Routers with multiple 2.5gb ports?

justin_43

justin_43

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I recently purchased a new cable modem with a 2.5gb port and connecting it directly my system with a 2.5Gbps NIC allows me to get speeds up to 1300MBps with Comcast gigabit internet. This is great except for the fact that my router (ASUS RT-AX88U) has 1 gig ports obviously. I ordered a 2.5Gb switch for my internal network, but to get the 1300MB internet speeds throughout my network I need a router with 2x 2.5Gb ports. I see quite a few with a single 2.5Gb WAN/LAN port, but I need one with 2 ports for LAN and WAN each. Do these exist? If not, would building a pfsense box with 2.5Gb NICs be an option? I have zero experience with that but would be willing to learn if that was the best or only option. Thanks for any input.
 
Looks like that's a managed switch. I would need a router with 2x 2.5 or higher ports. If I can get a router with 2x 10gb ports for under $500 I would do it.
 
I found something that looks like it might work for me. Does anyone have any experience with the ASUS RT-AX89X? I see that it has 2x 10gb ports, although one of them is SFP+. Is there an adapter to use this to connect to a switch with standard RJ-45? Will there be issues with the rest of my gear being 2.5gb and this is 10gb? I assume not but it doesn't hurt to ask. Thanks for any help guys!
 
justin_43 said:
I found something that looks like it might work for me. Does anyone have any experience with the ASUS RT-AX89X? I see that it has 2x 10gb ports, although one of them is SFP+. Is there an adapter to use this to connect to a switch with standard RJ-45? Will there be issues with the rest of my gear being 2.5gb and this is 10gb? I assume not but it doesn't hurt to ask. Thanks for any help guys!
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I'm not vouching for it, but a quick search found this. You can probably find similar. I'm not sure if the 10GbaseT port on that router will do 2.5gb though. The 2.5/5GbaseT standard came way after 10GbaseT, so there's no guarantee there.
 
toast0 said:
I'm not vouching for it, but a quick search found this. You can probably find similar. I'm not sure if the 10GbaseT port on that router will do 2.5gb though. The 2.5/5GbaseT standard came way after 10GbaseT, so there's no guarantee there.
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I looked at the ASUS website and they are actually saying that the SPF+ port cannot do 2.5Gb it will only do 10Gb. But they do say that the 10GbaseT port is actually flexible and will do 1Gb/2.5Gb/5GB/10Gb. But of course I would need both ports. So the search for a router with 2x 2.5Gb ports continues.

Is pfsense an option? I am not too familiar but it would seem to me that I could build a system with 2.5Gb NICs and use it as a router with the right software as long as the 2.5Gb NICs were supported. Maybe this is something I will have to look into, unless there is a commercial router available that would do it, because I can't find anything in the normal consumer grade stuff that has the ports right now.
 
justin_43 said:
to get the 1300MB internet speeds throughout my network I need a router with 2x 2.5Gb ports
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Not necessarily. The higher end ASUS routers (and others too) support Link Aggregation. So one 2.5GbE uplink port would be enough if your other infrastructure is Link Aggregation capable.
 
chithanh said:
Not necessarily. The higher end ASUS routers (and others too) support Link Aggregation. So one 2.5GbE uplink port would be enough if your other infrastructure is Link Aggregation capable.
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Really? that's great news. I will definitely look into link aggregation. I am a noob with this stuff. What else needs to be compatible? Any recommendations?
 
Is the Dream machine silent? I’m looking for a new router, too. It looks like I can hook up a wireless access point to it to enable wifi and insert a HDD to hold backups. Is that correct?
 
Mizzer said:
Is the Dream machine silent? I’m looking for a new router, too. It looks like I can hook up a wireless access point to it to enable wifi and insert a HDD to hold backups. Is that correct?
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Hard drive is for camera storage only. Pretty damn slient. Yes add APs and go
 
justin_43 said:
I recently purchased a new cable modem with a 2.5gb port and connecting it directly my system with a 2.5Gbps NIC allows me to get speeds up to 1300MBps with Comcast gigabit internet. This is great except for the fact that my router (ASUS RT-AX88U) has 1 gig ports obviously. I ordered a 2.5Gb switch for my internal network, but to get the 1300MB internet speeds throughout my network I need a router with 2x 2.5Gb ports. I see quite a few with a single 2.5Gb WAN/LAN port, but I need one with 2 ports for LAN and WAN each. Do these exist? If not, would building a pfsense box with 2.5Gb NICs be an option? I have zero experience with that but would be willing to learn if that was the best or only option. Thanks for any input.
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How fast is your internet? Not much sense upgrading to 2.5 links unless you’re on symmetrical fiber, and even then, unless you’re torrenting how often would you saturate up and down and the same time?
 
Randall Stephens said:
How fast is your internet? Not much sense upgrading to 2.5 links unless you’re on symmetrical fiber, and even then, unless you’re torrenting how often would you saturate up and down and the same time?
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He said he's already pulling down > 1Gbps
 
Make an opnSense box with 2*10gb nic ports and then use that to connect all your faster than 1gb network devices.
 
Stumbled onto this thread as I'm looking at the same issue. I just upgraded to Comcast 1200 service, and all of my infrastructure is for 1Gb max. I'm pulling a solid 940mb/sec, but looking to upgrade. Why do routers have 2.5Gb WAN ports but not LAN ports? I guess I could use the XB7 as the router, but didn't really want to. If I put it into bypass mode to connect to a router with a 2.5Gb WAN port, the traffic will get throttled down to 1Gb across the LAN ports.
 
What is needed here doesnt seem to exist yet on the consumer market. I would advise buying/building a PC to run PFSense or OPNSense and putting a Intel X550-T2 NIC in it. It doesnt take much to run *Sense. You can get a Dell SFF Workstation or something and it would run it cake.
The X550 NIC supports NBASE-T(2.5g/5G) in linux.
This resolves the 2.5g between modem and router. You would however need a switch downstream that supports 2.5G. I would suggest a 10GBaseT switch downstream that also supports 1G negotiation as it would probably be cheaper then a 2.5g switch while being faster.

I have a very similiar setup. I have an Arris S33 modem and a X550-T1 NIC in my OPNSense server which negotiates at 2.5g. The difference being is i have a 10G core switch downstream.
 
joeh_1974 said:
Why do routers have 2.5Gb WAN ports but not LAN ports?
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FMD!

Better question ... why do obscenely obvious concepts have to be explained? Generally speaking all distribution networks, from water, gas and power to transportation work in the same fashion ... trunk, branch, leaf. Your 2.5Gbps router's wan port is a branch node, your inside network is a leaf.
 
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