As luck would have it, the new router that I received from Verizon has a number of issues. One, there is one port on the router that I cannot close because that is used by Verizon to manage their network. As a result, Verizon is able to get inside of the perimeter of the network and is the main reason that I have a second router. Secondly, the Verizon Quantum router does not have vlan capability - at all, nada. This causes some issues with what I want to do in that I need to isolate things to their own broadcast LAN. It doesn't do well to have an Ethernet based media setup which cannot be isolated from other devices that need to share the bandwidth. Also, interestingly enough, I have discovered that pushing a lot of media (and Bonjour messages for that matter) tend to bog this router down.
Verizon likes to be able to check on their cable card which is mounted in a TiVo Bolt on my network. I can understand why they want to do this. They want to be able to control what channels the cable card is able to receive. I have no problem with this in that I am paying for specific parts of their service, they have that right. The reason for the Ethernet traffic is that the TiVo Bolt transmits streams to the two TiVo Minis that I also have in the network. SHMBO occasionally doesn't turn the Minis off when she is done with them and this causes the traffic to continue to stream. She is getting better at it since she has started recording as many as three channels at the same time. Since the Bolt only has 4 tuners, the Mini needs to be stopped after use so that it frees up the tuner that it has captured, but that is another story.
To accommodate the possibility that the connection between the Bolt and a Mini is still active and streaming I have moved the media streaming (Bolt and 2 Minis) to a separate set of Ethernet connections outside of my home network. I am doing this by connecting all of these devices on their own separate Ethernet cables and unmanaged switches, finally ending up coming into a separate unmanaged switch connected to the Quantum router. If the Minis are streaming from the Bolt, the traffic is isolated to the switch and does not affect the Quantum bandwidth. I have also connected the weather station feed through this same set of switches. Normally, only the weather station feed uses the Quantum until we are using either Netflix or Amazon Prime Videos. Meanwhile, if I need to connect to the internet I am free to do so. Best way I know how to accomplish the goals.
Now if I bork something in the home network and it goes down, it doesn't affect the media which makes living with SHMBO much easier. Just a tip to the weary husband that only wants peace in the house.
This is a blog mostly about techie things, what I am doing to my apartment network on the cheap, IOT, 3D Printing, Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, ESP32, ESP8266, Home Automation, Personal Weather Stations, Things That Go Bump in the Night, and some side issues that need discussing. Remember, sometimes the journey to an end is as much fun as the goal achieved!
