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People$champ

People$champ

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Hi

I'm in the process of moving into a new home in the near future and I would like to setup a decent home network and some smart home devices once in. The size of the property would be around 400 - 500 sq meters which would be a 3 bedroom with extra building built on the property for a entertainment area and office but not very big around a double garage size.

The list of prerequisites are

Fixed Line
2 network wall jacks in each bedroom (for 1 Smart Tv & spare) = 6 Points
4 network wall jacks in Lounge (for Smart Tv , PS , Tv Box , Wifi AP) = 4 Points
2 network wall jacks in Entertainment Area (For Tv , Tv Box ) = 2 Points
4 network wall jacks in office (For PC , Tv , Wifi AP , Printer & Spare) = 4 Points
2 network wall jacks in garage (Wifi Ap & Spare ) = 2 Points
4-6 IP Cameras = 6 POE ports

Wifi Needs
2 Tablets
4 Cellphones
1 Phillips Hue Hub
1 Baby Monitor
2 Laptops

Future wants would be some Smart Wifi Lights not on the Hue & few security motion senses that will be used for the smart lights in 3 rooms of the home (Kitchen, Lounge & Office)

I would like to get some info from the users / pros that have and done setups to provide ne with some need analysis as to what my equipment needs will be. All equipment will be setup in the garage as the central hub and cables will be laid from the rack to the various places.

The equipment I foresee will be needed would probably be

POE Switch for Wifi AP points
16 G/Bit Switch for all network wall jacks
24 Port CAT6 Patch panel
PDU
6-9U Rack
Some UPS


POE Switch for IP Cameras (But this may depend on the kit purchased)

I'm looking at these brands

TP-Link
Netgear
Tenda
LinkSys
*Ubiquiti would love to have but bit out of my budget and staying away from Mikrotik

Can you place these brands in the best order as well as I only used devices from Netgear ,TP-Link

Thanks in Advance
 
I can't comment between the brands myself... i have a couple of Netgear 5-port gigabit switches that run flawlessly but that's about it. For POE i have an Ultralan and Scoop fast ethernet switches for my IP Cameras. I would go for Netgear to do your switching (24 port POE) and perhaps look at the TP-Link EAPs for Wifi. What device will you use as your router / firewall? Any particular reason for staying away from Mikrotik?
 
Don’t just give up on Ubiquiti like that... speak to mr Mcpot .

im probably biased, but unifi all the way. Too much time wasting with the other brands until eventually you realise it should have been unifi all the way.

I have previously done an installation for someone moving in just like this. All the cabling etc but they didn’t go unifi. He later realised he should have went unifi and is slowly getting to it.
 
If you need to trim the budget,you can go the mentioned route on PoE switches namely the Ultralan/scoop AI poe,even a bit cheaper is the 100mbps option with these - these are unmanaged however
 
I'd add a vote for the Unifi
I'm using some Mikrotik in my own network though,but just for Router/Core Switch
Smokey mcpot said:
Don’t just give up on Ubiquiti like that... speak to mr Mcpot .

im probably biased, but unifi all the way. Too much time wasting with the other brands until eventually you realise it should have been unifi all the way.

I have previously done an installation for someone moving in just like this. All the cabling etc but they didn’t go unifi. He later realised he should have went unifi and is slowly getting to it.
Click to expand...
 
I do the same, routing through mikrotik and then wireless unifi.
 
Smokey mcpot said:
Don’t just give up on Ubiquiti like that... speak to mr Mcpot .

im probably biased, but unifi all the way. Too much time wasting with the other brands until eventually you realise it should have been unifi all the way.

I have previously done an installation for someone moving in just like this. All the cabling etc but they didn’t go unifi. He later realised he should have went unifi and is slowly getting to it.
Click to expand...
I can definitely relate to this.

I started off with combination of Xiaomi Pro WiFi router, Netgear Managed POE switch and TP-Link wireless AP, just to keep the cost low and achieve what I wanted, but very soon this became a nightmare to manage, between all the different interfaces and configurations. It was very messy, and especially with 9 IP Cameras runs on POE and segregated to separate VLAN.

At one stage I even had Pfsense running in ESXi to do all the routing, factoring out the Xiaomi router... but the stack became way too complex:X3: The Netgear interface on the switch isn't exactly user friendly too, I have locked myself out a few times and had to resolve back to console connection and fix via command-line, this isn't really for the faint-hearted.

I am a happy man after biting the bullet and went with Ubiquiti, I got combination of EdgeRouter and EdgeSwitch for the routing and managed switch, then for WiFi department I got a few Unifi AP. Management is a breeze and configuration is a lot more intuitive. Not saying you won't lock yourself out with Ubiquiti, if you don't know what you are doing this can still happen, but at least there are easier means of fixing via UNMS/Unifi Controller.

Regardless of which route you take, it's going to be a fun experience and learning curve, one can only learn from experience and the mistakes you make. Have fun ;)
 
Last edited:
powermzii said:
I can't comment between the brands myself... i have a couple of Netgear 5-port gigabit switches that run flawlessly but that's about it. For POE i have an Ultralan and Scoop fast ethernet switches for my IP Cameras. I would go for Netgear to do your switching (24 port POE) and perhaps look at the TP-Link EAPs for Wifi. What device will you use as your router / firewall? Any particular reason for staying away from Mikrotik?
Click to expand...


I been reading that Mikrotik is not for the average Joe to mess around with not having the knowledge. I just don't want to complicate things for myself
 
Smokey mcpot said:
Don’t just give up on Ubiquiti like that... speak to mr Mcpot .

im probably biased, but unifi all the way. Too much time wasting with the other brands until eventually you realise it should have been unifi all the way.

I have previously done an installation for someone moving in just like this. All the cabling etc but they didn’t go unifi. He later realised he should have went unifi and is slowly getting to it.
Click to expand...



Unify is like the Apple of the network world :unsure: once you get into that ecosystem you hooked but that comes pricey down the line with add-ons. Every Techie on Youtube runs it and reviews it and it does make life easy though. 1 Day when i'm big i'll do a full Ubiquity top too bottom
 
People$champ said:
Unify is like the Apple of the network world :unsure: once you get into that ecosystem you hooked but that comes pricey down the line with add-ons. Every Techie on Youtube runs it and reviews it and it does make life easy though. 1 Day when i'm big i'll do a full Ubiquity top too bottom
Click to expand...
Yes it does become pricey. My advice is to just go with AP’s at first. The AP’s alone make a huge difference and you don’t necessarily need the entire setup to be unifi.

late if you feel the need for integration then go with switches and routers.

so many people bought a number of used AP’s from me and run them off the isp supplied router. One guy on carb is covering 4 houses this way! 3 units off his router in his own home and then 2 units in each of the surrounding 3 houses all connected wirelessly. No issues at all. So many times he’s approached me for switches and routers which I don’t have at the time... when I do get he just changes his mind hahaha. Had probably done this 10 times already as the system just works perfectly without the entire system being unifi.
 
So I came up with this design to help illustrate my idea . I want to build it up in phases

Phase 1 the Switch 2 section as this will be the most labour intensive part of laying cables in the roof and chasing out walls for conduit to be placed and wall jacks mounted

Phase 2 is just attaching the AP's ad the cables will be laid in Phase 1

Phase 3 is the security and Smart home section that can be setup once the other phases are completed

What would my equipment needs be for the 2 phases ? am my assumptions alright for my design ?
 

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Later on I’ll send you a PM around your setup.

for the IOT you just setup a separate 2.4g network so that nothing interferes with it and vice versa.

we’re currently at a clients place where we had to do some of your phase 1 work. While we were busy with phase 1 he was already doing phase 2 on his own. Just had us do all the labour intensive chasing for all his cat5 and hdmi cables while he did the easier ceiling mount things. Saved himself some bucks that way.
 
People$champ said:
So I came up with this design to help illustrate my idea . I want to build it up in phases

Phase 1 the Switch 2 section as this will be the most labour intensive part of laying cables in the roof and chasing out walls for conduit to be placed and wall jacks mounted

Phase 2 is just attaching the AP's ad the cables will be laid in Phase 1

Phase 3 is the security and Smart home section that can be setup once the other phases are completed

What would my equipment needs be for the 2 phases ? am my assumptions alright for my design ?
Click to expand...
Any reason for having switch 1 and 3? Could you not combine them and use a 16 / 24 port one? I think you can also definitely get after Phase 3 from the ground up - already start VLAN segregation etc from the get go
 
I’ve actually compiled a list and budget for what I would get based on his list lol. When I’m home will PM him
 
Been browsing around looking at what hardware would b best to start out with and found these few

Switches
#2 - TP-LINK TL-SG1024D - This is for Switch 2 controlling all the hard wired points across the house
#1 TP-Link TL-SG1016PE - This will be for the all the Wifi APs which will run a VLan for guest network
#3 TP-LINK SG2210P 8-Port Gigabit Smart PoE Switch - This will be to run the IP cameras on a VLan

Wifi AP
Placed on ceilings
Ubiquiti UniFi Dual Band AC Long Range AP
TP-Link EAP225
TP-LINK EAP245

Wall Mounted AP
Placed behind the tv in lounge, Office
Ubiquiti Networks UAP-AC-IW -
TP-LINK EAP225-Wall 867 Mbit/s
Mikrotik HAP Ac²

Router
Ubiquiti ER-X-SFP
TP-Link TL-R600VPN
Asus RT-AC1200 Wi-Fi 5 Wireless Router
Asus RT-AC53 Wi-Fi 5 Wireless Router
Ubiquiti ER-X Wired Router
Mikrotik RB4011IGS+RM Wired Router
Mikrotik RB750GR3

Which other brands and models would be recommended around the same price range ?
 
powermzii said:
Any reason for having switch 1 and 3? Could you not combine them and use a 16 / 24 port one? I think you can also definitely get after Phase 3 from the ground up - already start VLAN segregation etc from the get go
Click to expand...
The reason for that is that Switch 3 is part of phase 3.which may not happen right after the other 2 phases I didn't do enough research regarding which type of hardware\kit I may get for the security part yet. But I will have the ability to add OIT devices to the setup at the end of phase 2 and then work from there.
Is it necessary to run gigabit infrastructure for IP cameras such as hikvision or other consumer IPcameras or would the 100mbit work for 108 HD feeds ?
 
People$champ said:
The reason for that is that Switch 3 is part of phase 3.which may not happen right after the other 2 phases I didn't do enough research regarding which type of hardware\kit I may get for the security part yet. But I will have the ability to add OIT devices to the setup at the end of phase 2 and then work from there.
Is it necessary to run gigabit infrastructure for IP cameras such as hikvision or other consumer IPcameras or would the 100mbit work for 108 HD feeds ?
Click to expand...
The cameras themselves are usually only 100Mbps. So long you have a Gbit uplink to the rest of your betwork it will be fine.
 
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