New wired home network

[Blinkz]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to have you guys check my ideas for my home network going forward. Just moved house and looking to have cabling installed to have access to my file server from around the house, mainly to share media to kodi on rpi's for all the relevant TVs in the house. Its mainly HD content at the moment but will be going 4K at somepoint so trying to future proof.

I'm going to have the node 0 in a cupboard in the 5th bedroom/study. Its where the cable modem is and gives easy access up to the loft to be able to run cables up and to all of the bedrooms. Each bedroom will have at least 2 sockets (one for the rpi and a spare) other then the master bedroom which will have 3 so we can connect the sky Q mini. We also plan to install a decent wireless access point (probably one of the ubbiquiti models as they are well reviewed) in the ceiling of the landing to get decent wifi over the top floor.

Downstairs the main rooms to get sockets in is the lounge and kitchen (again both have tvs) and the easiest way to access them to to just run the cables externally straight out of the loft and down to the areas of the rooms where the tv's will be. Depending on the wifi signal I might also put a WAP somewhere downstairs as well.

The main area that needs connectivity will be the den in the garden. Over the next year or so I will be converting it into a home cinema/games room and so will need a decent number. At the moment aiming for 10 runs to connect up all the devices (at a minimum the den will have a tv, projector, amp, htpc, skyq, xbox, gaming pc and also put another wireless AP along with a couple of spares for future expansion). The plan at the moment is to drop the cables down around the foul water pipes and then straight out in some flexible conduit buried out to the den. From the house to the Den is only 15m or so.

I plan to use copper cat 6, with external covering and shielding on the outside runs. They'll terminate on a patch panel in the cupboard and then connect to the switch. I'll just get a standard unmanaged gigabit switch. It seems like a 48 port is the most common size for what I need. I'll them connect the Virgin SH3 to the switch along with the server. Is it worth having the SH3 in a modem mode and get a separate router?

I'm also thinking about putting up CCTV, so not sure if its worth doing it all at once? I understand the best way to do the CCTV is to us PoE. Is it possible to inject power to just the appropriate cables or do I need a PoE switch?

I'm trying to future proof it as much as possible. I'd like to setup some home automation at some point but I think as long as I make sure the wireless signal is strong throughout the house then that should be ok.

Any suggestions? Anything else I need or have missed out?

 

[ChrisD.]

Why 10 runs? Just do 2 runs and have a switch in the den. Have a spare port and leave it disconnected to avoid STP kicking in and potentially causing issues,

 

[Blinkz]

Why 10 runs? Just do 2 runs and have a switch in the den. Have a spare port and leave it disconnected to avoid STP kicking in and potentially causing issues,

Well I thought it would be good for the majority of the devices to have the full bandwidth available. I'll use a switch to connect the tv, amp, projector etc however the htpc, PC, Sky Q, Xbox and WAP would surely benefit from the full bandwidth? Also if I'm having two for the sake of a little more cash why not have more runs?

 

[Gammawolf]

Get a poe switch, injectors work fine but the cost difference is nothing if you are buying new. Less crap around too.

 

[Blinkz]

Get a poe switch, injectors work fine but the cost difference is nothing if you are buying new. Less crap around too.

I’m looking at getting a 48 port gigabit unmanaged switch and adding poe seems to double the price! I only need probably a max of 8 ports to be powered so seems a lot cheaper to just get a 8 port injector?

 

[bremen1874]

Why do you need 48 ports? It seemed unlikely that you’d have anywhere near that number of wired devices.

 

[Blinkz]

Why do you need 48 ports? It seemed unlikely that you’d have anywhere near that number of wired devices.

I don’t, I need around 30 but the only size that covers it is 48. Although around 10 of those are spare at present and I’m only cabling them for future use. I suppose I could just get a 24 port switch for now and upgrade in the future.

 

[ChrisD.]

Well I thought it would be good for the majority of the devices to have the full bandwidth available. I'll use a switch to connect the tv, amp, projector etc however the htpc, PC, Sky Q, Xbox and WAP would surely benefit from the full bandwidth? Also if I'm having two for the sake of a little more cash why not have more runs?

Get two managed switches that can do LACP and run 4 cables. You'll hardly notice the difference anyway.

 

[bledd]

Unless your house is massive, I'd suggest limiting yourself to 24 ports.

Or if you want some PoE devices, then get a 24 port non PoE switch (fanless) and an 8 port PoE switch (fanless)

A 48 PoE switch will sound like an F1 car.

 

[Gammawolf]

I’m looking at getting a 48 port gigabit unmanaged switch and adding poe seems to double the price! I only need probably a max of 8 ports to be powered so seems a lot cheaper to just get a 8 port injector?

Unless your house is massive, I'd suggest limiting yourself to 24 ports.

Or if you want some PoE devices, then get a 24 port non PoE switch (fanless) and an 8 port PoE switch (fanless)

A 48 PoE switch will sound like an F1 car.

Yeah, I was kinda thinking exactly along these lines for a home setup. No point paying for POE ports that wont be used and a two switch setup would be slicker than injectors. But certainly wouldn't want any of our 48 port switches at home. Far too noisy

 

[Blinkz]

Unless your house is massive, I'd suggest limiting yourself to 24 ports.

Or if you want some PoE devices, then get a 24 port non PoE switch (fanless) and an 8 port PoE switch (fanless)

A 48 PoE switch will sound like an F1 car.

This is a great idea, I'll look into the options for the two different types. Although isn't there a downside to connecting two switches?

 

[bledd]

No downside, besides using an extra power plug on the wall.. This setup would use way less power than a single 48 port poe switch though.

You could go all Unifi.

USG
24 port non poe switch
8 port 60W switch
Unifi AP-AC-Lite (1 or 2?) or AP-AC-Pro

This is what I have at home.

Costs soon pile up, but it works flawlessly.

 

[Blinkz]

I thought if you connect the switches together then the bandwith between them is just through a single port, so a gigabit?

The main issue is that the 2/3 WAPs and the devices connected to them wirelessly will have to all share this single gigabit channel? I also plan to have some CCTV connected to the Poe switch which will need a fair chunk of bandwidth.

Having everything Unifi I would have thought is pretty expensive! I’ll check it out tho.

 

[bledd]

Yes, it would be gigabit, if you come close to saturating a gigabit, then you can tell smart switches (these are smart) to trunk 2 ports. So you would connect 2x cables between switch 1 to switch 2, allowing the traffic down 2x 1GB channels, so it becomes a 2GB trunk using LACP.

In reality, CCTV doesn't use much bandwidth and wifi devices don't need large sustained transfer speeds.

 

[Blinkz]

All good points, altho using more ports to connect the two routers is less for the actual devices!

Good points about the bandwith tho. I’ll have to work out how many cameras I’ll need and what each needs for bandwith. For the WAPs I guess it’s true that most devices will mainly need net connectivity with no major bandwith requirements.

Any recommendations on cables, racks, patch panels etc? Or are they all much of the same?

 

[bledd]

cat5e
http://www.netstoredirect.com/cat5e-patch-panels/9159-24-port-cat5e-utp-ccs-elite-patch-panel.html
http://www.netstoredirect.com/cat5e-cable/50519-excel-cat5e-utp-cable-pvc-outer-sheath.html
http://www.netstoredirect.com/cat5e...tp-rj45-modules-low-profile-euromod-size.html

cat6
http://www.netstoredirect.com/cat6-patch-panels/9161-24-port-cat6-utp-ccs-elite-patch-panel.html
http://www.netstoredirect.com/cat6-cable/21-excel-cat6-utp-cable.html
http://www.netstoredirect.com/cat6-...-rj45-modules-euromod-size-5056045700257.html

 

[DragonQ]

I have one of those basic Cat6 patch panels and it works perfectly fine. Cheap and cheerful. One thing about the Euro modules: whilst they are a great idea, pretty much all of the ones I have don't seem to be that well made and I'm not entirely sure how many plug/unplug events they can handle. One in particular in my study is very tricky to unplug an Ethernet cable from - I have some spare but not sure I'll ever be bothered to replace it. Since they're cheap you might want to buy some spares and pick the best ones.

As for racks, I just went for a 3U wall bracket. 1U for patch panel, 1U for switch, and 1U spare (maybe for a small 10G switch in a couple of years when they finally drop in price). They have 1, 2, and 4U variants too.

(I assume linking to these sites is fine since OcUK don't sell these products.)

 

[bledd]

^The ones I linked to have a 25 year warranty, yet to have a single failure in ~5 years of using thousands of them.

It's very easy to find badly made modules on ebay/amazon/diy stores. Decent modules (CCS or Excel) don't have these issues.

 

[Blinkz]

Thanks for the recommendations. I've had a few quotes in for the cabling and they are using parts by Triax and Webnet for the cabling and Sanus, All-rack and Technomate for the rack and switches. Are these any good? Not sure I'd trust anything from a company called Technomate! I'll probably get all the electronics myself, but is it best to go with your recommendation and request Excel or CCS cabling over the stuff the contractors are suggesting?

I'm going to stick with a 48 port patch panel as I want each room to have at least one spare, so will have around 30 odd cables (but only 20 or so active) but I'm going to go with your recommendation of a 24 port managed switch and a 8 port PoE managed switch to cover the cctv and unifi PoE requirements.

Plan at the moment is to replace the current co-ax tv aerial socket in the majority of the bedrooms with a 2 gang network faceplate. I'll have the co-ax tv aerial end in one of the modules and have 2 or 3 network modules in the rest. It should look a lot neater then having the network and tv separate.

 

[bledd]

I only use CCS. Yes, the cable is more expensive than other brands, but it's great to work with and good quality.