Home network setup

[Luke]

Well im moving into a new house. With high speed!! i was on dial up for my entire life so this is a big occasion. Anyway, i had a very basic network just for file sharing and lan games at my old house. But now im going to have high speed so there is a lot of stuff im going to be doing. anyway, i guess you could call me a bit of a noob when it comes to networking, i mean i know the basics, but not much. Anyway, i just wanted to run you threw my plan for the house to make sure everything is good, or if i could do something better.

The house has three floors (B =Basement, F1 = floor one, F2= floor 2)

Modem is on F1, 2 computers on this floor
2 computers on F2
at least 2 comps on B

So From F1 the modem is going to be connected to a 10/100/1000 switch, 2 ports on this switch will go to the 2 computers on this floor. A wireless N router will be connected to the switch for the laptops (yes i know it is just a draft but i want maximum speed throughout the entire house. From the switch on the F1 One cable will run up stairs to another 10/100/1000 switch. One cable will run downstairs to another 10/100/1000 switch.

Upstairs the 2 computers will be connected to the switch here.
Downstairs the computers will be connected to that switch.

So anything im doing wrong, or could do better?

 

[Hefemeister]

I do not see the need for the switch on the first floor.
You router should have 4 lan ports on it. You will wire from modem to wan port on the router.
2 of the lan ports will run to the computers on that floor. One wire will run downstairs where you will have a switch to allow multiple computer to connect. the other wire will run upstairs to the switch.

What router are you getting? as long as it has 4 lan ports there is no need for a switch on the first floor unless you want more than tow computers.

I you had a switch on each floor it would run modem into wan port on router. a cable from the lan port on the router to each of the 3 switches.

were you referring to 10/100/1000 versus the 10/100/100 you posted?

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

MAN!!!! I had a nice long post typed out, and I went to open a new tab, but I hit CTRL + R..... DOH!!!!!

Yeah, what he said, unless your modem has an integrated router, you will need to connect that directly to the WAN port on a router. Also as mentioned, if you have 4 LAN ports on the switch, you're good to go on the main floor without an additional switch.

Are you renting the house, or did you purchase the house? In addition to that, how do you plan to run the cables from F1 to B & F2? Either way, for a TEMP solution, I would say to just run it along the cieling using some COAX cable nails... (Amazon.com: Coax Cable Nail-in Clips: Electronics). I got a HUGE 'ole jar of them from a local hardware store for about $5. Coax nails will work good for Ethernet cables also.
If you purchased the house, over the long term, I would suggest pulling your own cables through the walls. I did that at my house, with runs to each bedroom, the office & the TV room. Each run has 3 Cat5e terminations and a Coax termination. Then I have everything wired to a rack in a 'crawl space'. This way, all of the active electronics are in 1 spot, which is nice for any changes that I need to make.

Good luck with your setup, and congrats on both the move, and the move to broadband!!

 

[Luke]

wow i do not know how i possibly typed 10/100/1000 wrong 3 times in a row, yes i meant that. not 10/100.

Anyway, thank you for the router info, i was not sure if i could do that (never owned a router before) so now i don't need another switch.

MAN!!!! I had a nice long post typed out, and I went to open a new tab, but I hit CTRL + R..... DOH!!!!!

that sucks. Thanks for writing another.

We bought the house. I don't see a way i can run the cables threw the walls though. How did you get the cables in the walls? I was planning on just stapling them to the edge of the baseboard's but if i can get them in the walls easy enough then i will definitely do that.

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[Hefemeister]

This is very extensive but worth a read since you own your home.
Building A Home Network From Scratch - The Ins and Outs of Building a Home Network : Introduction

Also you have the cat5e vs cat6 question. If you are going to spend a lot of time run cat6 If you are just going to tack it up and run it around use cat5e (IMO).

In my opinion it is worth doing your home cabling right as a home owner. Even to the point of installing wall plates.

If not running under the edge of the carpet and under floor boards works pretty well.

 

[Luke]

^i'll have to take a look at that. Right now im out in the sun on my laptop waiting for the clearner to finish on the carpet (the hotel im staying in right now is have all the rooms cleaned so i can barely see anything im doing on the screen.).

What is the difference between cat5e and cat6 though? Sorry if that is mentioned in the linked page.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

In my sig, click on the link in bright green for 'Operation Home Run'.... That was my post from back when I wired the house. A good 80% of my time was spent in my attic. DeWalt drill was VERY handy, as were the nice hard plastic kneepads, goggles, and the rubber coated cloth gloves. The best tool I had was the 200 foot long cable fish that I got at Home Depot for a couple of bucks. Long story short, it's a long metal wire, that you fish through the walls from point A to point B, then attach the cable you want to pull, and you crank the cable fish back through the wall, pulling the cables through. I wired my home ALONE, and helped my old man to wire his. I can't stress enough, if you DO pull through the walls, use at LEAST 2 people. It is TOTALLY doable with a single person, but keep in mind, if you are pull a cable from the basement up to the 2nd floor, and you hit a snag, you have to run down to the basement, and run back upstairs. Not a bad workout, but it takes FAR FAR less time to just have 2 people.

As far as running the cable along the baseboard, I would be careful. pets (specifically cats & rabbits) like to chew on things, and my cables have been chewed by both. Keep in mind that there are wires inside of the cable, and it is NOT ADVISABLE to use any sharp bends in the cable, as it can break the conductors. This will be a PITA, because you will have to re-run the cable, or splice out the bad part, but I would just re-run it. ALSO, if you are using staples, don't just use regular staples & a staple gun, they made special guns & staples for cables, for the same reason, you don't want to damage the cables.

 

[Luke]

^thanks for the info. Yeah i have an industrial grade electrical staple gun. So im good with the staples i think, i just don't think i have the right size at the moment, i'll have to pick some up. Closing for the house is july 13th though so i got quite a bit of time to plan it all out.

Putting the cables in the walls seems like a lot of work. I like to move things around a lot also. So i don't think the wall thing would be the best idea for the house, although it would look much better.

I will see what i can do once im working on it in the house, that way i know for sure if there is a good place to hide the cables, or if i can peel up the edges of the carpet with out damaging it to put the cables under it.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

If you have an attic above the 2nd floor rooms, it's pretty easy. You find the 2x4 that caps the studs between the rooms, and drill a hold big enough for however many cables you will be running. The hardest part is making sure that you drill into the walls for the wall plates between the right studs, or else you will have cables between studs 1 & 2, but the hole you just drilled for the wall plate might be between studs 3 & 4. Just measure from a common wall (usually exterior), and make sure that you are in the right spot (no idea what the 'technical term' is for the space between studs). From there, I found a common wall that went from the attic to the basement. The only hitch was that a major suppor beam for the house blocked that space, so for the time being, I have my cables comeing out of the drywall to go around the 12-14" support beam, and then back into the drywall. It's messy, but it is in a closet, so it's all good.

Congrats on closing on your house, good time to buy. I bought mine 2 years ago, punching myself in the FACE for it. I actually just re-financed on Tuesday... went from a 3 year ARM at 5.625% to a 30 year fixed @ 5.00%. So that will be nice. Now I just need to sell the darn thing. Anyone want to buy a house?

 

[Luke]

^i actually have not seen the attic, so i don't know how well i can use it. It would be very small though. Once i get in the house I'll check it out and see what i can do.

Thanks for the info guys, you helped me out quite a bit.