Networking Better Than Expected

I have no right being as excited as I am on this topic. I'll just post this here so hopefully I'll stop re-explaining myself to my flatmate and he can regain some sanity (Sorry Paul!).

I rewired the internet/networking here over the weekend. Pretty happy with the new setup as I can fully take advantage of my multi-IP address VDSL2 package now. The rewiring required a second GigE Switch and some additional network cards. I've got the VDSL2 router going to a switch in the office. That switch is handling all the public addressing, so the VPN Server and a Linksys WRT54GL wireless router (via its WAN port) will be attached to that with a public IP address assigned to each.

The VPN Server and WRT54GL are connected to a second switch along with all the other non-public computers. The second switch constitutes the private network. The WRT54GL provides DHCP and internet access to the private network (as well as wireless access to the private network). Obviously, I'm a complete nerd to be excited about all this, but the internet has usually involved hacking around with firmwares and double-NAT configuration to get everything online.

The new setup is working well for gaming too, with games reporting an open NAT making gaming a more pleasant experience. The double-NAT usually caused issues with UPNP. As an added bonus, I could even set up a wireless network that doesn't have access to the private network. The VDSL2 router can provide internet access directly on the VDSL2 routers assigned IP address via either direct connection to the public switch or the VDSL2 routers wireless-N network (if you're in range). The prior setup would have given any guests full private network access (obviously excluding VPN) when all they would need is internet.

The VDSL2 router required some custom routing and firewall setup that was provided by my ISP (after about a month of back-and-forth via email), but it all went very smoothly once I actually got around to taking everything down for configuration and rewiring. The new connection speed is 40Mbit/2Mbit which is about as fast as we can get on the Isle of Man at the moment without going with a super expensive business connection. I'm also apparently super close to the exchange, so I'm getting pretty much all of that speed.