Setting the house up with 1GB Ethernet project

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

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Nottingham
I have the need for four rooms with 2 x 1GB connections running to each.

Have been wanting to do this for a while but the time has now come. I am in no rush and have no plans to do anything till the weather is warmer (Outside drilling, cable routing).

I have a basic understanding of networking but would really like input from those who are experienced or whom themselves have completed such a task and any tips they can share for both the required hardware/components and the physical installation.

Stability is the primary goal, I do not want to skimp and end up with a half ***** job, it needs to be good and last a long time.

It needs to look tidy too, do not want cables hanging out of walls :p So recommendations for wall fittings (internal/external) will be welcomed.

One snag, the switch will most likely need to go in the lounge so need a way to maintain function without it being too intrusive (if possible).

The reasons for doing this are many. There will internal network traffic relating to video/audio content as well as a centralised Steam cache server for the house as well as gaming traffic across LAN. I also need the ability to manage QOS as effectively as possible.

Am sure I will have more questions as I think more about it.

Thanks.
 
Firstly I would sit down a nd draw out what you want to achieve. Is easier to see if you have missed anything obvious and also makes it easier to work out costs / bill of materials.

As for the runs, I would also run in either one or preferably 2 extra lines than you need to each room. The cable is one of teh cheapest parts in the installation and you will be cursing yourself if you need to change a cable in later years.

As for fittings, do you have solid (outside bricks with plaster straight on) or plasterboard walls? If plasterboard you can get back boxes and then just put the faceplate on there. WIll be enough space to loose the spare cables inside. If you have a solid wall you can either get a box that screws to the wall and then the faceplate fits on or you have the option to smash a few holes in the walls and sink them in.

How many ports are you going to need on the switch? If you are doing 4 rooms with 2 in then that is 8 min...personally I would go for either 16 or 24 to provide future expansion options. Are you planing on managing the QOS from a router or from the switch? Options are many for that.

I have recently added networking to my new house, which was releatively painless as the walls were hollow fibreboard so could get cables and conection points in and managed to get cables in before I laid the flooring. All my cabling terminates ata patch panel and then links to a 24 port TP-Link switch. This sits is a 4u vertical rack that is mounted under the stairs. I got the rack from the Rainforset place and it a god bit of kit. Not sure how it would fit into a livingroom but it may work for you. Wouldnt recommend the swithc I have for a livingroom as it has two of teh worlds noisiest fans inside. This weekend I will be taking it out of the rack and snipping the wires on them. Is nice and col under there so see no need for the fans tbh.

My next step wil be to add a few more cables for CCTV, but that wont be for at least 12 months as have other priorities in the house.
 
Take care if you'll be running cables through the polystyrene type insulation as they can react over time and you'll lose some of the insulation properties of the polystyrene.
 
Bare in mind that if you're running the cables externally they need to be external grade. Standard cable gets brittle and will allow water ingress into the cable when exposed to the weather for long periods of time.

Rich
 
Use decent cable and modules and patch panel. I love the CCS branded stuff.

A bit more expensive than ebay specials, but well worth the extra. They are a pleasure to terminate.
 
 
Thank you for the replies.

Some good stuff in the links, thanks bledd.

If running 3 or 4 connections, any way other than to run 4 seperate cables to each room.

Because the cables will be external, am worried it may look a little unsightly.

Looking around, faceplates seem to come in 2 or 4, so may as well run 4 to each room. Am I right in thinking a 4 port faceplate will fit to a standard UK dual back box?
 
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Is external the only way to go? Once you lift a floorboard and poke a hole through the plaster of the ceiling below you'll be VERY suprised how easy it is to get cable runs done internally. It's then a choice if you want to carve out some plaster to drop a proper duct in or just tack it and box it. While carpet/etc can make it seem more painful, most carpet is pretty easy to get to sit back on the grippers once it's been properly stretched out and left for a while.
 
One run is to a room on the ground floor at the rear of the house. External would be much easier.

The other 3 runs will be upstairs.

If going external, I just need to out and up and in if that makes sense with one run going to the front of the house.
 
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You can get 3 external cables clipped together in a 10mm clip and it doesn't look bad at all. External cabling if done well doesn't look bad or even out of place.

As minimal corners as you can, think about the runs before you start and stick to mortar lines. Drain pipes are helpful as you can cable tie behind them and hide the cable completely.
 
Any benefit (forseeable or otherwise) for using Cat6a over cat6? Better shielding?

Any advantages if using for HDMI over CAT for example?
 
My current home network I first setup about 13 years ago.

I have my phone line in the kitchen, and there is the first splitter with one telephone connected to that, and them a phone cable going along the corner of the kitchen and through the hallway and into the living room and along the top corner and down the far corner into a wall mounted socket. The cabling is all hidden with 1/2 inch trunking, the socket is a double socket, with one phone and one ethernet socket.
There is a phone line coming out of that socket, into a filter, and this then goes to my switch.

The switch, is an 8-port job, connected to that is :-
1-My Modem / Router
2-NAS 1
3-NAS 2
4-HOMEPLUG
5-Mac
6-Media PC & Sky
7-Extention
8-The Ethernet Socket next to the Phone Socket from the kitchen

Now, I have 2 other HomePlugs
1 - My Sons Bedroom
2 - My Daughters Bedroom

The Ethernet cable from the Socket in teh living room ( Connected to port 8 ) then travels alongside the Phone cable back through and into the hallway, but hen that splits off from the phone cable ( which as I said goes into the kitchen ) and instead, this follows the top of the ceiling, but goes over the stairway bit ( the stairs hasa U-Bend and so teh cable just has about 2 feet of travel where it goes from the ceiling downstairs and now is on the floor upstairs ) and this then follows the skirting board, and then, up the side of the door to the cileing upstairs and then along to teh attic trap door and then un into the attic... Inside the attic ( Which has been converted into a nice snug computer room ) the cable then goes along the wall, to teh back, where it is connected to my Second Switch, and this then goes into the computers i the attic. This is my 3 kids PCs, my Linux PC, my Server and my Atari... The kids now have a PC intheir bedrooms now but me being a hoarder still have one up here for when we all play together.

The Media PC and Sky connected to Switch downstairs are at this time, connected to an unused Modem thats being used as purely a switch for the gigabit sillyness, otherwise, I should simply use the Sky on Wireless ( and I think I will actually ) and then teh Media PC could either have the Gigabit cable to itself or I might put it back on the spare Homeplug.

The Kids PCs are all connected to the Homeplugs and they are 500Mb to not actually gigabit, but so what?

As of a few years ago, Ialso extended the house and the extention has another switch thats then going into 6 more sockets, and this is very nicely done and looks almost professionally done because I took my time, however I have h\ad to bring the PCs out of there as I have had an accident and thats now my bedroom because I can no longer climb stairs Boohoo!

All in all, the entire setup is using really cheap cables that I only knocked it up as a temporary job, but the wiring was more than good enough and its still perfectly fine to this day. I suppose if you do it right, you only need to do it the once perhaps?

About the only thing I have done thats actually lasted LOL
 
I have a gang of cables going down one external wall here and it doesn't look too bad.

Maybe half a dozen thick with the tv and ethernet in places but if you just clip them in together and to the wall nice and tight it doesn't notice or stick out too badly.

I did consider trunking them in but came to the conclusion that the trunking would be more visible than the black cables.

On the front I have smaller runs of pairs or fours of cables running from just under the roofline down either side of a bay window and that looks ok too.

No-one has ever commented on the external cabling but plenty of folks have mentioned having quality internet on the inside.
 
Spend a little bit more and get 6a as it will definatly allow for 10gbe. If you are running it right next to other power cables you might want FTP or STP although that might be unrequired and you'll not see any issues only running at 1gbe too.
 
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