Quick Home Setup Question

[Mattw]

Hi,

Im about to move house and want to setup a gigabit network for-

homeserver tucked in a cupboard
2 machines in office
htpc and xbox in lounge

So thats 5 wired connections I need in total. I currently have a Netgear DG834G router which only has 4 LAN sockets at 100mbps.

What im wondering is, can I just buy an 8 port 1000mbps switch (like this one) and plug all the computers AND the Netgear Router into it?

Then I would have gigabit connections between the computers and a 100mbps connection to the router split between all machines.

Will that work? Or am i over simplifying things a bit.

Thanks for any advice

 

[Mattw]

Hi,

I plan to run 2 cable for every 1 network point I need just in case

Thanks for your advice guys. Will any old cheap gigabit switch do or would you recommended paying a bit more?

Im just looking at which cable to buy and a little confused.

Will Cat 5e run at 1000mbps? Whats the difference with cat 6 and is it worth dropping the extra few quid on a cat 6 cable.

Then theres UTP and FTP which from what I can gather is whether it is shielded or not. I'm planning on running this behind walls so which would be best. I would be gutted to run UTP only to find its picking up interference.

Oh and lets not forget, solid core or stranded =D

Man this is harder work than I thought, sorry for all the questions im still reading and trying to make sense of it

 

[Mattw]

thanks for all the feedback guys much appreicated. Lengths of cables are not going to be any more than 30 metres i would think.

I have found a complete network kit which includes-

1 x 305 Meter CAT5e RJ45 Cable Role
1 x RJ11 & RJ45 Cable Tester
1 x RJ11 & RJ45 Crimping Tool
1 x RJ11 & RJ45 Punch Tool
10 x Blue Boots
10 x Green Boots
10 x Red Boots
10 x Yellow Boots
100 x Grey Boots
100 x Connectors

All for £35! Although it doesnt mention any more than that about the cable so i imagine its not shielded or solid core. But you can swap the cable for something else if you ask.

I'm pretty sure thats everything I need other than the face plates/back boxes.

I imagine the punch tool is the IDC punchdown tool PhillyDee mentioned?