Building a total home network

[SnakeCharmer]

Toying with the idea of this weekends project being to rewire the entire house's cable, phone, and cat5 wiring.  I will be using one wall plate in each room to have the access point for that room.  In total, I'll be putting in 7 RJ-45 jacks, 8 cable outlets, and 9 phone outlets.  House is built on a slab, with a full attic running through it, so access won't be a problem.  There isn't a phone in every room (just living room, bedroom, and office (home line, 2nd line for fax), but I figure I may as well do the wiring/jacks while I'm doing everything else.

Breakdown is as such:
Kitchen:  1 x cable, 1 x phone
Living Room:  2 x cable, 4 x RJ-45, 2 x phone (room is 19x20, so want them on both possible entertainment set up walls)
Man Cave / Home Office (was a bedroom): 1 x cable, 3 x RJ-45, 2 x phone (multiple lines)
Bedroom1:  1 x cable, 1 x phone
Bedroom2:  1 x cable, 1 x phone
Master Bedroom: 2 x cable, 2 x phone (room is 17x18, two possible places to put TV and such)

This is what I am thinking for the set up:  Modem (cable) will be located in the office.  It will connect to one of the RJ-45 jacks in the office that connects to the router in the attic.  Router in attic then splits off back to the individual RJ-45 jacks in each room. 

I don't need wired internet access in the bedrooms or kitchen, but I am thinking a bit forward to the day that media content will be delivered via RJ-45 jacks for the living room.  Also, the 360 is located in the living room, and don't want to go wireless with it.  That being the case, I'll need one high speed connection for the 360 and one other for whatever other purposes.  I occasionally bring my work laptop home with me, but 75 percent of the time if I am working from home, I'm on the desktop/gaming rig.  So, I need wireless access for my work laptop and my wife's laptop.

So what I'm looking for is a router that can support 6+ wired connections, and (at least) 2+ wireless connections.  Also, advice on quality coaxial and cat5 wiring and connectors for absolute minimal signal loss. 

Advice?

[ajax34i]

It's a house, so probably won't be a problem, but remember the distance limitations of Ethernet. 

Also, not sure how you can split one cable signal into 9 without loss / re-amplification.  I have never seen a splitter with more than 3 outputs.

Finally, central server / storage device / backups?

And, does the attic get hot enough to cause trouble for your router/switches?  Them things don't even have heatsinks on chips inside that should have heatsinks, and they don't have fans.   At all.

Have room for a UPS for the LAN devices / cable amplifiers / etc. up there?

[SnakeCharmer]

Generally, only 1 or 2 TV's are on at once.  If I'm in my man cave office, I might have it on.  But for the most part, we're usually watching together, in one room.  Will the signal degrade even if only one (or two) TV's are being used?  Only 3 are even hooked up (living room, office, bedroom).

Heat is most likely an issue here in the deep South.  It gets hot up there from spring until late fall, despite having two power attic fan roof vents. 

Plenty of room, space isn't an issue.  Plus, last summer I dropped/secured plywood over about 80 percent of the area for safe walking. 

[Murgos]

Generally, only 1 or 2 TV's are on at once.  If I'm in my man cave office, I might have it on.  But for the most part, we're usually watching together, in one room.  Will the signal degrade even if only one (or two) TV's are being used?  Only 3 are even hooked up (living room, office, bedroom).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchhoff%27s_circuit_laws

Basically, power in = power out.  If you split the power in 9 ways then the power out is going to be very small.  If it's small enough you won't have a good signal anywhere.  If you leave most of the nodes unconnected they should behave as an open circuit and not have an effect but there are lots of other things to consider.

I lived in a house with cable to every room (5 br, fam room, living room, kitchen, etc...), we had to have a box that did signal amplification at the main node.  I don't know what it cost but it's not an insurmountable problem.

[SnakeCharmer]

Curious.  Possible case of the st00pids:  Does that apply to the cable broadband I use?  Meaning, does the signal for my internet get weaker the more TV's / splits I have?  Or is the internet signal seperate?

[MisterNoisy]

You'll probably need at least 1 bi-directional amplifier for that many cable outlets.  If you do require an amplifier, good UPS + surge suppression on the power going to it is practically mandatory. 

Consider where the cable enters the house and draw a rough map/diagram to plan out where you're going to put your amp + splitters.  Typically from the point where cable hits your house, you'll split to any outlets in the immediate area, then put the amp on the segment(s) that reaches out to the rest of the house.   Use 1GHz or better splitters exclusively, try to keep the number of splitters to a minimum (each break in the coax is a potential ingress point), and pay attention to the values marked on each of the ports on your splitter(s) as well - they're the negative dBmV values of the respective ports, so ones with higher negative numbers (greater loss) should be used for shorter runs and/or lines that won't have additional splitters further down the chain.

This link is somewhat simplified, but should help you in terms of figuring out where to put your amplifier/splitters.

Use RG-6 (ideally 4x-shielded) cable - the RG-59 stuff is okay for non-demanding applications, but you'll want to avoid skimping here.  Same for fittings - we pretty much use compression fittings exclusively.  A coax stripper and compression fitting tool will probably run anywhere from $30-50 total.  Good compression fittings are usually around $.50 each in bulk.

I also recommend putting all of your connectivity and networking hardware (router + modem, etc) in the same location - ideally, a centrally located room or closet.  Nothing sucks quite like having to go all over the house to reset your gear.

[ajax34i]

We're using 4 TV's and a cable modem.  Cascaded the splits, main line into 3 (modem plus TV plus another splitter into 3 more TV's).  Had to put amplifiers on each TV and between the splitters, and if the power goes out on those, my cable modem cuts out.  Problem is, these are old TV in-out amplifiers ($20 boxes from Wal Mart) that I doubt can handle digital cable once we get that.  Matter of fact we'll probably have to re-wire and get new high-frequency splitters too.  And I haven't seen digital cable amplifiers for sale, probably because cable companies like to charge you per HDTV and don't like you wiring them in by yourself for free.

Maybe I'm just uninformed.

[Ookii]

I'm no expert at wiring but wouldn't it be easier to run one cat6 (use cat 6 or at least cat 5e) cable to each room and then run them off a switch?  I imagine you wouldn't want to rewire all the way from the attic if a cable went south, and any power loss would be negligible if you had a switch halfway.

Same vein for the cable modem, might as well stick it in the attic if that's where the router is going.  If the router is going in the attic you should get one of those fancy Mimo ones, just make sure it supports WDS because you'll probably have to stick another one somewhere as a wireless extender.

You could also just have a wired 8 port router in the attic and have one of the cat6 cables going to a wireless access point somewhere centrally located in the house.

[MisterNoisy]

We're using 4 TV's and a cable modem.  Cascaded the splits, main line into 3 (modem plus TV plus another splitter into 3 more TV's).  Had to put amplifiers on each TV and between the splitters, and if the power goes out on those, my cable modem cuts out.  Problem is, these are old TV in-out amplifiers ($20 boxes from Wal Mart) that I doubt can handle digital cable once we get that.  Matter of fact we'll probably have to re-wire and get new high-frequency splitters too.  And I haven't seen digital cable amplifiers for sale, probably because cable companies like to charge you per HDTV and don't like you wiring them in by yourself for free.

Maybe I'm just uninformed.

Most of the stuff you find at Wal-Mart is the cheap one-way stuff for regular analog TV service, but two-way services like digital cable and data/telephony will require an amplifier that amplifies both ways, since those services depend on return communication from the modem/cable receiver (which have to deal with the same loss and attenuation that downstream signal does).  Radio Shack has a couple, but if you just toss 'bidirectional cable amplifier' into Google, you can find others, including ones with variable gain, etc.

[JWIV]

You may want to also take a look into the structured wiring solutions.

http://www.swhowto.com/ seems to have a decent DIYers guide.

Basically, you run everything back to a easily accessible panel and where you then drop off your cable modem/router and life is good.

[Murgos]

The internet stuff is simpler just because it's already designed to be used this way.  Once you have the cable modem hooked up to your router/switch you should be able to run 100m of cat 5 from each port.  The standard (100BASE-TX or 1000BASE-T) is designed that way and the equipment is required to meet the standard.

If you want to go more than 100m with a cat 5 line you will have to do something to repeat it, another switch or a repeater or whatever.  I imagine 100m is plenty for a normal sized house.

[Lantyssa]

I recommend putting the cable modem, switches, etc. in the house itself.  Besides the heat which could cause all kinds of problems, you don't want to be entering your attic to hit the power switch on boxes every time you need to reset or troubleshoot them.

[Salamok]

I would highly recommend leaving your unused cable runs disconnected from the splitter (see Murgos's post).  If you are dead set on having this all come together in the attic (not recommended) I would choose a spot above a closet or something and build an access panel in the closet wall for the splitters and/or patch panel.  If it were me i'd actually put the entire thing on the top shelf of a large closet (will be much cooler and more accessable than the attic).

Also, be careful with the run to your cable modem the wrong type of amplifier on that can screw it up (might be true for  digital cable boxes as well).

edit: if you go with a small patch panel and limit your concurrent live ethernet connections to 4 or 5 it would open up a shit ton of router choices for you)

[Furiously]

What speed network are you planning on running? CAT-5 or CAT-6 cable?

[fuser]

This is what I am thinking for the set up:  Modem (cable) will be located in the office.  It will connect to one of the RJ-45 jacks in the office that connects to the router in the attic.  Router in attic then splits off back to the individual RJ-45 jacks in each room. 

I don't need wired internet access in the bedrooms or kitchen, but I am thinking a bit forward to the day that media content will be delivered via RJ-45 jacks for the living room.  Also, the 360 is located in the living room, and don't want to go wireless with it.  That being the case, I'll need one high speed connection for the 360 and one other for whatever other purposes.  I occasionally bring my work laptop home with me, but 75 percent of the time if I am working from home, I'm on the desktop/gaming rig.  So, I need wireless access for my work laptop and my wife's laptop.

Advice?

I have pulled a fair bit of cable at work and if you want to, i'd suggest to spend the little bit of extra money and setup a nice little wiring closet.

Drop two cat5(e/6/whatever) keystones to each plate(this gives you the options for more devices or phone jacks). Pull the full run back to one termination panel and do your network switching there. Either pull your cable modems coax back to the same wiring closet or just use one of your cat5 drops next to it to deliver the internet feed back to switching closet. Put a WRT54GL ($50/60) in the closet and load Tomato on it. Plug the cable modem drop into the internet side and if you want go big put a gigabit switch ($62)in there for pc<->xbox or pc<->pc.

Get some zap straps and pin down the "bundle" of cables from the attic. Get yourself a sheet of plywood and mount it to the wall, throw a bracket up and then terminate all the cables in a patch panel. Then cut some nice small patch cables and mount your router + switch to the wall.

[Nija]

If you really want to do a "total home network" I'd go with 2 to 3 cat 5e drops per room, or maybe even cat6.

Hell, I helped a coworker wire his house in 1999 and we put 4 cat5 drops per wall where we could have 2 in use on either side of the wall.

Ran it all to a couple punch down blocks in the corner closet in the garage. Mounted an equipment rack in that closet along with some ducting for cooling/exhaust.

Rad as hell in '99. I'd do no less than that considering it's a decade later, but our ideas of home networks could differ.

I mean, I've got 4 IP devices in my entertainment center alone, and IP devices in 3 rooms of the house already. But i rent and just used the crawlspace and did the runs on my own, and I went cheap in a few areas. I just ran a single cat5e cable to the various rooms and connected them to switches.


If I bought my own place I'd probably go hog wild with audio/video and network wiring. 7 zone audio and all that. Almost makes me want to buy a place.

[Venkman]

I love this thread. Some of it is greek to me (lowercase g, even though I can't speak Greek either )

I have always had my wifi router set up to dispense IP addresses dynamically. And yet, I've always also used MAC filtering to only allow the computers I want to connect to the thing. And now I'm moving to a new house where I'm thinking of a lot of stuff in this thread, but including probably adding either another WAP or a signal amplifier. It's only 1/2 an acre property, but it's long and narrow, with the house near the front. When I put the gazebo at the end of the yard, I want to get a signal there too. While leaving my main rig on a hard line. Because I'm old fashioned.

In any case, most of what I need answered is included in the thread. So this is more a general dumbverynewb question:

Is there any benefit to doing static IP assignement to machines in general? My router itself still gets it's IP from the cable company, and the new house will have to as well since I can't get FiOS in this area yet. But I'm wondering for the rest of my devices.

[Lantyssa]

I've liked assigning static IPs in the past, however I've had different machines set up to handle different servers for access from work or to friends.  (Web page here, Remote Access there, FTP on that one, etc.)  If you only need connectivity from inside your LAN and you don't have any servers or network printers you want to access by IP, DHCP is fine to use.

[Selby]

any benefit to doing static IP assignement to machines in general?

For servers that are going to be used for certain things, I tend to use static IPs.  Everything else gets a dynamic.  It's a pain to do otherwise when friends come over.  I just set my DHPC limit to my total number of machines +1 or 2 for total IPs allowed in use at once.

[Venkman]

Ah. Do you use MAC filtering, or does that really not matter? I started using it only because I thought it'd be a way to keep the riffraff off my wifi. But I honestly know dickall about whether it's effective at blocking them. Any time anyone new brings their laptop over, I need to add their MAC. It's become something of a PITA only because that particular page on my router admin window won't let me add comments so I can track which MAC is to which computer. I hafta do that in a separate file I seem to misplace, and I don't feel like storing that sorta thing online.

Paranoid and niave is a bad combo 

[Salamok]

Ah. Do you use MAC filtering, or does that really not matter? I started using it only because I thought it'd be a way to keep the riffraff off my wifi. But I honestly know dickall about whether it's effective at blocking them. Any time anyone new brings their laptop over, I need to add their MAC. It's become something of a PITA only because that particular page on my router admin window won't let me add comments so I can track which MAC is to which computer. I hafta do that in a separate file I seem to misplace, and I don't feel like storing that sorta thing online.

Paranoid and niave is a bad combo 

You can spoof a MAC address and it doesn't really do dick for beefing up your firewall or keeping you from becoming bot #04641372.  Still another layer of security to keep other clients off of your network though and I doubt your average neighbor even knows what a MAC address is much less how to spoof it.  Personally if it were any hassle to maintain it (sounds like it is) I'd just ditch it and rely on WPA.

[bhodi]

Since you're re-doing the wiring completely, go ahead and buy and use Cat-6 cable. You can get something like this which will give you up to Cat-6a standards. Not only are you somewhat future-proofing the house for new networking tech, but the extra stringent cable requirements give you extra wiggle room for your gigabit network - you'll know that you'll get full speed even with longer runs or sloppy punchdowns.

There's no reason to cheap out on the cable when it'll only cost you an extra $50 or so.

You didn't specifically mention it, but you probably know that you can use the cat-5/6 cable not only for gigabit ethernet but for phone as well as a house-wide intercom or stereo. It works great for speaker wire.

Also, since you're already running 'phone' to the bedrooms and such, you might as well do a second run and put it into the wall -- you really can never have too much cable. You don't have to put an outlet in, but you'd be foolish to only run what you think you'll need. Make sure you run cat-6 for your phone connections. Also, there's no reason to run cat-3 when you can run cat-6, and there's no reason to run 1 cable when you can run 2 for the same amount of effort.

You should probably use plenum rated cable. You'll want to make special note of this if (heaven forbid) you want to get your insurance company to cover any fire or electrical damage. You can probably get away with just riser cable, but again, why skimp?

[SnakeCharmer]

Thanks for all the advice.  Going to think on it for a while, then probably come back with a consolidated list of questions.

[Ray]

You may want to also take a look into the structured wiring solutions.

http://www.swhowto.com/ seems to have a decent DIYers guide.

Basically, you run everything back to a easily accessible panel and where you then drop off your cable modem/router and life is good.

Please do not follow the advice on that page on terminate your network drops in the closet with RJ-45 ends. Spend the money and buy a patch panel.

[Nija]

Thanks for all the advice.  Going to think on it for a while, then probably come back with a consolidated list of questions.

Oh, I neglected to mention, but like bhodi said - You want to drop more cables than you need when you do the runs. Just label 'em and leave them in the wall. You don't have to use them all, or you'd be pretty hard pressed to use them all anyways. Try to future-proof it as much as possible without using fiber optics.

[Salamok]

You may want to also take a look into the structured wiring solutions.

http://www.swhowto.com/ seems to have a decent DIYers guide.

Basically, you run everything back to a easily accessible panel and where you then drop off your cable modem/router and life is good.

Please do not follow the advice on that page on terminate your network drops in the closet with RJ-45 ends. Spend the money and buy a patch panel.

on the flip side if you did follow the advice and you then decided to go the patch panel route all you would have to do is clip the ends and punch the wires down (assuming you left yourself some slack in the cables).  So it isn't exactly a costly mistake.

[Lantyssa]

That's a really good point.  If you haven't done drops before, give yourself a few feet of slack on each wire.  It lets you trim ends and rewire several times over the life of the drop and is easier to work with when you do.  I curse every jack I rewire that only gives me two inches to play with.