GoKawiilProceed at your own risk! (... it's worth it)
How it all begin…
From some time, I had a second though about getting my homelab. I wanted to play with my own projects without relying on cloud providers or to have my own storage space to store backups as prices of cloud storage are getting more expensive.
No homelab can be complete without a prior proper networking setup. Given my experiences related to performance and security issues with ISP-provider routers, I wanted to have a better control over the traffic on my home network. I decided to heavily focus traffic on wired connections, to offload WiFi and ensure connection between devices over local network are as fast as possible.
That’s where Mikrotik L009UiGS-RM comes in play. It has enough Gigabit Ethernet ports to connect all my Ethernet ports on the walls. PoE is a nice bonus too, as I can power my access point without having to use a wall wart. The router has a small form factor, which made it possible to mount on the wall.
Know your ISP
Nevertheless, before I touched the router, I needed to find out how your ISP actually hands off the Internet connection as it’s not that easy. Two things decide your setup, and they are independent of each other: how the WAN authenticates, and what kind of IPv4 address it gets. Quick Google search on tech forums or asking the ISP support line will usually get you the answer.
IPoE or PPPoE
In Poland, some providers plug in an Ethernet cable and hand you an address over DHCP; this is IPoE1. Others require a PPPoE2 username and password, sometimes over a dedicated VLAN3. The right setup path depends entirely on this detail.
Protocol What your ISP gives you Typical setup on MikroTik IPoE IP address, gateway, DNS via DHCP on the WAN Add DHCP client on the WAN port PPPoE Username and password, sometimes over a VLAN Create VLAN if needed, then add PPPoE client
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