Networking a house

[AlSomething]

Hi

I'm about to move into my own home, and would like to install network cables to most rooms, to avoid using WiFi and powerlines. I currently use both and notice the lags/drop outs now, so would like to avoid using them where I can. This will also allow the Wifi to be used by devices that can only support Wifi. Below is the main set up of house and possible devices, it might not be much now (compared to some), but it will properly expand in the future.

Living Room - Will contain media centre running kodi and it will store all the movies, box sets, music, recorded TV. It will connect to the network via CAT 5 cable so streaming to other rooms does not drop out.

Bedroom 1 - Will have raspberry pi running Kodi that will access media centre files. It will connect via CAT 5 cable.

Bedroom 2 - In future might have a device in it, but nothing planned for now/medium term.

Kitchen/Dining area - Any devices will hopefully only need to connect via WiFi, i.e music player/radio.

Office/PC Room - This will contain main laptop/PC and will have printer connected to network via cable. I will also be looking into having other PC's / Raspberry Pi's to play with so have out lets for 4/5 CAT 5 cables.

While I think I have it all planned out, does anyone have any advice or watch out for scenarios? I plan to use a good router which will connect to internet via modem unless it's built in. Then to add Ethernet ports to use just a bog standard dumb switch.

The only issue I have worked out is the living room and if in the future I buy a smart TV or get a sky box, what will be the best way to connect these? I guess if I need ports there just add another switch?

I look forward to all your ideas/thoughts

[icemantaz]

Maybe use cat6?

[KeyboardDemon]

Cat 5e would be fine as that supports gigabit transfer rates but won't cost as much as Cat 6.

Get a good 8 or 16 port switch as your router will only support 4 wired devices.

How are you planning to route the cables?

[MrJim]

Cat 5e would be fine as that supports gigabit transfer rates but won't cost as much as Cat 6.

Get a good 8 or 16 port switch as your router will only support 4 wired devices.

How are you planning to route the cables?

I think Cat 6 is expensive, & less durable. Cat 5e is a good compromise between bandwidth & cost I believe.

[Dareos]

not sure i would say less durable, it certainly doesn't bend as easily though

[DanceswithUnix]

not sure i would say less durable, it certainly doesn't bend as easily though

Because if you bend it, it stops being cat 6?

I guess if I need ports there just add another switch?

Yes, my main TV has an 8 port switch behind it because just everything seems to have ethernet these days from blueray players to the TV itself so the 4 extra ports you get from a 5 port switch wasn't enough.

You need to think of your network as a star formation out from a central switch. You can only go through a few switches from one device to another so having them in a long chain doesn't scale.

[GoNz0]

Today I would not use anything less than cat 6a cable to future proof as much as possible, it isn't something you can easily redo so what's £90 for a reel 100m to kit out the new home. and always run 2 cables to the room as one day you will be glad

you can always use NETGEAR GS308's in each room you give you plenty of ports.

[KeyboardDemon]

You need to think of your network as a star formation out from a central switch. You can only go through a few switches from one device to another so having them in a long chain doesn't scale.

I think this is more relevant in enterprise situations where there could be hundreds or even thousands of users connected to multiple servers. In a domestic situation a switch or two connected to the router at the centre of the network with 4 pairs of ethernet cables feeding into 4 rooms each with an 8 port switch wouldn't have that much of an impact on the overall network performance, assuming that the household is occupied by 2 adults, 2 children and a family pet.

It might be worth running some cables to the kitchen so you can add a wireless access point on to one of those cables, or to paraphrase Clarence Worley, it would be better to have them and not need them then to need them and not have them.

I'm going to change my original suggestion of Cat 5e and agree with GoNz0, Cat 6a may cost a little more than twice as much as Cat 5e but it means you won't have to rewire your house for a long time to come.

[BobF64]

You can only go through a few switches from one device to another so having them in a long chain doesn't scale.

As long as you use switches, you can keep chaining and certainly not worry in a small environment, as this forms a tree topology.

Hubs, on the other hand, should only be used in a star formation, and quite frankly these days, using a hub is stupid.

[Dareos]

Nah Dances shielding in cat 6 can make it a lot stiffer.
Interesting point on the switches though. Most ISP's use hybrid devices, routers and modems combined, so the signal is potentially diluted (not the correct term but I just woke up) from the get go.

[DanceswithUnix]

Nah Dances shielding in cat 6 can make it a lot stiffer.
Interesting point on the switches though. Most ISP's use hybrid devices, routers and modems combined, so the signal is potentially diluted (not the correct term but I just woke up) from the get go.

My point was that the stiffness isn't accidental. You get 4x the outer diameter of the cable as a minimum bend radius, which should be tight enough but makes it possible to kink it and then the cable isn't cat 6 compliant any more.

[Dareos]

ahh, gotcha

[SUMMONER]

Just to have mentioned it. When you go out to buy reels of cables, do make sure it is not CCA (copper clad aluminium), but uses a solid copper conductor instead. CCA is bad enough as a patch lead, do not for any reason put it into the walls.

[KeyboardDemon]

As long as you use switches, you can keep chaining and certainly not worry in a small environment, as this forms a tree topology.

So in theory would it be right to say he could trunk sets of cables through a central conduit in his home, connect one end to a switch that's connected to the router and then have a connection point on each floor to feed into a switch and then run cabling for each room on that floor from the switch allowing him to scale to a larger property and keep cables lengths to a minimum in order to reduce the risk of attenuation?

Hubs, on the other hand, should only be used in a star formation, and quite frankly these days, using a hub is stupid.

Star vs Ring right?

[GoNz0]

It's a house, worst case is a switch on each floor, if the switches become saturated in the future he already has 10gb cable in place ready for a switch upgrade when and as 10gb switches become the norm

[AlSomething]

Hi

I think the idea of going with CAT 6 is a good way to go. The reason I original suggest CAT 5 is that I already have 100m coil. So thank you.

I am currently using a 100mb hub (it might be a switch its that old I can't remember) in my parents house and for the demand placed on it, it does fine. It is only two PC's which use a slow internet connection and to stream movies from the media centre, via the router first. The bottle neck currently is the powerline adaptors which can cause problems when streaming depending on interference. Also there is only enough bandwidth to stream to one PC in the house.

It is only a small house so current WiFi signal should suffice, but until I get the keys I won't know. If the signal isn't strong enough to reach the kitchen and garden, I will add WiFi extender.

I will have a 8 port switch in the Office next to the router as to keep all the equipment together where possible, as mentioned above 4 ports isn't going to be enough. If I did need to put a switch behind the T.V it would connect directly to the router.

All the cabling will be run under the 1st floor and then into ducts into each room. Once put in, it ain't coming out! It might share a duct with coaxial for T.V but not power.

So if I future proof the house to 1GB ethernet, it should be enough to stream 4K movies when they come out. But for that we will need one very fast internet connection!

Thanks everyone and I'm still open for more ideas!