Hello, I'm a self-funded student reading for MSc in Cybersecurity. My research and work involve heavy local network usage.
I currently have a single Netgear R7000, which has 4x1Gbps ports. All of the ports are divided between a Dell workstation with two NICs and a Synology NAS. I see my homelab growing as my work progresses. I have 7 Raspberry Pis running different workloads & around 21 Wi-Fi clients at home (including the Pis)
My requirements are:
If both these requirements can be met with a single device such as the Cisco integrated service routers, it would be preferential.
- At the least 16 x 1 Gbps ports and preferably higher throughput 10G uplink ports for future use.
- VLANs and L3 routing capabilities for segregation.
- I am not planning for a Cisco/vendor-centric certification. I am, however, interested in a good CLI based switch for learning.
- PoE isn't a mandate.
Most network services are hosted on a Raspberry Pi cluster on Kubernetes. Thsee include PiVPN & Pi-Hole running unbound for recursive DNS service. Hence I am not really looking for security services such as URL filtering, VPN access etc as part of the bundle.
Hence my question: Is it better to get a SG350-28 ports or is it more advisable to get a Cisco RV345 for my homelab?
As a self-funded student I have limited budget and while my homelab will continue to grow, what is a more prudent investment given my current state?
