I've just moved into a new house, and I'm trying to get the network setup to be the best I can.
Currently my ISP supplies a router that I need to use, and that only provides a single port for the internal network to use. It is mounted in a small cabinet with metal walls, together with a patch panel where single cat6 cables run to various rooms in the house.
The router has very limited functionality, and I'd much rather use an Asus RT-AC66U or similar, and be able to manage both wifi and network configuration from a single device. (Scheduling, DHCP, QoS, etc). Any other devices in my home would use the RT-AC66U as a gateway, both wired and wireless devices.
I could simply stuff the RT-AC66U into the small cabinet and place it in the ISP router's DMZ, but because of the metal walls the wifi coverage would be less than ideal.
What I'm wondering is if it is possible to place the RT-AC66U elsewhere in the house, simply by placing a switch in the cabinet instead. Like this:
Where the switch would be connected to each port on the patch panel.
Will this work? Or do you have any other suggestions on how to solve this? I want to keep the gigabit capability, so network splitters are not an option, AFAIK.