Home network upgrade, advice please.

SimonC

SimonC

SimonC

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My current setup is;

BT HH3 (am actually now with Plusnet, but their router is hopeless), TP link SG1005D, 3x TP link mini AV200 powerline adaptors, Linksys WRT54G (With DDWRT setup as an AP, So I can get wifi over the other side of the house) and a Synology 413j.


What I'm looking for is a gigabit (I assume they all are nowadays) router, with a built in modem, that will hopefully give me wifi all around the house? and with decent transfer speeds.

Or with an wifi extender of some sort.

I use a laptop and whenever I need to transfer large files, I connect wired, but that's not in the same room as the Synology, switch and router, so I need some powerline adaptors too.

The 200mbps ones I have are fine for gaming, it used to lag a bit in my old house, but I put that down to 3mb internet.
And they're okay for non HD/some HD stuff, but with the bigger sized video files, they stutter around when playing on a media player when streaming from the NAS.

So any advice please chaps would be greatly appreciated, budget I dunno tbh.
 
Ditch powerline, cable it up properly or there's no point in upgrading the router.

They may claim to be 200mbps, but they'll be nowhere near that.

Great ADSL router (I use mine on Plusnet too) is the Asus DSL-N55U, gigabit LAN, decent wireless.
 
Thanks for that Bledd.

Well main purpose of upgrading the router is better wifi range really.

I will look into running cables though, as it'll only be two rooms that I'd want it in, and the bedroom I have to rip to pieces, so will be perfect time to do it.

Will look in the router you said, thank you.
 
Agree cable where needed - then wireless for phones/ipads etc. Anything major - cable it!

Billion 7800DXL is my router - great unit - got it 2nd hand for £70 and works perfect with Sky and great wireless.
 
For the cable, I guess I can run a single line from the router to the loft, into a switch and then out to where I need?
 
When I moved into my house I ran external cat5e cable (4 runs) from office to 3 media rooms, and last one I used was the adsl extension. I only did 2 twisted pair for the adsl as I could so why not as I had the spare, and I can always turn into gig if needed later.
Once you have done it its done so you can add later. Personally I would only switch at the router end and run independent links to each room. As if you only have 1 gig feeding the switch in the attic that's all you can feed at one time (future proof). Unless you fibre to attic then gig down to you rooms.
Im prob going over the top as I only have 20 meg internet at mo so only my lan traffic is at gig speeds but its good to have full gig speed to every connection back to my draytek gig router.
 
I use a draytek 2860n, and to be honest my lads room and the bedroom media centre machines are on wi-fi as they were done after I ran cat5e cable.
 
dhallam said:
When I moved into my house I ran external cat5e cable (4 runs) from office to 3 media rooms, and last one I used was the adsl extension. I only did 2 twisted pair for the adsl as I could so why not as I had the spare, and I can always turn into gig if needed later.
Once you have done it its done so you can add later. Personally I would only switch at the router end and run independent links to each room. As if you only have 1 gig feeding the switch in the attic that's all you can feed at one time (future proof). Unless you fibre to attic then gig down to you rooms.
Im prob going over the top as I only have 20 meg internet at mo so only my lan traffic is at gig speeds but its good to have full gig speed to every connection back to my draytek gig router.
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Lets say I use a 4 port switch to begin with, all I'd have to do if I wanted more rooms to wired, is replace it with an 8 switch?

Maybe I'm missing the point of it, but to me having the switch next to the router and having lines going out to rooms, is the same as having the switch in the loft and going out to rooms, plus less cable needed? :confused:


bremen1874 said:
This sounds perfectly reasonable; especially if all, or most, of your wired devices will be connecting to the switch in the loft.
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I plan to have, Laptop and NAS in the office connected to the router, then out the from the router to the loft, into a switch then out to a bedroom, and then out the back of the house to the lounge, following where the cable for the sat tv goes, and then also possible into the kitchen.
 
The connection between the switch and the router causes a potential bottleneck. There’ll be a single Gigabit link between the devices connected to the router and the devices connected to the switch.

In an ideal world you’d have all of the devices connected to the switch and then the connection back to the router just needs to handle internet traffic. It wouldn’t matter whether the switch was located next to the router or remotely in the loft, you’d run all of your cables to that location.

In reality that single link probably won’t cause you any issues. You just have to accept that if you start multiple transfers that’ll be using that link then you’ll have a limitation. At worst a file transfer may take a few more minutes to complete.

The cost difference between an four port and a eight port switch is minimal. Unless things are really tight buy an eight port now and have some capacity spare for the future.
 
bremen1874 said:
The connection between the switch and the router causes a potential bottleneck. There’ll be a single Gigabit link between the devices connected to the router and the devices connected to the switch.

In an ideal world you’d have all of the devices connected to the switch and then the connection back to the router just needs to handle internet traffic. It wouldn’t matter whether the switch was located next to the router or remotely in the loft, you’d run all of your cables to that location.

In reality that single link probably won’t cause you any issues. You just have to accept that if you start multiple transfers that’ll be using that link then you’ll have a limitation. At worst a file transfer may take a few more minutes to complete.

The cost difference between an four port and a eight port switch is minimal. Unless things are really tight buy an eight port now and have some capacity spare for the future.
Click to expand...

I think that is what the OP is suggesting. The router connected to the switch for WAN service, devices connected to switch for LAN and WAN.

One thing I would say though is I wouldn't put my switch in the loft as it's not the most appropriate conditions. Run the cables to the loft but then drop them down to a convenient room location beneath and put the patch panel and switch there. Also, you could run 5 cables from the router location to the patch panel, this way if the switch fails you can always jumper ports on the patch panel to ports on a faceplate next to the router and connect some patch cables from that faceplate to the router. That also gives you the option of bypassing the switch for a few sockets if the switch were to give you a bottleneck on the single link to the WAN. I've said 5 cables as most routers have 4 ports, the 5th cable can either be a spare or if your router is next to your master telephone socket then you can use it to take the phone service onto the patch panel and enable telephony on any data faceplate. This could be useful for PBX or VOIP server with POTS access, if you later want more flexibility with telephony services. I know telephony wasn't asked about but I'm mentioning it because doing cabling once is preferable due to the disruption it causes. Always cable more than you think you need and make them long enough to have some spare length on each at both ends in case any ever need to be re-terminated if you discover any terminations are faulty and causing speed issues.

You also don't need to have a router with built in wifi. You could have a separate router like a Ubiquiti EdgeMAX Lite then have separate WAP device(s) to position wireless services closest to where they'll get most used.
 
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Thanks very much for the replies you two, thenewoc, had to look up some of the acronyms lol, dont confuse me.

The switch doesn't have in the loft at all, just thought it was a good central place to have it is all.


So really I should have, switch next to router or in a room, NAS and laptop in office connected to switch, then out of switch to the bedroom, lounge and kitchen?
 
NP lol force of habit.

You should put the switch where it's easiest to run cables from but I would avoid the loft. The cables can run to the loft though and then down to a room beneath. The router is best next to the master telephone socket so that may rule out the switch going nearby which it doesn't need to be.

The correct way to do it would be to use a patch panel because your Ethernet cabling running around the home should be solid core. If you tried connecting directly to the switch it would therefore involve crimping rj45's onto solid core Ethernet which is not good, higher risk of failure due to poor contact made splicing solid core cable.

Each room's faceplate should follow this;

Faceplate ports > solid core Ethernet (Structured cabling) > Patch Panel > Short Patch lead (Stranded Ethernet cable) > Switch

Usually you would put the switch into a network rack, can be a small wall mounted rack or cabinet with a locked door. The patch panel would also fit into the same rack.

I got a 350mm deep 3U wall mounted network rack from 'cable monkey' for mine which suits the depth of my switch as well as the patch panel and sited it in the top dead space of a cupboard in our loft bedroom. You might want to consider fanless switches too if you're going to site the switch in a bedroom.
 
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Just treat me like a 4 old dummy. :p

I take it that everything I want to connect, say about a dozen things, all need to be connected to the patch panel via a faceplate?

I see that you can get 4 socket faceplates, so I guess yes it probably the answer. Instead of having a one port faceplate with a switch and stuff connected to that for the rooms I want to connect up.


Just trying to gather as much info as I can before I get into it. I really appreciate the help. :)
 
There's nothing necessarily wrong with running fewer cables and using switches in the remote locations. There will be some potential bottlenecks, but in a domestic environment you probably wouldn't notice.

Having a cable per device with them all running back to a central location is best, but it isn't the only answer.

You need to decide based on your individual situation what the most appropriate answer is.
 
That's correct, each device / pc would connect to its own port on a faceplate and each port would have its own cable running to the patch panel.

You can get 1 gang or 2 gang pattress boxes and faceplates depending on how many ports you want at that faceplate. Usually these would be modular type face plates that take euro modules. So you can get Ethernet euro modules in a particular standard eg Cat6 and these clip into the euro module faceplate. A 1 gang faceplate can hold up to 2 euro modules and a 2 gang faceplate can hold up to 4 euro modules.

The other way that you mention can be done too but is usually a result of someone outgrowing their network and having to have more switches connected at various faceplates where they need more ports.

The right way to do it is to run more cables than you think you need so they can go back to one location where the patch panel and switch is though. This way of doing it is how business does it and creates a neater solution that done well becomes an asset to the building. It also means as with in business it's easier to control access to the switch etc so a locked network cabinet or cupboard reduces the risk of someone meddling.
 
Thanks chaps.

Yer whilst I'm doing it, I may as well just run enough cable for what I need, plus a few extra just in case.

What would you suggest cat5e or cat 6?
 
Cool, thank you.

If I have the switch in another room from the router, I guess the best way would be to fit a faceplate in the router room, run the solid core cable to another faceplate, then patch cables from router to faceplate, and face plate to switch?


Also the house I moved into, the previous owner works for some security company and I found some cat5e cable in the loft, I've been trying to find out, but what does 4PE mean?

4 pairs of twisted wires??

Says on the reel UTP 4PE cat 5e.
 
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