Home network - queries from a beginner

Richie's Room

Richie's Room

Richie's Room

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Joined
30 Dec 2021
Posts
19
Location
UK
Hi all,

First off, thanks for the Home Network FAQ - this was very helpful.

Having decided that I want to have a mixture of both WiFi and Ethernet I'm currently at the planning stage for the implementation of the ethernet side of things. A rough outline is as follows:

* Usage: 2 individuals working from home (1 desktop upstairs, 1 laptop downstairs, 1 printer), SKY Q (with 1 mini-box upstairs), PS4, multiple TVs, tablets, and mobiles.

* WAN connection: FTTP (SKY Ultrafast +)

* Plan: The ONT is in the lounge, together with the SKY router. I would like to run ethernet cable from the router up to a switch in the loft and then have ethernet running to various outlets around the house (4 behind the TV/AV corner in the lounge, 2 in the dining room where the laptop user works, 2 (maybe 4) in the upstairs study where the desktop user works and the printer is located, 2 in the bedroom with the SKY Q mini-box and TV, and 2 in another main bedroom (just because, well, if I'm going to do it!), all terminating in a patch panel.

* Wiring: The house has interior walls that are of plasterboard construction so I'm hoping the cable can be run 'in' the walls where possible - although for the lounge I am considering trying to make use of the coax installation on an outside wall.

* Materials: I'm looking to use CAT6 cable, a 24 port patch panel, and 24 port switch.

OK, on to the questions (you knew that there would be questions didn't you?!)

1. As with most things, I suspect that better quality materials are more expensive. My first question is, for a simple home network set-up what sort of price should I be thinking about for materials? I've seen that a number of posters recommend materials from Kenable - are they a reasonable bet for my purposes?

2. With regard to patch panels, I've read comments (and watched videos) from a number of people who recommend the panels where you use jacks as this makes things easier to maintain. However, others imply that the connections aren't as reliable using this approach. Is there a consensus here on the forum as to which approach is preferred?

3. I'm tempted to add a NAS at some stage. What sort of things do I need to take into consideration when acquiring one? Given that it will probably be in the loft (although I may put it in the study) are temperature fluctuations a consideration? (I'm based in the UK).

4. Is a cabinet necessary/advisable or can I safely wall mount / add some DIY racking?

5. And a final catch-all - are there any glaring errors in what I am proposing? Would you do anything differently?

Many thanks,
Richie
 
1. Kenable is fine. I personally use Connectix or CCL from Cable Monkey. I would STRONGLY recommend using everything from one source. So if you buy your cable from Kenable then get everything from them. I would recommend Cable Monkey (they are the UK trading outlet for Connectix/CCL).

2. We use the Connectix tool-free keystone connectors and they certify just fine. Again, we use the complete Connectix system. Cables, RJ45s, keystones, patch panels, wall faceplates. It just works together.

[Edit]That's not to say that mixing brands won't work just fine but I have seen instances where one company's keystone spacing is too wide for another company's patch panels and the holes on one company's CAT6 RJ45 plugs are too small for another company's CAT6 cable conductors so they don't get a good connection, especially if you end up using EZ connectors and I would suggest that you do use EZ connectors because they are, by definition, EZ'er. [/Edit]

3. There are two vehement factions on loft installs. One faction says “it’s fine” and the other says “Your house is 100% guaranteed to burn down”. If your loft is full of combustible stuff and insects (insects shorting out high power PoE switches is a big part of the fire starting scenario) then don’t install anything in the loft. About 80% of the installs I do put a 6U or 12U rack in the loft. Over 400 installs and no fires yet. But you could be the one!

4. A rack isn’t essential but it’s easier to mount everything neatly with a rack. A 24-port switch will just bolt right into a 6U rack, as will a NAS in future. We use a lot of the Connectix “frames” which are 1, 3 or 6U and it’s literally a bit of bent metal that screws to the wall but it makes it SO much neater.

[Edit]And if you are getting a patch panel frame or case then make sure you get one deep enough for what you want. It's not unusual for a rack-mount NAS or a big 48 port PoE switch to be 450-550mm deep, so you need a 600mm case for that. If you're only talking 24 port non-PoE then a 350mm deep case will be fine. etc.[/Edit]
 
Last edited:
WJA96 said:
There are two vehement factions on loft installs. One faction says “it’s fine” and the other says “Your house is 100% guaranteed to burn down”. If your loft is full of combustible stuff and insects (insects shorting out high power PoE switches is a big part of the fire starting scenario) then don’t install anything in the loft. About 80% of the installs I do put a 6U or 12U rack in the loft. Over 400 installs and no fires yet. But you could be the one!
Click to expand...
Ha, this is so true.
I’ve got coax going all over my house so I’m going to use it to pull network cable all over the house and have a switch in the loft.
 
Thanks very much for your feedback @WJA96

There are already power cables in the loft so I'm already at risk from any electricity-seeking insects! ;-) Seriously though, I'm going to ensure there is nothing combustible anywhere near the patch panel and switch installation.

In terms of materials, how about the following (all from Kenable):
CAT6 cable
CAT6 faceplates
24-port patch panel
24-port switch
 
ChrisD. said:
305m? How big is your house? You can get 100m for under £40 which ought to be ample.
Click to expand...

:-) Not as big as that cable size suggests!

I was just thinking of doing multiple runs (4 to some locations) rather than singles. I'll measure-up before ordering - just trying to ensure I buy the right stuff at the moment.
 
I don’t really see any issue with any of that. Obviously you’ll need a punchdown tool as well. I would also recommend a good wire stripper and a pair of electricians scissors.

If I’m being brutally honest, I wouldn’t buy that switch but only because I’d tend to buy TP-Link for less expensive installs eg. TP-LINK TL-SG1024. And that’s cheaper too.

Cable doesn’t go off. If you decide to add CCTV cameras or garden WiFi access points etc. then you’ll always have cable there.
 
Thanks again @WJA96

If I'm also being brutally honest, I only picked that one because I was trying to get everything from Kenable ;-) There is, in my view, no point in posting questions on a forum to get the views of those with more experience and then ignoring what they say! That being the case, I'm more than happy to go with your suggestion of the TP-LINK TL-SG1024.

Good point re the cable longevity.
 
Go for the 305m drum of cable. I measured all the runs required in my house and it came out at under 100m so I ordered just 100m. However, some of the runs weren't as straight as I had expected and the guys running the cables for me pulled through each one by about 1m to make it easier to terminate and then pushed the excess back into the wall cavity. It means that if the faceplate ever needs to come off, there's plenty of spare cable to pull it away from the wall and avoids trying to work with just a few cm of cable. I also wanted another twin faceplate in one of the rooms so I ordered another 100m roll and reckon I've still got about 70m left. 18 months later, I'm now wishing I had run some cables to other parts of some of the rooms as my wife wants to move the TV etc to a different corner of the room.

I went for Cat6A cables and faceplates/keystones as a few of the runs are parallel to mains cable and felt the extra shielding may help and the cost difference wasn't that much. I also wanted to upgrade to a 10G network in the next few years and add a 10G capable NAS to the network at some point.
 
Lofts are a bit hit and miss for electrical gear in my experience - if not outdoor rated stuff I've encountered a few occasions where exposed metal, etc. on PCBs has started the old green corrosion and eventual rot sometimes dues to premature capacitor failure (leakage) possibly due to the extremes of heat and so on. I'm somewhat on the side of not putting stuff up there unless it is designed for harsher environments than average.

In my opinion fire risk is generally pretty easy to avoid with an installation unless you are a clown - sadly too many people seem to be complacent about it in an installation and that is when you have a problem.
 
Thanks @Rroff . Yeah, I appreciate that it may not be ideal placement (but there are other factors that make this the preferred option). If we were talking about something costing thousands of pounds then I may think differently but for the amounts involved, I'm happy to see how it goes.

I'd like to think that I'm not a clown when it comes to fire safety so I think the risk there is minimal.
 
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