@highwalker wrote:
I'm looking at putting in a 3rd party router+WiFi (Draytek) using PoE in a different location to improve WIfi coverage (& hopefully performance, bearing in mind how flaky the Hub 3 seems to have become). Whilst the 3rd party router does have LAN ports, its going to be wall mounted, so they are not very accessible. The 3rd party router will need to do DHCP.
The Hub 3 currently has a VM powerline range extender connected to it (to enable reach the TV in the back room) and also my Zigbee Hive box. These need to be close to the power sockets in the room.
Can I put a switch in the WAN route between the PoE inserter and the Hub? (or combine PoE inserter with switch?) and hook the powerline extender & Hive hub to it? (so WAN route would be WiFi router - PoE inserter - Switch - Hub )
It should be possible, but it'll be a bit more complicated..
1. you'll need a managed switch so that you can put two ports into a separate VLAN to all of the others
2. Connect the HUB to one of these two ports and the Router's WAN port to the other..
3. Connect a cable from one of the Router's LAN ports back to the switch into a port in the "other" vlan on the switch..
If you're going to do this, i would also recommend that you give the switch a static IP address so that it never requests a DHCP lease - else it might end up requesting a lease from the hub and getting a public IP address 🙂