New to home networking/self-hosting advice on building a proper network with a point-to-point link?

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to self-hosting and proper home networking, and I'm looking to upgrade my current setup from something incredibly basic into a more capable and well-designed home network.

The part I'm struggling with is that my setup isn't quite as straightforward a just running Ethernet from my router to everything.

Due to where the internet connection enters the property versus where I need the main network/equipment, I unfortunately have to run the connection over a point-to-point wireless link, which then feeds into an access point/network on the other side.

I'm trying to work out the best way to design the network around this rather than just plugging things together and hoping for the best.

My eventual goal is to have a proper homelab/home network supporting things such as:

– Self-hosted websites/services

– Game servers

– Personal cloud storage

– NAS/file storage

– Home Assistant

– Media services

– Various Docker containers

– Remote access to some services

– A normal, reliable home LAN/Wi-Fi network

I'm also interested in learning to do things properly rather than just getting everything working. Things like VLANs, firewall rules, separating servers/IoT/normal clients, switches, routing, DNS, reverse proxies, etc. are all things I'd like to start learning and implementing where appropriate.

My main concern is the point-to-point link. I'm not sure where that should sit within the overall network topology or whether it creates any major limitations for what I'm trying to achieve.

For example, should I be looking at something roughly like:

ISP/ONT → Router/Firewall → PtP Bridge → Managed Switch → APs / Servers / NAS / Clients

Or is there a better way of approaching this?

I'd eventually like to have a small rack with the router/firewall, managed switch, server(s), NAS/storage and other networking equipment, so I'd rather plan the network properly now instead of buying equipment that I'll end up replacing.

I'm not necessarily looking for someone to design the entire network for me. I'm mainly looking for advice on how you would approach this setup, particularly with the PtP link being unavoidable.

What would you recommend for the basic topology? Is there anything I should specifically avoid doing? And what equipment/features should I be looking for if I want plenty of room to expand the homelab later?

Thanks!