Need router advice

[rvguy]

I work at an RV park. We have Spectrum Gigabit internet. I want a router (don't need wireless) to run a single cat 6 outdoor cable to a managed switch. 20 wireless APs will be wired to the switch. One AP at each RV. The switch will limit the bandwidth for each AP to 50Mbits. That will be its only function (besides the switch part.) Assume a worst case of 10 devices connected to each AP for a total of 200 connections. Just a LAN nothing more.

What would be some good routers for this? I want maximum speed of course. I don't know sh*t from shinola. That's why I'm asking.

Thanks for your help.

[Dieselboy]

HI OP,

You might have some trouble getting a router that's easy to set up, without wifi and not very expensive. I think you'll be looking at under $1000. You might need to get one with wifi and just turn off the wifi.

We usually look at business grade firewalls and they come without any configuration on them at all - I dont mean they have default config applied, they literally have no config. So it needs someone to go in and provision them which is not a simple task for someone that has not done that before.
If you get a web-based firewall, then generally it will be plug and play to some extent and you can tweak things that you need (eg, turn off the wifi).

Do you have any models that you've been looking at or suggested?

[deanwebb]

Doing a little searching, you can cap each line to 50Mbps with a Netgear XS724EM switch that offers 24 ports. It retails for $2200.

Given that you have 20 lines capped at 50Mbps, you need 20x50=1000 Mbps or 1Gbps service to the Spectrum box.

Question you didn't mention is how those wireless APs get powered - do they need power over ethernet back to the switch? If so, I found the M4250-26G4F-PoE+ (GSM4230P) that has 300W of power it can deliver down the line, offers quality of service limits on line speed (interface shaping rate), and retails around $1200.

[rvguy]

I'm thinking something much cheaper. Each AP has its own POE injector so I only need a simple managed switch. How about
TP-link TL-SG1024DE or Netgear equivalent. Just set the bandwidth on each port and go.

For a router do I really need more than a TP-link ER605 or equivalent.

[deanwebb]

Looking in the manuals for both those devices, you would be able to control speeds as you described above. It would be in the user manuals under "Quality of Service" or QoS.

[Dieselboy]

The TPLink may work.. I dont have any experience with that model though. Generally, cheap devices lack in features both hardware and software. If you're going to try it, then try and load up the system with the maximum expected clients and bandwidth and monitor the devices CPU and Memory load if you can.

Typically memory can be consumed when the device is tracking connections through the firewall, which it has to do to allow the traffic to pass.
Typically CPU will be consumed when dealing with fragmentation of packets, NAT, QOS etc.

Some performance tech: https://www.msy.com.au/product/tp-link-tl-er605-omada-gigabit-vpn-router-60016

It's made for small businesses so probably less than 50 devices.

[HamSolo]

I look into some MikroTik Gear. You can get the RB5009 for a few hundred bucks that'll do what you need.