Home Network Install

phillyman36

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2004
1,789
201
106
Hey i am thinking about getting someone to come out and install a wired network in my house.(ditching the powerline) I am doing google searches to see what this involves. I want something simple. Just wondering if anyone has pictures of their set up. Any information on what i need to have and what i need to know would be appreciated. My network education sucks so i'm at the early learning stage. From the looks of it I see closets with huge patch panels(dont need anything this size lol)
http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/program/facil/map/server.html.
All im doing is streaming blu ray and dvds to 4 rooms (via Dune media player) plus internet access. Does anyone have a smaller setup compared to what i get when i search google?

Thanks for any help
 
Last edited:

talion83

Member
Mar 21, 2011
67
0
61
all you need is a switch to connect them all to. If it is just 1 device per room, a Cat 5 or Cat 6 cable run to each room, terminating back to a (i would recommend) gig switch and you are set. If it is just 4, any SoHo home router/switch will work fine.

There really isn't anything *special* you need to do, networking since the ethernet era has been pretty straight forward. As long as you have a device handing out IP addresses (DHCP server) and acting as the DNS server all you need is a switch to connect everything to that.

As you already have internet at your house and using the powerline method to get the signal to other rooms, you already have a device doing both of those - so all you need is a switch to connect them all to.
 

Supermercado

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2002
5,893
0
76
I recently did a little bit of cleanup on my home network and have some photos in an album here: https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/3485106/1/Office%20Closet?h=2f7cde#/

My network isn't too complicated and sounds like it's along the lines of what you're looking to do.

I had cat 6 cable run when my house was being built, I have 4 runs to my home office, 4 to my living room, 2 to each bedroom, and 1 to the kitchen. All these runs terminate in the closet of my home office. In the pictures, you can see the runs coming into an enclosure in my closet wall (from the top right), where they get punched down into a 24-port cat 6 patch panel that I got from Monoprice. I've got 15 cat 6 patch cables also purchased from Monoprice that connect the patch panel to my switches and router. Right now, I have 2 8-port switches that are both connected to my gigabit router (Netgear WNDR3800) leaving me 7 ports on each switch. All my devices (including my Windows Home Server box that's in this closet, as well) are currently connected to one switch to minimize trips to the router for local traffic. Because I've got more cable runs than I have ports on a switch (eventually looking to upgrade to a single switch to handle everything), I do have two secondary runs connected straight to the router.

You can see the connections from the patch panel to the router/switches in the pictures. The patch cables on the left side of the enclosure go out the top of the enclosure and through a foot or so of wall and come out the small opening that's visible just behind my modem, router, and switches.

For what it's worth since it does factor into the overall system, I also have VOIP phone through my ISP. The entire setup is as follows: cable comes onto the premises and is run to the closet where it connects to the modem (it's difficult to see but the cable comes out the same small enclosure the patch cables do and is routed to my UPS for surge protection before it's connected to the modem). I've got a 1' cable connecting the modem to the router and two additional 1' cables connecting the router to the switches, as well as a 5' or so to connect to the Windows Home Server (my printer connects to the WHS box via USB and lets me share the printer to all the machines on the network). The rest of the connections to the router/switches are the patch cables from the patch panel in the enclosure. That gets me gigabit connectivity on all the network jacks in my house. Because I've got the VOIP phone, my modem also has a phone jack on it. When my house was built, a cat 6 line was run back to the service origin outside the house where all my phone lines terminate. Using just two I think of the twisted pairs in the cat 6 cable, I'm able to get my VOIP phone connected up to all the phone jacks in the house.

I enjoy the setup greatly as it lets me do as much as possible with wired ethernet as I can, the only wireless devices are laptops, tablets, phones, and mp3 players. All my PCs, Xbox, Blu-ray player, etc. are wired. It's not perfect, no, in a perfect world I'd like to have all the phone lines and cable lines run to the closet as well rather than to a box on the outside of my house. I didn't know what I know now about that sort of stuff when I had the house built or I'd have had the electrician do it a little differently. Realistically, though, I don't know that I'll ever change drastically from the current setup so it's probably not a big deal, just the perfectionist in me would rather it be different. About the only change I can foresee any time soon is dropping the VOIP service from my ISP when the current promotional rate expires later this year, and switching to something like a NetTalk Duo that can be kept in the closet and still connect up to the phone system.

I know that's long-winded but hopefully it's a bit of a help. I'll be glad to answer any questions I can, but I'm a novice when it comes to this stuff compared to some of the guys in the forum.
 

oynaz

Platinum Member
May 14, 2003
2,449
2
81
No, you were correct in your assumption. This is not rocket science:

Computer ---|
Computer --- Switch --- Router
Computer ---|

Connect your computers to a switch using cat 6 cable (nearly same price as 5e these days), and the switch to the router (Some routers have built in switches). Done. The rest is a matter of aesthetics.
 

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
0
0
This involves more than i thought.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1255024

I thought i would just have wall outlets as in the 3rd and 4th picture from the top and plug the modem/router into the outlet and that would share the internet connection. Now i need patch panels etc etc.

It isn't difficult. Heck we have full walk through on the top of the forum. The main reason you need a patch panel is to properly terminate the end near the switch. You can also just use a couple of keystones in a wall plate / ring. Just don't waste money on a RJ45 crimper and ends since you don't need one. Crimping mod ends on the cable is the same as those people that pull extension cords through the walls for power...
 

qft

Member
Feb 22, 2012
41
0
0
Agreed with tailon. Get a gigabit switch and cat5e or cat6 cabling.

Do NOT get vanilla cat5. It's much slower than cat5e.

If you want to get really fancy you could get a patch panel mounted to the wall so you can number jacks on the wall, number the jacks on the panel and plug em into a switch. That's overkill for 4 ports though.
 

phillyman36

Golden Member
Jun 28, 2004
1,789
201
106
Forgive me for not knowing but where does the patch panel get power from? Im looking at images on the internet and its hard to see close up shots
 

notposting

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2005
3,498
33
91
Forgive me for not knowing but where does the patch panel get power from? Im looking at images on the internet and its hard to see close up shots

Patch panels don't get power, they are just a connection point between your permanent cabling and your devices (which do need power obviously). The idea of a patch panel is that it and the cable are installed (along with corresponding jacks at the various locations in the home/office/etc) and you can test them and call it good. Use the patch cables for device connections (ie from wall to computer, and from patch panel to switch/router/whatever) since they are more flexible (stranded cable) and easily replaceable if damaged.

So you have:

Switch--patch cable--patch panel--permanent cable--jack--patch cable--pc

The patch panel, permanent cable, and jack are all basically permanent. Probably a bit long winded but hope that helps...
 
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