Home Networking help (ideas)

[xs2man]

Ok, so I have made some modifications to my home network now that I have built a new PC, and demoted my old one to server duties.

Things were fine before, where I had a direct connection from the PC (with all media files) into my Sky Q hub, then the other Q port into a switch. From here, it fed out to my other devices in my office, then into a single channel TP-Link 1200 MBPS powerline adaptor.

I then had another one of these adaptors in the bedroom, and two triple channel ones, one in the lounge, the other in the cinema.

Now though, the server has been moved to the cinema room. So all media traffic is now going through the powerlines, whether it is going via wifi, or too my TV's (albeit there is now no need for this in the cinema).

Anyway, I also have a mini Q box or whatever (for multi-room) in beside the server. It has done a decent job of boosting the wifi strength at this side of the house.

But I appear to be having some bottlenecking going on. So if my kids are each watching something on plex on their tablets, I don't appear to have the bandwidth left for me to watch something in the lounge. Probably because all traffic now has to go through this powerline network now, where before all the wireless traffic did not, it went straight to the Q Hub, then over the airwaves. I also noticed that my speeds on a PC to PC transfer was limited to 7-8 MBps, despite everything in the chain being at least Gigabit spec (NIC's on PC's, Powerlines, switch). I'm quite sure that is not right, and I probably need help sorting that out really first and foremost.

So, I'm in two minds at the moment. Part of me is saying, "to heck with it", and just go all in, and completely wire the house with cat 6, have a patch panel somewhere feeding everything, install faceplates throughout the house, add in extra NIC cards to my PC's to increase bandwidth, and be done with it. Probably the best option really.

Another thing I have been thinking though, is can I add a wireless AP at my server side, and have that deal with the wireless needs, and free up my gigabit network for hard-wired devices? Would there be anyway of adding it to the Sky Q network that is already there, so I don't have to swap connections on the tablets to access that? Or can I route the internet through the new wireless network instead, and then just extend that separately, disabling the Sky Q wifi (well not really, since the multi-room requires that). I feel that this may be the easiest / cheapest / quickest option.

Although I have always been drawn to running cat 6 regardless. It would be reasonably expensive as my house is quite large, and I would require several runs to each bedroom (there are 4), as well as kitchen, lounge, cinema and office. So would need a reasonable amount of work done to run everything. Plus my house is "upside down", so my internet comes in downstairs, in my office, and on this floor is 1 bedroom (smallest, probably not really requiring hard-wiring) and the cinema, whereas all the living area (lounge, kitchen etc), and other bedrooms are upstairs. I must admit, when I put it that way, it doesn't sound too upside down, but it is.

 

[bremen1874]

If you can run cables do it. The actual cable is fairly cheap so it's the number of drops that set the cost rather than the distances involved.

 

[xs2man]

Yeah, I figured that. Somewhere around £80-90 for the cable. Then around £50 for the patch panel, £125 for the switch, and somewhere around £5 per room for fascias. So cost for parts would only be in the region of £300 (I guess I'd probably need to run the cabling through outside trunking to cross floors due to the design of the house).

I guess I should just bite the bullet and go for it. Then I'll need to plan out how I'm going to run everything.

 

[bremen1874]

Do you need to cable the entire house? From your original post is sounds like you just need to cable certain key links.

 

[xs2man]

Well no. Not initially at least. I would only really need my office, cinema, lounge and main bedroom. But as the kids get older, their rooms will also need wiring in. But these initial rooms are basically on all 4 corners of the house.

I'd need at least 2-3 runs into my office. Probably 4 into the cinema and the lounge. Only really need 1-2 per bedroom though. So initially would likely be looking at 14 runs roughly. The internet comes into my office on the bottom floor, but would prefer to run the patch / switch in a cupboard in the hall on the top floor, as most of the connection are to be on this floor anyway. But that means 8 lines up and down between the floors of the house really. And they are on the opposite sides of the property.

 

[bremen1874]

If that was mine I'd cable the floors separately with a switch per floor.

You then just need enough external cabling to link the switches.

Even with just a single Gigabit link between floors I doubt you've ever notice the difference.

 

[xs2man]

Well, that'll depend on if I ever move the server upstairs, lol. But I see your point. I did consider that too, separate switches per floor, and do it that way. And I may well do that as it might be cleaner, but either way, the bottom floor will have to be wired externally as there is no easy way of wiring the bottom floor without opening walls / roof / floors.

 

[bremen1874]

The one central patch panel and switch is nice to aim for, but not always practicable.

If it's a choice between having a few more local switches or a shedload of external cables I'll add the switches and accept the compromise.

I needed a load of Ethernet ports behind the TV and the cable had to go external. I ran a single cable and added an eight port Gigabit switch. It's not a problem because most of what's plugged in only really needs a 100Mbps connection, and they only really get used one at a time.

 

[xs2man]

Thats how I used to have my powerline things set-up. One line into a 5 port switch. But if I'm gonna wire it up properly, I'll run 4 lines I think.

But the problem is, I won't really be able to ditch the external cables. It's either do 2 runs right up and down both floors, or only have one do this, and another skirting the exterior of the property. I think I'll likely go 2 runs up & down.