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Thread: Home project - Network the house

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    Home project - Network the house

    Hi guys,

    Here is my little project, and im hoping to get a bit of advise on the best ways to go about it:

    To cut a long story short, Ive managed to buy myself a house and while im getting the place ready for me (new kitchen/bathroom/redecorated etc etc) i had the thought of getting the place wired up for a network.

    Im no stranger to networks, but never needed to spec up something like this.

    What im looking to do is have 1 or 2 points in each bedroom (its a 3 bed), and have 2 or 4 in the lounge / dinning room, with all the trunking round the walls (i assume)

    initially i had the brainwave of having the patch panel and switch in the cupboard under the stairs

    oh yeah, and i want it all running at Gbit speeds
    Main uses: Media Server, or a PC/Laptop in a couple of bedrooms, the PS3 in the lounge.

    I just think if im going to do it, i want to do it properly.

    so, the questions are:
    * Is it worth using cat 6, or just stick with cat5e?
    * Do i need a patch panel?
    * Does the Patch panel make a difference if its for cat5 or cat6?
    * What Gbit switch should i get? is it worth getting a 16 port straight off, or just get an 8 port, and add another 8 port at a later date?
    * Will i need some sort of ventilation for the cupboard?
    * Is there an alternative to using the trunking? ie if im getting the carpets replaced, is it safe to run the cat5 underneith without crushing them?

    I look forward to hearing peoples thoughts, or add anything i have probably missed

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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    First thing to do, where you think you need one wire install 2 or even 4! Thats the whole point of a patch bay NOT ALL the ports in your house HAVE to be connected to your switch.

    Quote Originally Posted by dshepsman View Post
    * Is it worth using cat 6, or just stick with cat5e?
    Cat 5e or Cat 7

    Cat 5e gives 1Gb of bandwidth, 6 gives 2.5, 7 gives 10. No network equipement work at a rate of 2.5Gb. Also Cat 6 compared to Cat 5e is hard to work with, easy to damage, more expensive and no benfit.
    Quote Originally Posted by dshepsman View Post
    * Do i need a patch panel?
    Depends how many wires you have, a patch panel offers female connections rather than male ones, they are a nice way to keep things tidy particularly if you do not have all of the sockets wired up. Loose wires get damaged. You not not have to use a "panel" though, you could just use wall mount boxes in a line, a double will fit 4 connections. Also you can get 10" racks, here is one.
    Quote Originally Posted by dshepsman View Post
    * Does the Patch panel make a difference if its for cat5 or cat6?
    No, but cat 6 is easy to damage so it needs to be terminated into something where its not moved arround.
    Quote Originally Posted by dshepsman View Post
    * What Gbit switch should i get? is it worth getting a 16 port straight off, or just get an 8 port, and add another 8 port at a later date?
    I guess it depends on bandwidth of your switch if you switch can only move 1Gb of data around, then it would make little difference. The problem with two switches is you lose 2 of the ports to connect them together so its a 14 port switch, also the connection between them is only 1Gb all of the computers on one side and only use a total of 1 Gb to the other side, resulting in poor performance. But really for home it does not make much difference I would get a 16 port one though.

    Personally I think you should get a 16 port Smart or Managed switch as this will give you alot of flexability for your core in the future. Get a switch with 50% more ports than you think you will use now. I like these netgear ones for entry level. The other thought would be to buy and 8 port now and later replace it with a bigger one and then use that as a desktop switch in another room when you need more connections.
    Quote Originally Posted by dshepsman View Post
    * Will i need some sort of ventilation for the cupboard?
    I would have vents in the cupboard to let air out. However active air, is not really needed for a single switch, even by bit 28 port cisco one only users 45W of power, if you put your router and a computer in there as well, now that is a different thing.
    Quote Originally Posted by dshepsman View Post
    * Is there an alternative to using the trunking? ie if im getting the carpets replaced, is it safe to run the cat5 underneith without crushing them?
    You can run it in false walls.
    Quote Originally Posted by dshepsman View Post
    I look forward to hearing peoples thoughts, or add anything i have probably missed
    Some links cat 6 Wiring And this one and this one!

    More about hiding cables, here. and here.

    The tools you might need is here.

    Have a read of the links, then ask some more questions if you need, make sure you tell us how it goes.
    Last edited by oolon; 15-04-2010 at 02:17 PM. Reason: I think all the links are right now.
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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    thanks for the reply already.

    youve just confirmed a few things i had knocking around in my head, and thrown a few more interesting options into the mix

    i look forward to the links

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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    I networked my house last November during a complete rewire - pretty easy really. I used Cat5e running through the floors and walls with each room have various numbers of wall sockets.

    All the cables were fed back to the cupboard under the stairs and go straight into the GbE switch. I decided that a patch panel or terminating to wall sockets was a hassle for very little benefit.

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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    Quote Originally Posted by s_kinton View Post
    All the cables were fed back to the cupboard under the stairs and go straight into the GbE switch. I decided that a patch panel or terminating to wall sockets was a hassle for very little benefit.
    It should be noted that (19") patch panels intrude into the room quite alot as all the cables come out of the back, you can wire them sideways but your need a custom bracket to fit it to the wall, and still 24 cat 5e cables is quite big.
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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    Think Oolon has covered all the bases! Good to be able to do this from scratch, I did mine in stages, so I ended up with two switches (one upstairs, one down) and a single wire connecting them.

    Cat5e will be fine - and easier to work with.

    Wall boxes instead of patch panels are easier but may be more expensive on a cost-per-port basis - but then you don't have to worry about how to mount a patch panel - a rack or cabinet puts up the price.

    Get good quality tools for the punch down. The cost of ready terminated patch and drop cables is so low that it is probably cheaper than getting the tools to make your own - BUT - if you do buy the tools, you can make bespoke cables to the length you need, which might make for a neater installation.

    You don't really need a managed switch - depends on how many computers you will be connecting. So you could get an 8 port unmanaged (much cheaper initially) and then upgrade to a larger/managed switch later as your requirements change or develop.

    Think carefull about where the network connection points will be - especially in living areas where you may have alternative room arrangements. And again as Ollon says, you probably want to double the cable runs even if you don't terminate them all. Much easier to run all the cable in in one go. (and solid cable for the fixed part, stranded for patch and drop cables. And personally, I wouldn't botherr going for shielded in a domestic installation. Shielded cable is again harder to work with and the fittings are slightly more expensive.
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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    As above you don't need a managed switch, I only ever used managed switches for VLANs and SMNP. Just make sure you get good quality cable and always run more points then you think you will need

    I have to thank oolon as that is a fantastic post, what Hexus is all about, nice one mate.
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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    if you are running cable in hard to access place run it twice so if the active cable gets damaged somehow in the future you dont need to rip it all up you just switch over the cable conections

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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    This is a strange one, buy more than one box of cable, cable is cheap, the more boxes of cable you have the more wires you can pull through at the same time, this can save a lot of time. Yes you can spool it out, but then you have to cut the cable (what if you get the length wrong before pulling?). Personally I use 4 boxes at a time, but that would probably get you way to much cable for a house (I have recently installed 1.2Km of cable at my work).
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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    Quote Originally Posted by oolon View Post
    I would have vents in the cupboard to let air out. However active air, is not really needed for a single switch, even by bit 28 port cisco one only users 45W of power, if you put your router and a computer in there as well, now that is a different thing.
    i intend to have just the switch and the draytek adsl router in there. apart from all the other clutter that goes under the stairs

    im now starting to think of getting a couple of 8 port patch panels, and mount them on either some trunking, or maybe on a bit of wood?
    then have a shelf underneith for the switch/router

    im going to have a proper visit of the house probably next weekend, with the builder, to work out what needs doing, how etc etc so i'll be able to be a bit more specific with the networking requirements.
    and get a proper look at the cupboard under the stairs.

    Failing that... shove it in the loft? but that will need twice as much cable, which im not to happy about.

    i shall keep you posted, supply a few pics if i can.

    the info has been great so far.. keep it coming

    Also: what ive also been told, with regards to running the extra cables, is to run string along side all the cables/ports so if i need to add extra cables, just use the string to pull it though. good/bad idea?

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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    Quote Originally Posted by dshepsman View Post
    Also: what ive also been told, with regards to running the extra cables, is to run string along side all the cables/ports so if i need to add extra cables, just use the string to pull it though. good/bad idea?
    String pull throughs are an ok idea, however you need big gap so things do not get caught while your pulling it. Personally I would install all cables now, if you need pull through to upgrade do it later use the cable your replacing. I would go under the stairs if you can, lofts can be very hot in summer, not a good place for a switch, I would mount high up under the stairs, I would mount the switch flat against the wall, with a metal strap under the bottom, and over the sides to keep it against the wall (as if the wall was a table), and use really short patch cables to the patch panel which would be just above the switch. This would take the minimum space from the storage area.

    As to the cost of cable, REALLY its dirt cheap IMHO? UTP 5e cable 305m for 60 quid+vat!
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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    The string idea only really works if the cable is in conduit, and then if the conduit is only half full or so. You get a surprising amount of friction (and therefore drag) along even a modest cable run. Using more than one drum of cable is a good idea - but of course doubles the initial outlay.
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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    fair enough.
    The more cable the better....got it.
    And spare cable is only a good thing. and i can keep the cable under the stairs

    im so glad i get my bonus paid in june!

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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    Most has been covered here really so i'll just chuck in 2 points from when I cabled up my old house

    1) Avoid the *really* cheap cable, or at least check it before you buy. I've had a lot of cheap cable where the internal wires are either a) really fragile so they snap off far too easily or b) they are badly colour coded to the point where you find it really hard to tell between green/green and green/white for example, especially in low light conditions. I'm sad to say that this has always been from Scan in this case :S

    2) Look at refurb Cisco kit for your switch - it's dirt cheap and super reliable. An 8 port 2950 can be had for £25-£40 on ebay and you can usually pick up a 24 port one for only a little bit more. Cheaper than all of the entry level rack kit and much better VFM imo. If you get one running a new-ish IOS then you don't even need to have Cisco knowledge to use them as they offer a web interface. This then has a double benefit of giving you the option to learn how to use IOS in the future.

    Just some thoughts anyway, I retrofitted my rented house last year with a cat5e network, sadly only cable tac'd around the walls (wasn't allowed anything more) but it did work very well!.

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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    holy thread revival

    finally getting the house sorted - and the sparky is 'kindly' laying the cat5e cables for me.
    im putting at least 1 double network socket in each room, some rooms will have 2 double sockets - all leading to a patch panel under the stairs (where the router and switch will be)

    Now, i just want to know if this is normal practice:
    The guy ran 1 cable per double socket, and wanted to loop one port to the other.

    would this work, or would it cause problems if both sockets were being used at the same time?

    (ps i have told him to run 2 cables per socket, one for each port. but i just wanted to know people thoughts)
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    Re: Home project - Network the house

    No that not "normal" that is completely useless infact. You cannot use more than one device on each wire. Where did you find that person? It sounds like they do not know the first thing about network cables. Each outlet requires its own unique 8 wires, you can get multicore cable with 16, 32 or more wires in them, that is also fine. However looping from one outlet to another is not. What he was doing is ok for a telephone, however ethernet T is point to point not bus. So that is not allowed.

    Its best to use the word outlet or module, each single gang face plate has 2 outlets/modules, a double gang one has 4 outlets/modules.

    You should also make sure they wire the colours correctly, if they don't you will get signal problems.
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