I have a Peplink Balance One. I use it with two 10mbps Adsl2+ lines. I’ve been using 4 computers on it, one runs an in-office server that communicates with all the other computers. Something that has not happened before with other switches/routers is happening now, computers get disconnected from the server. I’m wondering if this is because the router places overhead on the Peplink. If so, would it be a good idea to simply install a switch so the Peplink doesn’t have to handle computer to computer traffic?
This is not expected behavior and a separate switch should not be needed. Please open a support ticket so we can follow up on this: http://cs.peplink.com/contact/support/
Found out the internal server opened a port and that port forwarding has seemed to fix the issue. This wasn’t necessary on a previous router, but now that its fixed I prefer a “stick shift” to an “automatic” anyway. Now wondering two things:
Still: would use of a switch behind the peplink free up any resources or speed anything up? Or would the “overhead” be the same with and without the switch?
My internal server doesn’t really use a Wan (As it just “talks to” other computers in the home network pure peer to peer). In such a case does reference to a wan (Inbound IP Address(es) (Require at least one IP address)) make any security vulnerabilities and, if so, could I just refer to the unused Mobile Internet: Interface IP so as to make sure any incoming traffic on the used port hits a “dead end” on the opened port?
With or without switch is same. Balance One can handle this.
Based in my understanding, clients having connection problem with original server IP (IP that configured on Server NIC). If clients connect server NAT IP (e.g. WAN IP of Balance One) then is ok. If my assumption is correct, you just need to “Deny any any” for Inbound Firewall Rule then will be fine.
Additionally, you may need to confirm the application behavior with your vendor. By right layer 2 communication shouldn’t have problem.