TiggerLAS

Yes, this is fairly common behavior.

Cheap routers such as Linksys and NetGear often have a hard time re-establishing the WAN connection when the cable modem is power-cycled.

You could try going into your Linksys, and manually setting up to WAN connection. If the Arris IP is 192.168.0.1 for example, manually set your WAN connection to something like this:

192.168.0.2 Mask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.0.1

Save your settings, and restart both devices.

What ISP speeds will you be dealing with?

Do you actually need 24 ports?

How many access points will you be using?

2" minimum separation between ordinary electrical wiring, and communication cables. At least that is code here in the US.

6-8 inch separation is usually preferred for long, parallel runs.

From your photos, you shouldn't have any trouble.

The most affordable WiFi router (that I'm aware of) that supports VLANs right out of the box is the GrandStream GWN7062, currently listing at $187 CAD on Amazon. It can be meshed with other GrandStream devices.

It's probably not as flexible as the ER-X, but should be able to handle all of the basics.

Another possibility is the Synology MR2200ac.

Powerline is hit or miss.

Either it will work well, or it won't work well at all.

For folks that can't escape Powerline, I typically steer them to units that utilize the newer G.hn technology, such as the Zyxel PLA6456

If the room with the router and the room with your PC are on the same circuit breaker, you'll probably exceed 400Mb speeds.

I'd be way more prone to just drilling the 1/2" holes through the two walls just above baseboard level, and running a cable. No plug-and-pray, and no doubts about whether you're getting the best connectivity to your router.

A switch port port can support the following:

1 or more Tagged VLANS

1 Untagged VLAN by itself

1 Untagged VLAN plus one or more Tagged VLANs

A switch port CANNOT support more than one Untagged VLAN.

In all of your pictures, port 4 is correct.

In the 2nd picture - you'll note that the VLAN60 and 61 boxes are red. That's because you've selected Untagged VLAN60 and Untagged VLAN61 on ports 1, 2, 3, and 5. That isn't a valid configuration.

Your first picture has VLAN60 set for untagged traffic on ports 1, 2, 3, and 5. . . anything plugged in to those ports would be dumped onto VLAN60 during normal operation.

If you want VLAN61 as untagged on ports 1, 2, 3, and 5, you'd change the VLAN60 entries on ports 1,2, 3, and 5 to "E", and then in the VLAN61 row, change 1, 2, 3, and 5 to "U".

So, top row correct for VLAN60, middle row completely invalid, and bottom row won't put any VLANs on ports 1, 2, 3, and 5.

If you have a spare coax cable that you can use for testing (even if it is a short one), try swapping it out, and see if your blue lights come back on.

I've had borderline / intermittent coax cables in the past.

They make these for 6 cables. . .

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285197205528

Single screw in the middle holds them down. . .

If you want the AC88U to actually "route" traffic, then set your AT&T router to "bridge mode". There's probably tons of instructions online as to how to accomplish that.

If you don't bridge the AT&T modem, you'll end up behind two layers of NAT, which can cause problems with gaming and port-forwarding.

There are other routers in the dream series, such as the UDM Pro, UDM Pro SE, etc. . . but those would be a overkill on a 1Gb service, and they don't have built-in WiFi, so you'd end up needing 2 access points, instead of one.

Most of the more affordable prosumer routers are wired-only. The EdgeRouter-X, TP-Link ER605, and the TrendNet TWG-431BR are affordable, but will cap out around 925-940Mb, give-or-take.

What's going to help with multiple smart home devices isn't so much the router, but the WiFi source that they are connected to.

The so-called high-density access points will probably have the biggest impact on your performance.

The TP-Link EAP620HD (1Gb LAN port) or TP-Link EAP660HD (2.5Gb LAN port) can supposedly handle a ton of clients.

Unifi also has some access points branded as "HD".

The Ubiquiti access points have their own hand-off process, and don't require a controller for them to function adequately. I think that Aruba Instant On access points function similarly.

There are some advanced features that would require either a hardware or software controller, but for basic use - you don't need either.

(Though you do have to install and run their software controller for the initial setup of the access points. After that, you can close it down, and only need to run it to check for firmware updates, or make changes to the access points.)

I believe the dream routers come with their network suite built in, so you're probably good there. I will point out that, if you're using the "Dream Router" (UDR) -- the cylindrical router -- it does cap out at 700Mb routed speeds. . . so if you're planning on 1Gb speeds from your ISP. . . the UDR won't handle those speeds.

Before purchasing a POE switch, you'll need to figure out how many devices will ultimately ending up needing POE power, and you'll need to figure out how much POE power you'll need, by adding up the anticipated wattage of each device.

Now, to obfuscate things even more with some hypotheticals. . .

So, let's say you have 3 access points, and the manufacturer's datasheet says they are 12 watts each. Perhaps you end up with 6 POE cameras, that claim to need 5 watts each. You'd need a switch that can supply at least 66 watts of POE power, and has at least 9 POE ports, in addition to an uplink port to connect to your network, and possibly a port for your NVR.

POE ports typically come in multiples of 4, and switches can either be exclusively POE, or a mix of POE and non-POE ports. You'll find various combinations out in the wild, and with varying POE budgets.

Once you exceed 8 POE ports on a single switch, many will have cooling fans, so you may need to take noise into consideration when selecting a switch.

You'll also find that switches with more than 8 POE ports will either be fully POE, or half-and-half.

In our example above, we need 9 POE ports. Since they're usually in multiples of 4, that would indicate a switch with 12 POE ports. But, there aren't alot of 12-port POE switches out in the wild, so you'd either end up with a 24-port switch where half of the ports are POE, or a 16 port switch with full POE.

My first thought would be a 16-port full POE switch. That would cover the 9 devices in the example, plus an uplink port, a port for an NVR, and would leave 5 ports available for expansion. In the example, we were at 66 watts, so something like a TP-Link TL-SG116P, which has a 120 watt budget would certainly meet those needs, and have some extra available power if you add cameras or other POE devices. Yes, it will have a fan.

Don't want noisy fans? If you're not going to expand past 6 cameras and 3 access points from the example, then get an 8-port POE switch with at least a 40w budget, plug in your cameras, your NVR, and an uplink cable to your router or main network switch. Then get a separate 5-port POE switch with at least a 40w budget, and use that strictly for your 3 access points. Enjoy your fan-free living. :-)

Other comments:

Try to avoid no-name brands. Brands that I'd trust, in no particular order: Ubiquiti (some are expensive, others surprisingly affordable). TP-Link. TrendNet. Zyxel.

Try to choose POE+ switches (802.3at), in case you end up with access point(s) that exceeds 15 watts.