It’s clearly as OT as it can get in my opinion.
Would be nice to spin the new topics into new threads instead of making this thread enormous and off topic. When the users take those initiatives that’s when discussions and forums blossom. Hope that happens more here since there are a lot of interesting things being written 
OK, I’m guilty of this but at least I tried to include my Roon setup to get us back on track (and going back into the enterprise networking weeds again).
Hey we’ve been split! Back to the networking conversation…
Craig, did you do any research on Cisco’s Meraki line? That seems to be the direct competitor product like to Unifi.
I’m running the last gen of one of these 4 port models with pfSense for the last couple of years. It’s been highly reliable and a great setup for network security.
I’ve done the Unifi vs. Meraki research for a large (22,000 sf) commercial deployment. From a price/performance standpoint, nothing comes close to Unifi. As part of this deployment I did a proof of concept with Unifi at home. 2 switches and 3 access points later, networking and wireless issues have basically become a thing of the past. Great performance, easy to manage and cheap. Highly recommended.
Greg, thanks for the information. First, like the pre-built pfSense router idea, especially the price. and pfSense is good for VPNs (inboard and outbound). I think I’ll pick one up.
And I’m going to look really hard at the Unifi equipment for my next upgrade. I’ve been using Netgear switches for almost 20 years and they’ve been good products. But I do need more configuration and just basic information these days, especially when the number of network devices on my LAN exceed 40 and that number is expected to climb. And it may be just cost effective enough for me to dip my toes into the world of 10GB Ethernet.
@Sevenfeet, The VPN options (OpenVPN, IPSec) in pfSense work well, and are fairly easy to set up. But they are routing rather than bridging, so are not compatible with Roon. If you want VPN for remote access to Roon, you will need a different solution.
I’m looking at SoftEther VPN as a possible alternative for remote access to Roon, but I doubt I’ll get to this for a while. There are threads elsewhere on this forum discussing SoftEther and other remote access options.
What do you think 10GB ethernet will bring to your configuration? I rarely see a saturated 1GB connection, so it is not likely to help me much.
@Greg_Miller The lack of Roon’s ability to pass through a VPN is a bit frustrating. it’s probably the only software I care about with this problem. Comcast’s Xfinity Stream app handles VPN nicely since you need it if you are out of the house and still need to watch a show with location restrictions. Roon can’t seem to do this, even if all traffic is routed back to the VPN. So i just fall back on Tidal’s UI.
It is true…10gbit Ethernet in my house is hilarious overkill, as it is in most homes. But we tech nerds often want the coolest toys for no good reason other than they are there. Right now, my big problem is that I’ve run out of ports on my Netgear GS116 switch which is the backbone of my home network. I actually had a few extra ports looped through an elderly Apple Time Machine right off the main switch. But the other elderly Time Machine at my parents house died yesterday so I yanked the one from my network and put it in use there. So now I’m trying to figure out what devices in my house are off line (yes, I have a tiny documentation problem!)
So if i end up buying some new gear, if just for the backbone, the question is what I do and what vendor. Unifi looks tempting. But you’re right about one thing…no device on my network can saturate >1gbit Ethernet for the time being. Even if I got 10gb cards for the two Mac Pros I have (desktop and main media/roon server), I still wouldn’t get much more than 2gb/sec tops given my current storage. At least 10 GB cards are getting cheaper now…<$100.
FWIW, I’ve had Roon on a laptop successfully connect to my RoonServer over ZeroTier VPN where ZeroTier was installed directly on both the laptop and the Linux system running the RoonServer…
My wife would tell you that I’ve never, ever bought any bright shiny tech objects just because they were there, lol. A 10G card for $100…hmmm
Hilarious overkill for me looks like a UniFi 48 port PoE switch in the basement, a UniFi 8 port PoE switch in my office and 3 AP-AC-Pro access points - 1 in the basement, 1 in my office and one in the garage. PoE is nice, saves having to run power to the AP’s. The switches are super easy to manage in the UniFi controller software, but the underlying CLI is not as accessible as some if you have specialized or complex needs. I’m doing some bonding and VLAN tagging, the controller UI handles this just fine.
Some of this gear was scrounged and some was given to me, but if I had to start over, it would be with UniFi.
POE is a useful technology but it mainly is only useful in residential situations for wireless access points and/or security cameras. I don’t have a security camera regime that needs POE and all of my Wifi access points are near power outlets. And I don’t need 48 ports of anything on my backbone right now (24 ports would be nice and 32 ports would be nicer but that’s not a form factor anyone makes).
The Unifi US-16-XG is an intriguing product since you get 16 total ports of 10gb ethernet with 12 of it being fiber. But with transceivers being pretty cheap these days, it’s not a bad way to get into 10gb Ethernet at a lower price per port than completely twisted-pair solutions ($550 for the unit on the street). The UI seems to be pretty nice from all I’ve seen. And if I have to do anything at the CLI level for any of these products, then either I’ve lost my mind in how I configure this or the UI is really awful. I can’t see doing anything more than some bonding or maybe a VLAN for my needs.
The main downside for SOHO use is that it’s not N-base-T compatible so there are no supported speeds on the twisted pair side at the 2.5gb or 5gb level. That’s a small problem for most but if you’re trying to retrofit into a building with Cat 5e cabling, you may not get 10gb quality on some connections. Most homes aren’t going to have twisted-pair runs longer than spec but some mega-homes might.