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[Dr. Strangelove]

Hi All,

Apologies in advance for this very long post - I'm very familiar with hardware but I'm new to networking and have been racking my brains about this and could really do with some help  .

I'm looking for advice on reconfiguring my network, so I've made an incredibly simple network diagram of my flat home network in my small apartment which is attached to this post.

I am with BT currently, on FTTC and am currently synced at 55Mbps down and 10Mbps up.

The reason for doing this is I'm not very happy with the smart hub 2 due to it being so locked down. I'm also worried about security given the incessant cyber attacks that are going on these days so I'm looking to secure my network as best I can, whilst being on a tight budget.

I have already purchased a HG612 and a homehub 5A.

I've unlocked the HG612 already and will be flashing OpenWRT on the HH5A today, sidenote - I hope to eke out some slightly better performance/reliability from all of the devices in this post by adding small heatsinks and tiny fans to each.

I have some questions, (just sanity checking mostly) and have detailed options I'm considering below.

Although I have been pouring over the forum and documentation, I thought it best to get some advice as you guys know networking and the particular limitations and pitfalls of using the HG612, HH5A and potentially the Smart Hub 2 in conjunction with each other.

HG612

1. I will obviously be using the HG612 as a Modem - but am I right in thinking I should enable the firewall on the modem to prevent access from the WAN to the webgui/SSH/Telnet?

2. Would there be any downside in having the modem firewalled and the router firewalled, my guess is it'd be more secure but perhaps slower?

3. BTA agent isn't a thing any more, is that correct?

4. Lastly, I should leave the PPPoE to be done by the router rather than setting it on the Modem - it should be done by Autoconfig when plugged into the NTE anyway, is that right?

HH5A

After pouring over the forum and docs about the HH5A on this topic yesterday for hours I just want to verify a few things.

5. It's a pretty weak device but should be adequate for routing and firewall if I can lift some of the load by not using the built in modem?

6. Also it sounds like the wifi is very poor, I'd like advice about using the built in HH5A wifi (the apartment is pretty small) vs. turning it off and potentially using the Smart hub 2/Asus-RT68U via ethernet to the HH5A as a wifi access point if necessary.

7. Lastly on the HH5A, how good is it at VLANs?

As the best setup for me may be, to put the Smart TV into a VLAN with no internet access (so I don't have to worry about any future firmware updates removing features from my TV) but I can then install the plex/kodi app on it and then just stream from the Unraid server over LAN, thereby removing the need for the Raspberry Pi 4 and wifi repeater setup I have now.

As I only pulled the trigger on it 2 days ago, I know the littlest about this device and am keen to get going today, are there any other things I should watch out for with the HH5A?

Smart Hub 2

8. I hate how locked down this thing is.. how well would this function as a repeater or access point given how few options there are to change the config?

Thanks for reading my novel  , I would really appreciate any advice you can give me .