Going Gigabit wired - some advice please

[Skinleech]

Hello networking people. Sorry for the long post, but I'm not sure the most effective way to do this.

I plan, at some point soon, to go Gigabit wired in my flat, and wire the cables under the flooring. The flat set up is 2 bedrooms, 1 box room and the living room, and I want all of them to be connected.

Only 1 of the bedrooms will have a PC in it, and even then it will have a wireless connection, but I figure as I'll be ripping up floorboards, I may as well do the them too.

The box room will have my main PC in it, and a Linux based PC to be used as a NAS. Both of these must be Gigabit. The living room will have my HTPC, Xbox 1, 360 and PS2 in it, I don't think any of the consoles need to/can be Gigabit connected as they'll have 10/100 NICs in them, but the HTPC must be Gigabit.

My broadband will be provided Be, and I will use their BeBox. There's no phone socket in the Box Room, so I'll either install one and keep the modem there, or more likely keep the modem there and thread the phone cable along with the ethernet cables into the phone point in the living room. As the modem will be in the box room, I plan on having all of the ethernet sockets meet there, to be fed onto the BeBox

So, my question is, what's the best way to do this and keep the 3 full time PCs Gigabit? Should I have 2 Gigabit switches, one in the living room for all the gear there, then one in the box room for the PC/NAS there and the bedrooms to connect to?

Or should I thread a 10/100 cable from my 10/100 switch out of the living room, but only connect the consoles to that, and have a separate Gigabit cable coming out for the HTPC?

Or something else that I no doubt haven't thought of?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[mbriody]

I got my new house wired for gigabit ethernet a few months ago. I got them to install 7 outlets with the cables all routed to a single point (in my loft). I then connected all 7 cables to a gigabit switch plus I added a HomePlug.

I then just add hubs (gigabit or 10/100) at the various outlets as required - my wireless modem/router is plugged into one of these.

If I ever need a connection where I don't have easy access to an outlet or a poor WiFi signal I use a second HomePlug.

[burble]

I then just add hubs (gigabit or 10/100)

Not wanting to seem pedantic, but there's no such thing as a gigabit hub, it'll be a switch you've got.

OP, if it's an option I'd decide on a central point for your cabling (the living room sounds like a good place since that's where most of the devices are) and cable everything from there going into a single gigabit switch.

[mbriody]

Not wanting to seem pedantic, but there's no such thing as a gigabit hub, it'll be a switch you've got.

Well I got it right the first time

OP, if it's an option I'd decide on a central point for your cabling (the living room sounds like a good place since that's where most of the devices are) and cable everything from there going into a single gigabit switch.

That's basically what I was trying to get at.

[directhex]

remember: switches will combine 10, 100 and 1000mbit devices fine. hubs won't.

[peterb]

Both your plans are OK. For neatness, running all the cables back to a central point and having one switch there (probably the boxroom and extend the phone line so that thais there too - then all the equipment is oin one place.

I presume you are mounting the sokets in the wall? If that is the case, run two cables to each bedroom and install two sockets there (a single gang mounting box faceplate will take two RJ45 modules). For the main room run at least 4 (a double gang box faceplate will take four RJ45 modules. That gives you eight cables going back to the "Equipment Room". You can terminate those in two double gang boxes wich gives you a patch panel. You can then get either an 8 port switch now and just use those sockets in the bedrooms that you need now, and get anorther as or when the need arises) or a 16 port now which gives you maximum felixibility now, but will cost more.

If you wish, run more cables in while the floorboards are up, bujt don't terminate them yet (keeps cost down) but whatever you think you will need, add additional capability! (If you do run out of sockets in one place, you can always add a small swich locally later - but it doesn't look as neat).

Aim for flexibility though. (You might want to split the 4 cables to the main room to two locations at opposite ends -or run 4 cables to each end - and extend the patch panel at the other end - then you can enable the ports as you require)

[ikonia]

seems a little pointless as the PC using wirless which I assume is your main PC will be using wirless so a bottleneck there.

[Skinleech]

Thanks to all for the advice so far, it's really appreciated.

I do plan to wall mount the sockets, the box room would be room for all the cables to meet. Pteterb's suggestion sounds good to me so far. Seems to keep everything neat on the wall side of things, whilst only needing 1 switch.

On a side note, I saw some flat ethernet cables (gigabit rated) on ebay. Anyone got experience of those over the full fat ones?

seems a little pointless as the PC using wirless which I assume is your main PC will be using wirless so a bottleneck there.

No, you assume wrongly. The main PC is in the boxroom as stated in my post and must be Gigabit wired as will the HTPC and the NAS.

The wireless will be for various mates who have laptops is all.

[killie99]

Flat cable or round cable - does it matter seeing as it'll be under the floor? get the cheaper version. There is a guy on ebay who sells very good cat 6 cable, user name seisdon001, but he has none on sale at the moment but I'd expect he'll be selling more soon (no it's not me!) He sells 305m for BIN of £55 but I know someone who made him an offer of £40 and he accepted - cheaper than you can get cat5e.

Have a look at here to get you thinking about how to do all this stuff http://www.swhowto.com/

[peterb]

When I cabled the house, I bought the cable from RS - not the cheapest, but it is branded with some guarantee of performance. After all, you only want to do this once, and the cable is the hardest bit to replace if cheap stuff doesn't do the job. if you are going to the expense of gigabit you don't want the banwidth compromised by anything.

http://rswww.com

[directhex]

don't buy flat cables. not if you're after performance.

[ikonia]

just re-read

I read

Only 1 of the bedrooms will have a PC in it, and even then it will have a wireless connection, but I figure as I'll be ripping up floorboards, I may as well do the them too.

as one of the bedrooms has a pc in it, but even then it will have a wirless connection. I'm ripping up the floor board so I may as well lay cable in there too

Apologies for the confusion

[Funkstar]

I've been planning to wire my flat up for ages now, but never got round to it. It's just a little one bedroom place, but i'm going for 8 points in the living room (2 in each corner) and 4 in the bedroom (two in opposite corners). Cabling is all going to terminate in the closset in the bedroom. Also going to add ADSL filtered phone extensions and ADSL modem points in the bedroom and living room meaning i can move the router to wherever i want it.

I don't really need to do it, but i have all the stuff now and although it won't add any value to the property, it is something that may make it more attractive to potential buyers.

[Lourdes]

One thing to note, make sure all your devices support jump frames at the same size for much better speeds.

[chrestomanci]

On a side note, I saw some flat Ethernet cables (gigabit rated) on ebay. Anyone got experience of those over the full fat ones?

Bad idea.

Modern ethernet cable are Unshielded Twisted Pair each pair of wires are transmit and ground return for some data, and because they are twisted together, they both receve the same Electromagnetic interference but in oposite sences so it balances out. If they were not twisted together they would suffer interfeence. Obvously flat cable will not have the pairs twisted.

The flat cable probably works fine for 10 or 100 Mbit, or for Gigabit over very short distances (a few inches) but for anything longer there will be loads of errors and your network cards will be constantly retransmitting garbled data.

Gigabit Ethernet over copper is right on the edge of what is possible. The main limiting factor is the quality of the cable, so you need to buy quality Cat 5e or Cat 6 cable from a reputable supplier.

[burble]

One thing to note, make sure all your devices support jump frames at the same size for much better speeds.

I think you mean jumbo frames