When should I use the LAN ports on my router vs a switch?
I have a pretty decent size home network and, overall, it tends to run well/smoothly. I have about 40 devices connected to my network but 75% of them are very low bandwidth or 'on demand' network usage (ie: security system, thermostat, idle TV's, Amazon echo's, etc.)
I have two switches (both 100mb) connected to the router and one file server (QNAP).
One area of concern I have is a "weather computer" which runs software that manages a surveillance system (Blue Iris) with 14 cameras, each set to record when triggered.
Most of the cameras connect directly to both switches, a couple of them are lower bandwidth and wireless.
So the weather computer should be getting some decent traffic, especially on windy days, when many of the cameras are triggering and 'uploading' the video to record.
I understand the bulk of the "downward" traffic from the cameras are coming through both switches to the weather PC.
The weather PC writes the recorded videos "upward" to the QNAP file server and that happens as any/each camera is triggered.
Is there any benefit in connecting the weather computer network cable directly to the router to keep the extra traffic off the switch?
Or maybe an easier, more direct question, is there any benefit in connecting any network device directly to the router over a switch, or is it all the same?
I was considering switching out one of my switches for a managed VLAN switch now that they are more economically priced but upon researching this I'm seeing that seperating all of my camera traffic may not really make any real difference.
Thoughts and suggestions to consider are appreciated.