However, some VPN implementations might not work as you expect and could let certain traffic bypass the VPN entirely by sending everything straight through.
No, you don't really need both of them. Cisco costs a lot already.