A few years ago, my family moved into a new house. That brought several opportunities including having a garage and underground space that could house many things, like a 42U rack for example.

Ever since there were (and still are) several Synology devices with 10G capabilities, there was a need to share data among them utilizing those speeds, so a US‑16‑XG by UniFi made its way into the setup.

Over the last few years, the client side of things has changed as well. Mainly devices with 10G capabilities, like Mac Studio, or any other Mac connected to an OWC Thunderbolt 4 10G capable dock that could finally enjoy the benefits of high LAN speeds.

Along with those upgrades, WAN communication was also a factor. As a self-hoster, there was also a need for a fast and stable Internet connection. Luckily, that was achieved by the RUNE project (RUral NEtworks) and Fenice Telekom (Croatia), which delivered FTTH in the region.

RUNE - fiber broadband for the forgotten

fiber broadband EU project that will bring high speed Internet to rural parts of Croatia

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Synology RT2600AC running gigabit fiber

Can Synology RT2600AC run gigabit Internet speeds? Yes it can.

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These articles tell a bit of a story regarding FTTH implementation as well as Synology router support of gigabit speeds.

While this setup was more than stable and working fine for the past 4-5 years, with increasing access to multi-gig Internet speeds, and the internal 10G LAN speeds, it was time for an upgrade.

Back in 2022 (May/October), Synology released an updated pair of routers that were targeting multi-gig speeds. Still current to this day, the RT6600ax and WRX560 models were released.

Synology RT6600ax - NEW router for the Wi-Fi 6 era

The NEW Synology RT6600ax WIFI 6 router with SRM 1.3 is here!

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Synology WRX560 router review

The NEW WIFI6 Synology WRX560 router is here. A perfect companion to the recent addition. The RT6600ax.

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The new routers were a great upgrade bringing better wifi speed with wifi6 support as well as 2.5G WAN speeds. The main issue for my case was that they had still multiple 1Gbit LAN ports, meaning that any single communication LAN-connected device was unable to utilize those 2.5G speeds.

Building on the 10G LAN premise, I have decided to then step up, and get a 10G WAN and LAN capable router that could tackle those challenges and provide a long-term solution for any 10G capable client.

Because of that more Unifi gear was acquired. Mainly those were the UniFi DreamMachine PRO SE edition, as well as the UniFi Flex XG switch.

The idea behind this was to bridge the Flex XG switch with the rack-mounted US-16-XG while also connecting to the DreamMachine via a 10G WAN port allowing for fast access for all connected devices in the network (wired ones).

The benefit of this new LAN setup, allowed for some high speeds using devices such as a Macbook Air (2020). Paired with the OWC dock, getting 5G speeds was no problem at all.

FiberNET - the underdog multi-gig provider

Having the LAN speed in the 5G to 10G range, depending on the device, it was time to focus on multi-gig WAN speeds. In 2023, FiberNET started offering 2.5/2.5G services before any other major ISP in the state. With very competitive pricing, this was a great way to speed up and upgrade the WAN access to accommodate the new LAN setup.

Fibernet is the ISP for your average techy

To make it happen, the PPPoE setup had to be deprecated and a direct/static IP setup was implemented. It took some time to get there but as a result, much higher speeds than 2.5G were possible.

Thanks to great tech support and transparent communication with their users, Fibernet is the ISP for your average techy. With no need to utilize their own network devices, fast speeds, and responsive tech support, they offer a service like no other competitive ISP.

This new setup allows for a significant upgrade in download and upload speed that has a direct impact on self-hosted services as well.

One final touch in this whole network upgrade was wi-fi. Considering that the DreamMachine PRO SE does not offer any wifi capabilities as a router, a UniFi U6 Pro was added to the mix.

This being an AX-compatible access point as well as 1G-limited on its ethernet port, wifi speeds max out at 1G as well depending on the location of the client.

So there we have it. The everchanging need to keep both hardware and software updated and upgraded, both for security and performance. Considering that this blog is now five years old, let's hope that this upgrade will allow it to survive the next five as well for the benefit of all visitors and members.