--- title: "Home Network Upgrade to 25Gb/s with MikroTik Switching" description: "How I rebuilt my home network around MikroTik CRS504 25Gb/s switching, DACs, optics, and the gotchas I hit going beyond 10Gb at home." date: 2024-09-09T08:25:08+00:00 modified: 2026-06-01T19:03:03+00:00 author: James Kilby categories: - Mikrotik - Networking - Artificial Intelligence - Automation - Docker - Homelab - NVIDIA - Traefik - VMware - Hosting - Ansible - Veeam tags: - #Homelab - #Mikrotik - #Networking url: https://jameskilby.co.uk/2024/09/home-network-upgrade/ image: https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/s-l1600.jpg --- ![CRS-504](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/s-l1600.jpg) [Mikrotik](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/mikrotik/) | [Networking](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/networking/) # Home Network Upgrade to 25Gb/s with MikroTik Switching By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)September 9, 2024 · Updated June 1, 2026 • 📖2 min read(454 words) 📅 **Published:** September 09, 2024• **Updated:** June 01, 2026 I have recently moved over to Mikrotik Switching for all of my Home environment as part of my home network upgrade. What started life as a move away from gigabit networking had some serious scope creep. As I needed new switches, network adaptors and cabling I evaluated the obvious choice of just upgrading to 10Gb/s. However, when looking at the price comparison to upgrade to 25Gb/s I felt the cost uplift was justified and certainly better future-proofed. This became the baseline for the majority of my server workloads. The Access switch layer has basically stayed gigabit but with 10Gb/s uplinks. ## Table of Contents The decision to go to Mikrotik was predominantly based on the huge performance available for limited costs. So far I have been impressed with the switches once I got over the initial steep learning curve of RouterOS. I have purchased several switches spread out over a few months. This coincided with a property move so some extras were bought to accommodate the new layout. In the property, my lab was relocated to a dedicated space and I also wanted wired connectivity into my office. ## Switches Purchased Number| Model| £Price | Function| OS ---|---|---|---|--- 1| [CRS504_4XQ](https://mikrotik.com/product/crs504_4xq_in)| 704.40| Core Switch| RouterOS 1| [CRS305-1G-4S+IN](https://mikrotik.com/product/crs305_1g_4s_in)| 131.15| Breakout Switch| RouterOS 2| [CSS610-8P-2S+IN](https://mikrotik.com/product/css610_8p_2s_in)| 193.46| House and Office Switch| SwitchOS Lite 1| [CSS610-8G-2S+](https://mikrotik.com/product/css610_8g_2s_in)| 183.87| OOB Switch| SwitchOS Lite Total| | 1406.34| | The 100Gb/s Switch is effectively my core switch. It only has 4 physical ports however each of these can be split into 4x25gb/s or slower ports if needed. In the current state all 4 ports are used, however I do have 3 remaining breakouts available if needed. I have then used the 5-Port 10 Gb/s switch sort of as a media translator for connections to the access switches around the house with 10Gb uplinks to distribute the network around the home and present ethernet ports to my devices. ![Network Overview](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Home-Net-overview-1024x633.png) Mikrotik Switches can typically run one of two operating systems either RouterOS or SwitchOS. (The 3 ethernet port switches will only run SwOS) SwitchOS is a much simpler setup and is similar to a web-managed switch from other manufacturers. It’s a trivial setup for anyone that’s used a web-managed switch before. The config for these switches takes a little bit of time to get familiar with as they are incredibly powerful. It’s possible to run RouterOS or SwitchOS on them however I could never get SwitchOS to boot correctly on the 100Gb/s switch so I stuck with RouterOS and persevered through the config. Part 2 will go into my RouterOS setup. I have a draft post of the steps I have used to get RouterOS configured how I like. I will try and finish that off when I get some more time. ## 📚 Related Posts * [MikroTik CRS504 Review: 100Gb/s Networking in My Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/12/100gb-s-in-my-homelab-sort-of/) * [Homelab Network Upgrade: DACs, 40Gb/s vMotion & pfSense](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-3-network/) * [Automating vSphere Power Management driven by Ansible and SemaphoreUI](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/vsphere-power-management-driven-by-ansible/) ## Similar Posts * [![Self-hosted AI stack operations architecture — Ansible automation, Uptime Kuma monitoring, Open WebUI backup, and container orchestration with Docker and Traefik](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ai-stack-featured-768x403.png)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/my-self-hosted-ai-stack-infrastructure-deep-dive-part-2/) [Artificial Intelligence](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/artificial-intelligence/) | [Automation](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/automation/) | [Docker](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/docker/) | [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) | [NVIDIA](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/nvidia/) | [Traefik](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/traefik/) | [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) ### [My Self-Hosted AI Stack: Infrastructure Deep Dive (Part 2)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/my-self-hosted-ai-stack-infrastructure-deep-dive-part-2/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)April 4, 2026 · Updated June 1, 2026 Part 2 of my self-hosted AI stack series. I cover container resource sizing, dual-network isolation via Traefik and Cloudflare Tunnels, and every database powering the stack — PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Redis, Qdrant, MinIO, MongoDB, SQLite, Prometheus, and Jaeger — plus the backup strategy for each. * [![Homelab Storage Upgrade: Synology DS918 for VMware & NFS](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/81-ZoEW24UL._SL1500_-768x461.jpg)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2019/02/lab-storage-2/) [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) ### [Homelab Storage Upgrade: Synology DS918 for VMware & NFS](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2019/02/lab-storage-2/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)February 10, 2019 · Updated June 1, 2026 Since starting my new role with Xtravirt my Homelab has gone through several fairly significant changes. * [![How I Migrated from Pocket to Hoarder with AI Integration](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-29-at-23.30.47-768x411.png)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/01/how-i-migrated-from-pocket-to-hoarder-and-introduced-some-ai-along-the-way/) [Artificial Intelligence](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/artificial-intelligence/) | [Docker](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/docker/) | [Hosting](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/hosting/) ### [How I Migrated from Pocket to Hoarder with AI Integration](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/01/how-i-migrated-from-pocket-to-hoarder-and-introduced-some-ai-along-the-way/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)January 29, 2025 · Updated June 1, 2026 Update: Hoarder has now been renamed to Karakeep due to a trademark issue I’ve been on a mission recently to regain control of my data. * [![Configuring a Zen Internet and City Fibre connection with a 3rd party router](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cityfibre-zen-768x403.jpg)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/11/configuring-a-zen-internet-and-city-fibre-connection-with-a-3rd-party-router/) [Networking](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/networking/) ### [Configuring a Zen Internet and City Fibre connection with a 3rd party router](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2023/11/configuring-a-zen-internet-and-city-fibre-connection-with-a-3rd-party-router/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)November 15, 2023 · Updated June 1, 2026 Back in July I bought a new house and one of the best things about the property was that it was already in a City Fibre location. * [![vSphere Power Management Ansible Playbooks with Semaphore](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/vsphere-power-management-ansible-768x403.png)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/vsphere-power-management-driven-by-ansible/) [Ansible](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/ansible/) | [Automation](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/automation/) ### [Automating vSphere Power Management driven by Ansible and SemaphoreUI](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/vsphere-power-management-driven-by-ansible/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)April 15, 2026 · Updated June 1, 2026 In this post I’ll walk through how I use vSphere Power Management driven by Ansible and SemaphoreUI to automatically reduce ESXi host electricity consumption — saving real money on my Octopus Agile tariff by toggling hosts between Low Power and Balanced policies. Introduction One of the larger costs of running my homelab is the electricity…. * [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) | [Veeam](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/veeam/) | [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) ### [Lab Update – Desired Workloads](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2022/01/lab-update-part-5-desired-workloads/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)January 6, 2022 · Updated June 1, 2026 My lab is always undergoing change. Partially as I want to try new things or new ways of doing things.