Using the Flint 2 solely as a wired router?

[AdamK]

Yes of course failover WAN is allowed.

[j2zero]

This is what you originally said in your first post.

@lsquare

I'm still learning about networking. My home is already wired with Cat5e. I want to get a managed PoE 2.5GbE switch. I intend to add security cameras that use PoE. Can I use the managed PoE switch with the Flint 2? Will I be able to create VLANs?

And now you are saying this

@lsquare

Or look at it this way, if I'm paying for gigabit internet and my networking gear is working flawlessly to give me gigabit speed, then why upgrade? Unless I need more speed, which I doubt based on my current use cases, the only other thing I'm worried about is security updates.

Why do anything? You will always eventually get left behind in the tech world, that's just how it is. I understand concerns for security patches etc but living in the "what if" world will mean you never buy anything. The same concept as the people that want to "future proof" buy what you need for now.

Technology is like dog years in terms of how it becomes obsolete so fast.

I think your post might have been better suited over at the official OpenWRT forum since that is what you are wanting long term for security.

[lsquare]

I'm still researching and learning. It's not like the expense is trivial. I have to get it right. Part of discussing our needs is to help refine it. The house's wiring is already done. PoE is absolutely still part of the plan going forward.

[j2zero]

I would recommend that you look at the Unifi or TP-Link omada eco systems. Unifi for example has a very big following on YouTube and lots of tutorials. It's easy to have a single panel of glass to look at, manage and do settings that sync to all your equipment.

If you are just learning then something like OpenWRT can be a bit daunting and setting up VLANs will be more time consuming / difficult as it's all manual work under the hood of Luci.

You would have to setup VLANs on the Switch, OpenWRT and any Access points if you bought different vendor equipment.

The beauty of Unifi or Omada is that you can follow the guides online and it's pretty simple to achieve your goals BUT that doesn't mean they won't EoL certain equipment too. Unifi is the more polished of the two, I find TP-Link bring out more and more hardware revisions of the same products but silently drop firmware support for older revisions or have them on different firmware versions with different features sets. So if you do decide to go TP-Link then make sure to research what model version of equipment you will receive.

[packetmonkey]

Using one company's forum to tell another user to use a different brand is in pretty poor taste imo.

[lsquare]

I agree. The whole point of a forum is to have a constructive discussion and yet I was told to start doing something because there is always something better on the horizon.

[j2zero]

I originally stated the Brume 2 is a perfect little setup and it still is. The discussion went sideways after learning the level of experience and needs.

I have always said if glinet were to make a eco system like unifi or Omada it would be great competition but as of 2025 they don't. I haven't said don't bother with glinet, far from it.

Would the user find Unifi or Omada more simple in this scenario, I think they would. Is he / she free to make their mind up on their decision, sure they are.

But I can agree the topic has ran it's course and hence that was my final reply.

@lsquare

I agree. The whole point of a forum is to have a constructive discussion and yet I was told to start doing something because there is always something better on the horizon.

No one has told you to do anything. Do as you please

@lsquare

The whole point of a forum is to have a constructive discussion

And that was the whole point in mentioning Unifi and Omada as an alternative in this example.

[Lastimosa]

If you don't want advice, then why ask for it? Just go and do what you want.