Setting up a new home wired network

sepulchre

sepulchre

sepulchre

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Joined
30 Sep 2003
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Not so Sunny Dundee
Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on setting up a new wired network in my home to distribute media files and data from my CCTV, all of the which currently travels via WiFi which is struggling to cope. I will be keeping the WiFi for phones and iPads etc.

I did some fairly rudimentary networking about 20 years ago which involved building cables, running to patch panels and switches but I'm somewhat out of date with all the new tech.

My plan is as follows (please excuse any incorrect terms used) -

My Sky Fiber comes into the house in the lounge so the router needs to remain there. I will take a feed from this up to the loft and then down into a cupboard in the upstairs hallway where I will place a 24 port un-managed switch together with my primary NAS and Server.

All feeds will come back up from the switch in the upstairs cupboard into the loft before being routed back down through interior walls to Connectix 4000 outlets.

I plan to install 4 outlet ports in the office and lounge, 2 in each of the 3 bedrooms and 2 in the garage where I have a backup NAS. My primary NAS and Server will connect directly to my switch. CCTV I plan to connect directly to the switch. CCTV has the option to use POE, currently I have a separate mains supply in the loft to each camera so potentially easier to keep with this.

Questions,

1. What cable is best for this cat 5e or another?
2. Would I be better moving to a managed switch, to be honest I don't know what I would do with one!
3. Do I need a patch panel and whats the benefits of having one?
4. Does the above plan sound reasonable or am I missing anything fundamental?
5. If going down the route of POE for CCTV would I be better buying a 24 port switch with some POE enabled ports?
6. I'm open to recommendations on tools required (crimpers, fish tape/cable rods etc), best cable, outlet panels etc :)

Thanks in advance!
 
@bremen1874 , thanks :) Cat5e is pretty straightforward, but Cat 6 seems to be more complex and there's a number of different cat 6's. Whats the advantage of 6 over 5e, is it just speed? And if going for 6 which would be the best option?

@DIABLO , I didn't say I wouldn't use one, just not clear on why I need one. My logic (probably wrong) is that without a panel I have the cable bundle routed into the cupboard and then into the switch, with a patch panel i have the same but now I also need to patch between the panel and the switch so doubling the number of cables to manage. Am I missing something? Thanks
 

Ah OK, I'd totally forgotten the way cables connect into the patch panel, now that does make more sense. Patch panel added to my shopping list. I'll look into cat6 UTP as well, thanks so much :)
 
Good luck with the project @michty_me. I'm still trying to decide whether or not I'm going to see any benefit from cat6 to justify the cost.

What I need to do is build two shopping lists one for cat 5 and one for cat 6 and then figure out how much more its going to cost me. I know the walls in my house are a pain in backside to pull cables through so i'm tempted to do it once and go with cat 6.

I did however find a 24 port managed switch for not to much money on the rain forest, considering I may want to enable port trunking in the future on my NAS it looks like a good option and doesn't cost me too much more than the un-managed equivalent I was considering which didn't support 802.3ad.
 
really great advice, thanks everyone.

I will go with cat 6 UTP and a patch panel. I wont use POE as I had power run to each of the CCTV cameras by an electrician when I installed them, so no great benefit now. Had I done this the other way around and sorted a wired network first I could have saved a bill from the sparky, nm.

Hardest thing now will be pulling cables through some crappy walls in a modern (15 year old) dot dabbed house lol
 
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