Trying to set up a network at house I just bought
And it's been a while, so I don't know what the hell I'm doing. At our last house, I had a total clusterfuck of stuff, where I'd just add on more crap as I went along, for ten years. So just toss in another switch, another wireless AP, another router, and it's a miracle it worked at all. With the eventual goal of redoing it all, and just never did.
Now I'd like to set everything up correctly. But I am not a networking expert.
My bright idea was to set up a pi-hole server, on an older intel NUC, and try to run everything through that. I also had a TP-link DECO mesh three-AP system that I wanted to use.
I managed to get Ubuntu Server installed on the NUC, despite having never touched linux before, and somehow also managed to figure out how to set a static IP on it during install. Basically just set it to DHCP, ran ip addr, and used that info to set it.
But then I realized I'm an idiot, and the Deco system is the router, and it's not communicating with the pi-hole server. I grabbed an 8 port smart switch, and tried to connect everything together using that.
So, it doesn't really work correctly. I just have the Deco system into the switch, and it's routing. I've been reading, and now I'm wondering if I need a decent new router, if I need pfsense, or just how I need to set everything up.
I believe I need internet -> switch -> pi-hole -> router -> APs/devices/etc. But I am not 100% sure.
My goal is to have the incoming internet (cable internet at this point), have it go to the pi-hole server, and then from there to a switch that has a router and all wireless APs. Not being a networking person, I don't know.
What do I need to do? Can I use the NUC as the pi-hole and router and pfsense and everything? If so how do I physically connect it all.
Apologies for the questions, flame away if I'm sounding like an idiot.