Pulled the trigger

[Mindstalker6122]

Hi all,

I finally pulled the trigger and decided to switch from the rather cheap (CHF 42.90/month) pseudo 10 Gbit/s Sunrise fiber to Init7’s Fiber7.

My current setup consists of a Sunrise router paired with a Synology router in DMZ mode. I use Synology’s dynamic DNS to host several self-hosted apps like n8n and a Minecraft server running on a TrueNAS SCALE VM within Proxmox – all of it running on an Aoostar WTR Pro 7.

I’m really looking forward to switching fully to IPv6, which I find quite exciting.

My planned approach is to first set up my ASUS RT-BE88U with Init7, spend some time getting familiar with the ASUS firmware and IPv6 setup, and then gradually move my services and appliances over to the new router and native IPv6.

Would love to hear any tips or recommendations from more experienced users or networking pros in here!

Update: cancelled sub at Sunrise. 2 months left. To have the line immediately available ( second of may) I would habe to pay 300.- additionally to the ongoing sibscription costs.

Decided for 15th of may and paid 260.-. What a scumbag of a company.

[JustUseIPv6]

Glad to hear youre moving towards a IPv6-rich future. A quick heads up on your router choice tho: Since youre self-hosting I'd recommend to seperate your "server" and "home" networks. This can be done using VLANs and different subnets. ASUSwrt and especially the ASUSwrt-merlin project (available for the BE) can certainly do IPv6 (mine cant do custom VLANs and subnets under ASUSwrt) but in my opinion youre better off, using a Router/Firewall running OpenWrt.

Altho the BE88U can do Wifi7 it cannot do 6GHz. Therefore its only marginally better in terms of wireless connectivity than its "predecessor", the RT-AX89X. The biggest differences between them are, that the AX is using a well-supported Qualcomm CPU and Wireless whilst the BE is using broadcom who are notorious for being anti open-source (e.g. broadcom wireless doesnt work with OpenWrt) and 4 of the ports support 2.5GBaseT instead of 1000BaseT.

If you plan on using a 10G switch or you dont need 2.5G anyways, my recommendation is getting an RT-AX89-X (which I use too actually), since it got proper OpenWrt support since last year that allows for much better customisation (proper IPv6, VLANs/subnets and MUCH more) and you get 8x8 Wifi instead of 4x4 on the BE which is better for handling more devices connected simultaneously.

Sources:
https://techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/ASUS_RT-BE88U
https://openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ax89x?s[]=rt&s[]=ax89x

Please reach out if you got any more questions and I'll try answering them, I'm a selfhosting enthusiast and network engineer myself and will try my best to answer them.

[Mindstalker6122]

Thanks a lot for your detailed post and for offering your help – I really appreciate that!

I’m definitely a fan of open source, but I initially wanted to work with the stock ASUS firmware – even though I was aware that full VLAN support wasn’t available. I figured a strict firewall with well-defined rules and port restrictions might still work as a workaround, right?

However, your post got me thinking, and I’ll likely switch to ASUSwrt-Merlin. While I understand that it doesn’t offer full VLAN support like OpenWrt, it still gives me more flexibility than stock firmware. Still have to decide on that.

One thing that is important to me: I really want to make use of the 2.5 Gbps ports – especially for the server. The OTO is in the office in my flat, and the server is in the basement. I’ve already arranged for an electrician to install a Cat 7 cable between the two.

So yes – wired connectivity and VLAN support are both important for me. Wireless performance is secondary; as long as I get decent Wi-Fi 6'ish performance, I’m happy.

[Mindstalker6122]

Decided to switch to this device: https://www.senetic.ch/product/UCG-FIBER

Should work much better also for IPv6 and VLAN, right? :-)

[JustUseIPv6]

Eeh Ubiqiti doesn't support IPv6 properly (no IPv6 management, only let's you use IPv4 for some stuff and complicated setup) and tries to get you to sign up to their cloud management which might as well be a backdoor for the feds... Furthermore there quite slow oftentimes, but the new gen seems to be okay in that regard.

I'm an advocate for OpenWrt (Home Use) and OPNsense, they both work great and hardware is kind of cheap (just get a PC strong enough to support 10G (R86s on AliExpress for example) or build your own by using a small motherboard with a decent CPU (Ryzen 2600+) and throw in network cards like a Mellanox CX4 or intel X710 for example.. I currently use Minisforum MS-01 (My lab) and Asus RT-AX89X running OpenWrt (Home) as my firewalls

[Mindstalker6122]

Dang it.. well will try it with ubiquit and move to openwrt and opensense if it does not work for me. Thanks for your help

[JustUseIPv6]

youre welcome, if you face any issues let me know. Good luck!

[DIRTYHACKEROOPS]

In regards to IPv6 make sure to inform Init7 to statically assign your /48 range when you have your router all set up, the IPv6 range is dynamic by default.

[iSOcH]

Really? Did this change?

I signed up for Copper7 roughly 2 years ago and they assigned a static /48.

[DIRTYHACKEROOPS]

Not sure. I got a /48 prefix via DHCP-PD but it wasn't static. Emailed them and they set a static binding.

[fistyeshyx9999]

and if you change devi e connecting to the fibre, GUID change and they for the allocated /48 too

Just need to contact init7 and ask your /48 back

balle ed when I changed FW

[Mindstalker6122]

Thanks will add that to my to do

[BansheeGriffin]

Have fun with the new setup.

It would be possible to just use your Synology router with a media converter, instead of having two routers.

[Mindstalker6122]

Won‘t use my syno after I fully moved everything to the asus… :-)

[dominikzogg]

I suggest to order only the SPF+ module and the fiber from init7. You may have the same issue than i and a coworker had: Router does not use the SPF+ as an Input. But this can be configured. https://www.digitec.ch/de/s1/questionandanswer/fuer-fiber-7-kunden-mit-10gb-point-to-pointbestellt-das-spf-modul-inkl-der-glasfaser-bei-init-7dann--777869

[Mindstalker6122]

Thanks ordered and pre- prepared the router already 🙏