There are a ton of features that fall under 'managed' umbrella, but for most home usecases you don't really need to manage the switches often. Once you setup WiFi SSIDs with VLAN tags, you almost never have to touch the switch. I like to separate networks with VLANs.

If your WiFi doesn't have client isolation, IoT devices can still scan your network. WiFi client isolation will prevent that, having them on separate VLAN also makes sense.

Another usecase is a Guest network, when friends come over. You might not want to isolate clients there and allow devices to talk to each other, but also don't interfere with your home network.

If you work from home, depending on what you do, you might want to have 'office' VLAN. Or a 'Kids' VLAN, where internet turns off every night at 8pm.

At this point, it may be easier to QoS and give only 10% of your internet bandwidth to Guest network, and 5% to IoT device network, etc.

▲

SoftTalker 4 days ago | parent [-]

I cannot imagine adding this complexity to my home life. Work is frustrating enough. At home I use the box from the cable company and don't change anything. That way if it doesn't work it's their fault.

▲

justinrubek 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

How many layers of complexity live in in your current arrangement? They're still there. I've owned my own networking hardware for a long time, and it's stable to the point that I essentially never touch it after minimal setup. Some of us choose to go further down this path for our own reasons: features we want to use, to grow our knowledge, or just because we can. I find this take dismissive, reductive, and ultimately not a productive.

▲

userbinator 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Network switches, even managed ones, are usually "set and forget".

But sure, if you don't want to take control of your home network, then the corporate overlords will be more than happy to control it for you --- possibly against your wishes.

▲

YZF 4 days ago | parent [-]

I work on networks in my day job. Just like the parent at home I'm cool with a single L2 network behind a firewall. The box that plugs into the fiber is my NAT/Firewall. The rest is just off the shelf stuff I never have to touch or configure, mostly WiFi. No idea why you need link aggregation or vlans at home for most home use. what's next? VRFs and VXLAN? IPsec? Racks in your home data center with spine/leaf? ECMP?

EDIT: I have kids and never felt the need to isolate their network. I've never had a guest/friend that needed to access my network, everyone is on a network via their phone. But if they did they can jump on my WiFi.

▲

wpm 4 days ago | parent [-]

I run IPsec at home, on two HA OPNSense firewalls/routers precisely because I don’t get to do it all day. It’s a learning experience.

▲

exmadscientist 3 days ago | parent [-]

Sure, "I wish to learn about this stuff" or "I think playing with this stuff is fun" are both fair reasons.

But apart from those, I just don't understand how adding the complexity makes my life better. People are saying "VLANS!!!" but why would I want to do that? How does my life improve if I do?

	▲	userbinator 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Everyone has already stated what they find VLANs useful for. If you don't think they're useful then I suspect you don't think VMs are useful either.