I want to setup a network in our new house that's currently being built.

I was thinking of putting 12 port switch in the garage and feed out to all the rooms.

Whats the best way to go about this?

Besides a heaps of cabling, wall outlets and switch, what else do I need?

a wireless router?

I dunno if it's worth it man, the technology will become obsolete as better wireless speeds/strengths become available in the home. Then you're stuck with this wierd cabling and sockets all over.

last edited by Idol at 20:09:13 15/Oct/07

pm'd

Ya, don't really see the point in going to all the effort to install that when Wireless works pretty much as well as a cabled connection.

Maybe so but not all devices that have built in ethernet have built in wireless at the moment and a wireless router is easily added later on by replacing his 12 port thing with a wireless one. He can't easily lay the cables later though.

If I were you I'd go ahead with the cables, maybe run 2 or 3 cables into what may be a popular room like the living room and/or "games" room just in case you want to plug a couple of devices in.

edit: that said, what about a cable that runs from the routers location to the center of the house in the ceiling so you can attach a wireless antenna there instead of having the antenna on the router in the garage and possibly not getting a signal down the other end of the house?

last edited by whoop at 20:17:39 15/Oct/07

Given that all sorts of people have wacky problems with wireless, I definately think it's a good idea to wire in all new houses. Run Cat6 to outlets all over the place, run them all back to one location which could be a patch panel, or just a bunch of quad-data wall sockets which is where your switch will live.

Don't forget you can run telephone and other utilities ( even speakers! ) over the cat6 so it has plenty of purposes.

also
f*** wireless

i would setup a patch panel in a little wall rack in the garage and run 2x Cat5e to each room that you could ever want to have a device in. then you have 1 port for network and 1 port available to use for another network or phone.

then you just get telstra to install your phone line to that patch panel. so you can patch your landline into any room and setup your network kit in that wall rack.

get an sparky to cable it up if you are no good with this kind of stuff, or just do it youself if you have the crimpers and crone tools.

ara has just described what i was going to. - cept i'd use cat6. it isn't that much more expensive and you'll probably be able to run 10-gig in the future where on cat5e you probably won't.

Wireless will never exceed gigabit ethernet, well not in the next 10 years anyway. Ethernet is king!

last edited by Mr Hardware at 21:09:10 15/Oct/07

Well we have Wireless HD and Wireless HDMI speccin' it out, then there's the CSIRO right in there with ten-gigabit wireless (go aussie!)... all we need is Meraki to take off (hrm all those WiFi enabled phones..)

Altho it be worth it to install an ethernet port for your TV so you can stream without interruptions.. People are constantly ruining my right to free television by maxing out of the link.

patch panel?? never heard of it??? I'll be building a house aswell in the next 2 years or so and I've been thinking about this but not sure on what technology is out for this kind of thing.

google images ftw

last edited by ara at 21:23:12 15/Oct/07

just remember to run shielded cable especially if its going to be running near electrical cable

lol at people saying wireless works just as good as cabled.

f*** wireless.

wireless is good for sharing internet and your mum's word documents, but the moment you want bandwidth for serious apps and transfers, then you want wired

Given the option, I would always go ethernet. It's just not going to get the stupid amounts of environmental problems you can get with wireless. The only thing I really use wireless for is laptops where I move them around and don't really do anything but look up web pages.

wireless is good for sharing internet and your mum's word documents, but the moment you want bandwidth for serious apps and transfers, then you want wired

stay away from my mother

Do what Ara said, if you can't afford 2 cables then at least get one in each room.

f*** Ethernet, get Fibre :)

yeah who knows what tomorrows next greatest cable tech will be like, just make sure to set it up so something else could be pulled thru in future

what about wireless N technology? apparently its great?

Wireless N is locked down in a patent fight between CSIRO and the rest of the world
Wireless is utter utter crap, power over ether is a much better option than wireless
Cat 6 your house or just get fibre

Oh... an do yourself a favour
Soundproof your lounge room (or whichever room your gonna have a lot of entertainment noise in) so that if you decide to get into a bit of home theatre, you neighbour's don't get a free ride.

just remember to run shielded cable especially if its going to be running near electrical cable

the U in UTP stands for UNSHIELDED. you don't need shielding because the way UTP cable works aslong as it is termated properly and not untwisted.

^^ he could run coax

He would be talking about shielded twisted pair to help with EMI when running cabling close to power cables.

i love how ppl complicate things... cat6 will do the job... buy a gigabit switch and ADSL 2+ modem and everyone will envy you...

Put heaps in the entertainment area... because IPTV is going to the thing in thefuture... and with all the media boxes being so good... http://www.mvixusa.com/mvixcompare.php
and Xbox etc.. you wnat heaps!!!

BTW the way a good thing to do is put one in the ceiling if and buy yourself some cheap Ethernet Video Camera's around your house :) you could do so much :)

He would be talking about shielded twisted pair to help with EMI when running cabling close to power cables.

there is no need for STP in a home.

Twisted pair cabling is a form of wiring in which two conductors are wound together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference (EMI) from external sources, electromagnetic radiation from the UTP cable, and crosstalk between neighboring pairs.

Twisting wires decreases interference because the loop area between the wires (which determines the magnetic coupling into the signal) is reduced. In balanced pair operation, the two wires typically carry equal and opposite signals (differential mode) which are combined by addition at the destination. The common-mode noise from the two wires (mostly) cancel each other in this addition because the two wires have similar amounts of EMI that are 180 degrees out of phase. This results in the same effect as subtraction. Differential mode also reduces electromagnetic radiation from the cable, along with the attenuation that it causes.

If you took that exact same quote and bolded where it said decreased, reduced and mostly you would have an argument on why to use STP.

Like everyone else said, get Cat5e/6 Cables with patch panels. Run a few cables and ports to where you think most of the actions will be i.e. living room, garage. If you really have lots of money run optical cable LOL.

okay shad, he can run STP if he thinks he needs to.

Which was about my only point. Personally I wouldn't bother.

i'm going to be doing the same thing eventually in this house...

going cat6 wiring and patch panel with lots of cat6 spec wall plates.
going to terminate everything in the garage in a rack with at least a 24port switch.

wireless is crap so i'm going with something a hell of a lot more reliable and unless someone breaks into my house and plugs in, they can't hack into it.

despite people saying wired ethernet supposedly going obsolete soon due to wireless and other stuff, there will always be a market for wired networks/switches ect...

wireless is not imo mature enough to replace good old cables/leads.

Also consider wireless in current spec is 54mbit, shared bus. Switched ethernet would provide 100/1000mbit between each node, that and alot of people experience short lag spikes when useing wireless for online gaming, cable FTW.

I'm building atm as well and as downstairs is home-office I'll be running a 2 x triple-points to each office and bedroom.

The reason for 2 to each room is so that desks can be moved without having to worry about wires around walls or across floors, and triple-points are for phone, data and a spare (network printer, laptop, audio system etc...) cause I don't want to have to invest in a dozen 4 port switches just cause I didn't think ahead.

Upstairs is pretty much lounge and master bed, so a couple of well placed triple's up there and finally a goodly number of double points around the garage walls for future home-LAN support will round it all off.

All this terminated at a neat, unobtrusive patch panel under the stairs where my server, router, switch and such will be stored.

It's DEF the way to go on a new home, and remember that more points is always better than not enough.

g;day, im licenced to do this kind of work, so if u guys want a hand or want me to do the whole job for u let me know.

prices?

yeah i got prices... we just gotta have bit of a chat, and u tell me what u want, and we'll go from there

Also, consider having the patch panel/phone terminatation block/central filter/WAN equipment in a stable area with some free space and power points, then you can put your servers and other core gear in tucked away from the rest of the house (just make sure it doesn't get too hot in there.)

Try and get small conduits or pipes put in for all your wire runs, makes a world of difference if you ever need to run extra cables or upgrade your old ones (or replace one that's somehow developed a fault!)

f*** Ethernet, get Fibre :)

amen brother. ja, cabled house all the way! you can always add wifi later in a few years if you need it.

if its done now will cost f*** all. get some clipsal 2000's with rj45's oh oh oh.

Thanks heaps for your input.

I guess I'll go cat6 to all rooms, have them terminate in the garage with a 24 port switch, with an ADSL2+ modem.

The area I am building is "smart house" enabled, which means fibre is running to my front door. What do I need exactly to hook up fibre to my new network??

you need to know who runs the fibre to your door and engage them.

f*** Ethernet, get Fibre :)

if you're building with brick you are an idiot not to get the fibre installed from the get-go.. and get it installed by someone certified who tests everything thoroughly after they've laid it!

otherwise just get it added later when you need it.


ps. wireless sucks dongs

last edited by koopz at 22:05:24 16/Oct/07

i would tend to think u should get fibre if ur in a smart housing estate...

why would you run fibre through your house?

what devices are you going to use on that? going to try to get a fibre interface for your xbox? or maybe a fibre enabled PVR?

why would you run fibre through your house?

what devices are you going to use on that? going to try to get a fibre interface for your xbox? or maybe a fibre enabled PVR?

You can if you get one of these babies

http://www.omniotech.co.uk/network-connectivity-media-convertors.htm

LOL Point taken though, such overkill for home

If you can afford it then run a couple of extra to each of your rooms where you think you might want distributed video and audio. There are quite a few boxes out now that will get digital audio and HD (1080i) video over cat5 cable. If you document everything properly then you can just leave the cables in the roof or in the wall and pull them through when you need it.