Affordable TP-Link Omada SDN Network Setup and Review

if this is your network well you need this network hey guys what's up welcome back to the channel if you're looking to upgrade your business Network home lab or Soho Network there are many choices when it comes to Hardware from all-in-one devices with routers that have vpns and minimal configurations to separate Hardware that controls every aspect of your network for instance ubiquity has a line of products called unify which focuses on home prosumer business wired and business wireless networks UniFi has been around the longest and is quite popular and it has paved the way for sdn prosumer networks however UniFi is expensive and if you're on a budget then you need an alternative today's video is all about the alternative to unify this is the omada line of products from tp-link this line of omada Hardware is designed to power up your business home lab or Soho networks omada's SDM platform integrates network devices including access points routers and switches this network platform is highly scalable and is controlled by a single interface and provides 100 Cloud management which is ideal for schools retail Hospitality or home networks and yes these Hardware devices are quite affordable compared to the competition everything you see here is around four hundred dollars making this very affordable we have four omada products here let's start with a controller this is the OC 200 Hardware controller for centralized management up to 100 devices like access points routers and switches which eliminates the need to run a PC server however you could run the old modest software on your PC server or in the cloud without using this controller will save you 99 the OC 200 is powered by Poe or using the micro USB port the micro USB cable is not included this controller is compact lightweight and has two ethernet ports also a USB port and a reset switch and can be wall mounted this Hardware solution provides easy and intelligent network monitoring with an intuitive and easy to use dashboard also the OC 300 which is the next level up can control 500 devices which is great for larger businesses or organizations this is the tp-link ER 605 omada gigabit VPN router which provides a VPN tunnel and combines high security and a powerful firewall to protect your network and all its data also includes VLAN support and dos defense this VPN router is currently priced at 59 which is a great value but remember there's no Wi-Fi on this router the ER 605 is Compact and pretty lightweight it does come with a power cable and can be well mounted the router has five ethernet ports one Wan two lands and two land or Wan ports depending on your network configuration also has a USB connection and a reset switch this might be the smallest router I've ever owned next is the jet stream 10 Port gigabit smart switch with 8 Port Poe Plus at 150 watts which allows for multiple Poe cameras and Poe APS at the same time this switch also includes two gigabit SFP slots in this switch as 20 gigabits of switching capacity and is rack mountable and yes the hardware is included this switch includes static routing port isolation and much more I really wish they would have included a couple of 2.5 gigabit ports but tp-link as many other switches with those features matter of fact tp-link has a plethora of managed switches to choose from so feel free to browse and find the one that works for you and your network this switch is currently priced at 169.99 and lastly this is the TP League this is the tp-link EAP 670 Wi-Fi 6 Access Point the features that are included are the ax 5400 Wi-Fi six speeds the 2.5 gigabit Poe plus wire performance omada mesh technology for multiple APS this access point is poe plus powered but does include the power supply and the mounting bracket and Hardware this access point is dual band up to 5.4 gigabits per second also includes load balancing rate limits and wireless scheduling the current price for this access point is 148.99 okay first let's talk about two different kinds of networks first is your basic home network like a Soho Network or small business Network and the second network is an sdn network software-defined network but first let's talk about the basic home network which is probably your network this is the most common Network you're going to see in homes in small businesses so first from the internet you go to our ISP modem sometimes it's a modem router combo those suck get rid of it all you want is an ISP modem next your connect connected from the ISP modem to your wireless router and typically this is a consumer grade router like Linksys Netgear tp-link Asus and these routers have limited features when it comes to security they do have firewalls but most do not allow vpns on the router those kind of routers are more expensive next from your wireless router you go to your switch typically it's an unmanaged switch which is a plug and play and from here you connect all your devices like your computers media server file server this network has a managed switch like a Poe managed switch you can connect like Poe cameras and Poe access points this is a pretty good upgrade for a basic home network but it's not enough let me tell you why typically with this basic home network all the hardware is different brands it's a mixed match of Brands and how that affects the management of your network is huge because if you have a different brand of router and a different brand of switch and they don't work well together you have to manage each one separately so the downside is there's no Central management of these devices they're all managed separately like I said before there's a lot lack of security in these routers and switches in this kind of network the basic home network is difficult to scale because of all the different hardware and it's very time consuming and this basic home network is not suitable for large businesses it's just not so that brings us to this network the sdn software-defined networking and there's many SDM platforms out there but today we're going to talk about tp-link omada and the reason why we're talking about this today is because of the price point you'll model lineup products are budget friendly so first let's talk about how this all works like your basic home network you have your internet an ISP and your ISP modem but that's the only thing we have in common with this network after the ISP modem we go to the VPN router and for our setup it's the ER 605 a few benefits of this router is a firewall VPN tunneling dos defense load balancing and multi-net DHCP now connected from the VPN router we connect our switch to our jet stream 10 Port gigabit switch and the first thing you want to connect to this switch is your controller the OC 200 this is powered by P AOE you plug it into a port and you're good to go this switch has 8 Port Poe plus and 150 watts which means you can power several different Poe devices like cameras and access points this switch also has two SFP ports this switch also has vlans and port isolation static routing rate limits and seven security features and speaking of Poe plus ports from the switch we connect our AP which is the EAP 670. once again this is powered by Poe other devices that connect to this switch are computers file server media server Poe plus cameras and one more thing that's great about this setup it's easily scalable which means we can add another 8 port or 10 Port switch right here and what's great about the controller and the cloud management whenever you plug in a new hardware it detects it automatically so configuration is a breeze like I said before this sdn network is so easy to scale it's not even funny so what are the benefits over this network versus the basic Network well really it's the exact opposite of this tons of options like vlans static routing port isolation rate limit total monitoring of all your ports and all the data the exact opposite of this and for the amount of money you spend here which probably is about 300 maybe more for another hundred dollars you can get this and when it comes to your security especially for a small business there's no substitute for security you can't afford to get hacked or have a data breach at your business because you won't have a business so guys I'm going to show you step by step how to set this up let's start with the ISP to the router into the WAN Port right here and from the Lan port on the router to a lamp port on the switch now if you're going to use the controller whether it's the OC 200 or the OC 300 plug a cable in from the Lan port to the Lan Port doesn't matter which Port just plug it in this right here enables you to control the entire network like I said before you don't need this if you want you can use your PC server in the cloud management and connect the cable from any Lan port on the router to any Lan port on the switch next we connected our AP the eap670 to the switch via Ethernet once again you can plug it to any port you want these are all Poe plus ports and that's it it's very simple and I do love the tp-linko Moda app that gives you the device list the dashboard and settings you can make configurations here or when you're not at home pretty cool now logging into the PC interface dashboard is great too just a bigger version if you have bad eyesight then use the PC version it's easier I've used unify before and I'm familiar with a dashboard that they use so the amount of dashboard is a little bit different and I'm sure after a few weeks I'll get used to it but I've tried to find a flaw in the hardware or the software I tried to find something I just don't like but I gotta say I love it it's a great hardware for the price easily scalable easy to set up and easy to monitor with the OC 200 controller you control 100 devices and if you spend a little bit more money you get the OC 300 controller you control 500 devices and that's great for a large business they have business grade Hardware at home consumer pricing is incredible tp-link hit a home run I'm looking forward to testing out more of these products including their Wi-Fi 7 routers so keep an eye out for more omada tp-link videos and like I said before if you have this network well you need this network so guys remember like share and subscribe and for God's sakes hit the Bell icon peace