Help with networking around house with CCTV

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I have some data ports scattered around my home. Sadly, it appears the cable is cat 5, and the one I think is the newer run is CCA.

I’ve never used them and was thinking of replacing the cable with cat 6, possibly dual or more runs to each port. I have found where the cables emerge in the attic, so I’m hoping I can pull some string through using the old cables (or a better method if anyone knows one) and then pull cat 6 through.

I want to put a POE switch in the attic to attach 4-6 Hikvision IP cameras wired to a Hikvision DS-7716NI-M4 NVR in my office, where the blanked off box is, and have the NVR wired to the living room where the router is.

It appears the living room may currently be connected to the left bedroom socket.

I think maybe the right bedroom socket goes to the office and then to the living room, where it is tied off. This appear an older run as some of the cable is buried in the attic, and there appears to be a join in the office socket. Maybe they tried this, it didn’t work, so they went with a new run?

Can anyone help with the best way to repurpose these sockets and how to wire up a network? I know I will need new cat 6 faceplates.

I was thinking to put a switch in the attic. I could then run from living room to that and from that to each socket. To this I could attach an 8 port POE swich for the cameras. Or do I go for a bigger POE switch, so I only need one? Is it worth having any direct connection between sockets, or just all go via an attic switch. Or even put the network switch elsewhere? Should I need to go for switch that can handle 2.5Gb or more? My router is 2.5Gb capable but I only have 1Gb fibre ATM. I also read multiple runs to each socket is worth doing.

It looks like I’m heading down the networking rabbit hole.

Many thanks in advance.

Bedroom:

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Office:
Office-1.png

Office-2.png


Living room:
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Thanks. I've been reading up more and I'm think of putting a patch panel in the attic and terminating the various cables to that. I could then connect everything to a network switch, or even connect various rooms to each other.

Would I use something like iperf3 to test speed? Say with a laptop at each end?

I was thinking with the dual cable run from the living room I could use 2 ports on the router. One for a POE switch for CCTV and another none POE switch to connect the various rooms.
 
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Cat5 can typically reach 2.5 even 5 gigabits transfers in household length runs. I’d test the transfer speed before pulling new cable.

Those cables look well janky.

I've been reading up more and I'm think of putting a patch panel in the attic and terminating the various cables to that.

A patch panel is a good idea, but you might want to place it and the switches somewhere more accessible for fire safety reasons. Put in two switches - one PoE and one non-PoE - and use different-coloured patch cables for each. Indeed, if you're rewiring then make the cables from the panel to the data ports separate colours too. Make it easy for yourself in the long run.
 
Is it really such a bad idea to have it in the attic? I don't really have anywhere else and it would require running multiple cables to another location.

Dust isn't the issue; insects and fire are. I almost lost my house when an insect caused a fan to fail and my attic server to overheat. It was purely by chance that I happened to notice.
 
Dust isn't the issue; insects and fire are. I almost lost my house when an insect caused a fan to fail and my attic server to overheat. It was purely by chance that I happened to notice.

To add to that - I monitor my loft temperature as I put APs in it while renovating rooms below and temps regularly hit 45+ degrees at 500mm above boarding in the summer and I would be wary of loft use computer equipment for all these reasons.

Additionally, back in the day I used to fit security systems and quite a few customers requested the control equipment to be in the loft which we did with a warning. These were passive cooled low power units so in theory not too bad to fit in a loft, but even then we noted backup batteries needed more frequent changing and PCB failures were higher than normal presumably due to the more significant temperature changes.
 
Other options are the garage (but we have plans to convert it) or we have a built in bedroom closet with a shelf high up. For the closet I would have to pull power down from the attic.

For both of these I would either need a patch panel in attic or I would need to run new cable for some of the rooms (which I may have to do anyway).

I'm just looking at a patch panel, POE switch and non POE switch. The attic is boarded out and relatively easy to access with a pull down ladder. Would these components be compromised in an attic? Is there an enclosure I could get to store them in to help?

I'm not going to put the NVR in the attic. If I start to add to the network I may look at moving it all elsewhere.
 
A fanless switch isn’t going to be a fire hazard and you could even locate the power adapter elsewhere.
 
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