Simple wired Home Network setup , what do I need and is this set up plan correct?

[zippy320]

Hi Guys

So im sort of new to networking but have done it before through wifi etc . Im hoping you guys can give me some advice on this and guide me . I am pretty inexperienced so im trying to figure it out as I go along .

I have a few things going on in my house right now , 1 is the CCTV cameras , 2 the alarm system , 3 the Home network as well as some Electrical work.

I wish to have a network port in each room in the house , (I have conduits and such in the walls for this purpose , which are empty ) , I want to be able to run my internet from my router to each jack , as well as allow each jack to connect to the 1 printer in the house .

Am I correct in saying that I need

1 ) My adsl router ( to provide internet access )
2 ) A network switch
3 ) Lots of cat5e cable .
4 ) Network jack for each room

I already have the Router installed and set up , that's not a problem . So with a switch , can I connect a cat5e cable from the router to the switch and then have cables running from the switch to each individual jack in each room?

Is this the correct way of setting it up ? Or am I missing a few things or pieces?

In some rooms , the jack would be connected to the TV or playstation , media player etc , In some it would be connected to a wireless repeater ( for wifi in those areas as the house is a little to large for those rooms to receive a good signal from the router )

At present , I have 4 Ethernet ports on my router , One is used for the Alarm system , One will be used for the CCTV camera , One is used by a cable run to the study and I have one spare port for which I can use for the switch .

Thanks guys for all the reply's ,I really appreciate all the help and advice!!

 

[Dirty Harry101]

Don't see an issue with what you have. Only question I have is, how big is your house that you need so many repeaters lol. If the devices are capable, I would just use wireless.

Otherwise, all on track.

 

[gfmalan]

Good Morning,

Yes that would work, it all depends on how profesional you want to-do it?!

Buy a gigabit switch with enough spare ports, and if you have the money a PoE switch, then you can power network devices from the switch.

I would buy a small cabinet, get a patch panel, and patch each cable from the rooms and number.

Then I'll buy brush panel 24 or 48 Port switch thats managed, ill get a small rackmount pc with 2 network interfaces and install pfSense on it.

I'll buy all the products Ubiquiti Unify products, and I'll replace the standard ADSL router for one of those cheap modems.

The WiFi APs I would install in the ceiling, maybe 3 of them, depending on your house size.

Then you have a profesional managed network.

Install 4-6 points at your TV room, 4 in the study and 1-2 points in each room

 

[supersunbird]

Yup, spend the extra on a gigabit switch, they are more reasonably priced.

Maybe have a wall mount box in each room. Then a flylead between the device and wall mount box. Then if you move stuff in the room around you just need to longer or shorter flylead.



My own network is:

Fibre router with wifi near centre of house
8 port switch with the router
Both of the above on a 1500VA UPS

5 port switch at front of house (one CCTV system and one desktop plugged in)
Switch and CCTV system on a 1500VA UPS

5 port switch at back of house (one CCTV DVR and wifi access point plugged in)
Switch and CCTV system and access point on a 1500VA UPS

Then wall mount boxes in various rooms.

All the network cables (from wall mount boxes and fibre router and smaller switches) run to the main switch.

 

[zippy320]

Thanks guys!! Really appreciate all the responses ,

@ Dirty Harry101 the House is , I think of a medium size ,4 bedrooms , 1 study , TV room , Kitchen , lounge , scullery , Dining room and garage , The room sizes are medium to large , Thankfully its all one level , The problem I have is that it was built in the 1950s - 1960s sometime around there then we renovated in the 2000s , The walls are so thick that the wifi signals have a difficult time getting through , Some parts of the roof are standard roof with a sort of solid wood top , and over the lounge and main bedroom its concrete . The wifi Signal is terrible no matter where I place the Wireless repeaters or Router, Its also a 3 phase electrical system so the western digital powerline product I have does not work very well .


I moved the main ADSL router towards the center of the house now , I have added a UPS , And connected the router to the UPS .

It improved the signal to some rooms but not by much . I think setting up a wired network would be the best long term solution .

@supersunbird Thanks so much for the info , I think I could set up a similar sort of network . I also like the idea of the whole system being on a UPS . How long does it run for after the power goes?

@gfmalan Thanks for the advice! Was really insightful , I Thought about a rack mount switch even a small one and such but im not sure where I could mount it , I was going to mount all the network hardware into one of the cupboards , In that way , it would also be out of sight .

With the help of an Electrician , im going to be running the cables myself , His going to set or install new plug sockets for me for the switch in the cupboard as well as help me run the cables in the walls .

So my next step , Buy a Switch , More cable . I managed to buy a Network crimping tool today ! Its a start .
My house has these Legrand modeler plugs on the wall , So will be buying a few modules for the network to add on . I hope to have a clean install .

Would it be safe to run these cat 5 cables along side the TV antenna cable? or would this cause interference?

 

[supersunbird]

Antenna cable is shielded so no problem.

On my previous normal UPS, it could handle a 4 hour power cut (just the router and the switch was on it). These are double the size of that UPS.

 

[Kolmogorov]

Great thread, thanks for all the info guys. I need to do basically the same as OP.

Looking to keep it relatively simple to start with. I'm laying conduits under the new driveway to get fibre from the fence into the house (when Vumatel lays fibre later this year). Then from the CPE to my wireless router, router to switch (or should it be CPE->switch->router?) and from the switch to all the rooms. Previous owners wanted internet in all rooms 10 years ago, so they had telephone jacks installed in all the rooms which I'll convert to network jacks.

I want to place the switch in a closed cabinet with little airflow. Would that be a problem? It's the only place, except in the ceiling, where I can get all the cables to the switch without it being visible.

Thinking of using my old Netgear DGN2000 as a wireless repeater to get wi-fi coverage across the house. Is that possible? Will upgrade to Ubiquity at a later stage.

Anything else I should consider?

@zippy320: why Cat5 and not Cat6 cable? I looked at the Legrand range for my plugs, iirc the RJ45 jacks are only Cat5. Good idea on using an electrician to do the cabling (you have to be a Russian gymnast to get around in my roof).

 

[Genisys]

Great thread, thanks for all the info guys. I need to do basically the same as OP.

Looking to keep it relatively simple to start with. I'm laying conduits under the new driveway to get fibre from the fence into the house (when Vumatel lays fibre later this year). Then from the CPE to my wireless router, router to switch (or should it be CPE->switch->router?) and from the switch to all the rooms. Previous owners wanted internet in all rooms 10 years ago, so they had telephone jacks installed in all the rooms which I'll convert to network jacks.

I want to place the switch in a closed cabinet with little airflow. Would that be a problem? It's the only place, except in the ceiling, where I can get all the cables to the switch without it being visible.

Thinking of using my old Netgear DGN2000 as a wireless repeater to get wi-fi coverage across the house. Is that possible? Will upgrade to Ubiquity at a later stage.

Anything else I should consider?

@zippy320: why Cat5 and not Cat6 cable? I looked at the Legrand range for my plugs, iirc the RJ45 jacks are only Cat5. Good idea on using an electrician to do the cabling (you have to be a Russian gymnast to get around in my roof).

What speeds are you looking at? If you are looking at 1Gbps then CAT 5E will work. 10Gbps you are looking at what ever was released after CAT 6. CAT 6 is also fine for Gigabit speeds. Personally I use CAT 5E. Does Gigabit speeds without an issue, and best of all, it doesn't cost an Arm and a leg.

 

[Kolmogorov]

What speeds are you looking at? If you are looking at 1Gbps then CAT 5E will work. 10Gbps you are looking at what ever was released after CAT 6. CAT 6 is also fine for Gigabit speeds. Personally I use CAT 5E. Does Gigabit speeds without an issue, and best of all, it doesn't cost an Arm and a leg.

Future-proofing is the main reason I'm considering it, but I see there's already Cat6a. The other consideration was the cable length - I think you can run Cat6 over longer distances with less degradation. A couple of the cables will be close to 30m long. But not necessary then based on what you're saying and the fact that prices seem to be double for Cat6 (bare copper, not CCA).

 

[Geoff.D]

Great thread, thanks for all the info guys. I need to do basically the same as OP.

Looking to keep it relatively simple to start with. I'm laying conduits under the new driveway to get fibre from the fence into the house (when Vumatel lays fibre later this year). Then from the CPE to my wireless router, router to switch (or should it be CPE->switch->router?) and from the switch to all the rooms. Previous owners wanted internet in all rooms 10 years ago, so they had telephone jacks installed in all the rooms which I'll convert to network jacks.

I want to place the switch in a closed cabinet with little airflow. Would that be a problem? It's the only place, except in the ceiling, where I can get all the cables to the switch without it being visible.

Thinking of using my old Netgear DGN2000 as a wireless repeater to get wi-fi coverage across the house. Is that possible? Will upgrade to Ubiquity at a later stage.

Anything else I should consider?

@zippy320: why Cat5 and not Cat6 cable? I looked at the Legrand range for my plugs, iirc the RJ45 jacks are only Cat5. Good idea on using an electrician to do the cabling (you have to be a Russian gymnast to get around in my roof).

Contact Vumatel and ask them what specification there is on the conduits you want to install under the drive way for the fibre cable. Normal conduit with all sorts of crappy bends and fittings is not good enough for fibre. rather get the right duct, install it the point where you want the fibre termination and ONT to be installed.

 

[Kolmogorov]

Contact Vumatel and ask them what specification there is on the conduits you want to install under the drive way for the fibre cable. Normal conduit with all sorts of crappy bends and fittings is not good enough for fibre. rather get the right duct, install it the point where you want the fibre termination and ONT to be installed.

Already did. Laying 25mm with "slow bends". Also 2 x 110mm underneath the driveway outside, a meter from the curb, so that they don't have to dig up my new driveway.