Home networking

vroom_skies

vroom_skies

VIP Member
Well I want to wire my house, but basically don't really know how, or where to start.

I can't stand wireless for a bunch of reasons, so thats why I have decided to do this. Now I have a ton of questions, but I'm tired so I'll just give it a start now and add later, but all help will be great.

We have a couple servers (app, data, hd rack and ups) that we want to move to the basement, since they are quite loud. I want to be able to put them into a rack (hopefully an enclosed half rack or so. The basement is qute dusty and what not, and I don't want the servers to be open to thoes conditions.

Where is a good place/ store to buy a rack for a good price. It can be used or new, and what is a base price range I will be looking at?

As far as wiring a house goes; I've read tutorials, but would like more info. This would be my first go for any of this. It's either I do it, or it doesn't get done, so no professional.

How difficult is it to route cat5 through walls, you use fish wire or something like that, or so I think.

What I want to do from the basement is have the modem- hardware firewall (maybe)- router- the run one wire to the attic where I would have a hub, and then from the hub just go to each room from above.

Our attic is very hot in the summer. Sometimes getting to 110-125 degrees F. Would that be to hot for a hub?

Honestly I might be totally off as far as all this goes, as you can see this isn't my strong point.

This may be totally be over my head by far, but I would like to get this experience. Hopefully you guys could be a huge hand in all this.

Thanks for all the help.
 
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Markware17

New Member
You have a good idea of what you want to do :). I know what you mean, my basement is very dusty too and I don't want to be cleaning out my servers and networking hardware all the time :eek:. I was thinking about doing almost the same thing you want do. Right now all my servers are located in my room, 4 servers, a switch, enough CAT5 on the floor to last you a lifetime, and the oh so loved humming noise of the case fans.

Fishing the cable through the walls is probably going to be the hardest part. It's really not that hard once you get the hang of it but the biggest problem that I've heard from some people are the firewalls that are in-between the different floors of the house. Newer houses have these firewalls which are P.I.T.A.s to work with and older houses (not real old) don’t. If you line everything up correctly, fishing the cable from the attic should be a breeze. Also, the LANshack has some nice tutorials on terminating CAT5 http://www.lanshack.com/cat5e-tutorial.aspx.

I recommend placing the switch or hub (recommend using a switch) in a closet in one of the rooms upstairs since as you said, the temps in the attic would just be too much for the switch to handle. Even if the switch had cooling fans built in, you’re just going to be circulating hot air. Once you have the switch in the closet, you can branch your network from there.

For a rack, you can search eBay. I have found a lot of nice racks there at low prices http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&catref=C6&satitle=server+rack&sacat=58058%26catref%3DC6&bs=Search&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=ZIP%2FPostal&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=.
 
vroom_skies

vroom_skies

VIP Member
Thanks for everything Mark.

Well it looks like I'm going to be keeping the hub/switch in a closet on the second floor. That should work fine as you said, station that there and then run the cable from the closet to the attic and then to the individual rooms.

A few other things to note:

Our house is a newer house, with in 6 years. I've had a bunch of people tell me that I would have to go through plates and what not between floors. So basically I guess that just makes it harder, but not impossible.

Also what would I want in the attic/ closet, a hub or switch?

Doesn't a hub just send the packet to all computers and a switch routes them to the specfic location?


Thanks for everything,

Bob.
 
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Markware17

New Member
Correct, a switch directs each packet to the intended receiver. Switches also dedicate bandwidth to each port where as a hub will share bandwidth between the connected computers. I always recommend using switches over hubs because hubs create unnecessary traffic throughout the network since they relay every packet that enters the hub to the all of the ports. They also are a main cause of packet collisions which can slow down a decent sized network.

CAT5e should be fine for you installation. You can run gigabit over CAT5e if you plan to in the future as long as you stay within CAT5e specs, 100M of CAT5e between each node. Some consider CAT6 to be overkill and CAT6 is a pain to terminate.
 
limey

limey

New Member
Definatly use Cat 5 and stay away from using a hub. At least where I live I wired the whole place though floors and use the ducting as a way to route cables. It does take time and decent planning though.
 
vroom_skies

vroom_skies

VIP Member
Looks like there is a slight change. My dad doesn't think that there is any benfit for him in networking the house, but doesn't mind if I still do it.

It only looks like I'm going to wire my room and my brothers.

So from the basement I'm going to bring just one wire up to the switch in my closet. And from there go to my room and my brothers. I want to send two cat5e wires to each room, so when friend come over we could lan, two in each room.

So in the basement, I'll have the rack with servers and switch.

And I would then need two switches? One for the basement and then one for my closet? Or just one switch in the basement and then in my closet host the wireless router that has four ports. My brother and I could then just connect to the router.

Thanks for everything, Bob.
 
limey

limey

New Member
Just out of curiosity, why do you insist on having them all rack mount? and why do you have them for a house??
 
vroom_skies

vroom_skies

VIP Member
Well the reason I want them in a rack is because the basement is not finished and can get quite dusty. I don't want the servers open to thoes conditions. I would perfer them to be in a rack with some filters over the fans to keep them cleaner.

They were being hosted at VerticalNet, but they were a tad bit expensive there; so we brought them home.

Bob
 
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way2evil

Member
back on track, why not just bring up one cat5 cable to your closet, then put the wireless router in there and you have four ports to connect to. but since you have the servers in the basement. what kind of net connection do you have? if its just cable then get another cheap router with four ports and use that for the servers leaving one line that leads to the router upstairs
 
vroom_skies

vroom_skies

VIP Member
The business is websire that networks, suppliers- carriers and shipers. Makes it a whole lot easier to do business with eachother.

Our connection is DSL. And I also though of just using the wireless router in my closet and using the ports off of that.

I've had people recomend, switches- patch panels- routers and what not. I don't really know what to use. lol

Thanks for all the help, Bob.

Bob
 
vroom_skies

vroom_skies

VIP Member
Well I'm bringin this thread back up since, I've only been able to get back to this project now.

I have just a few more questions.

-Do you think it would be worth it to get cat6 over 5e for this project. Right now all the computers wouldn't have support for its speed, but in the future if I upgrade them do you think cat6 would be worth it or just over kill?

-Can some one recomend me a switch. I would like the swith to be able to fit in a rack. Also would like it to support gigabit ethernet and jumbo frames. I don't know alot about them so if you think they should support more or don't need this please tell me. Price would be nice at sub 100 if possible.

Thanks Bob.
 
footballstevo75

footballstevo75

Active Member
i dont know if you have already wired anything,

but for setting up our home network, we have a router in the basement, which leads out 4 lines-
1. goes to ps2 through hole in floor directly above it
2. goes to basement computer
3. runs through my bedrooms cold air return vent, which is a straight drop to the basement, so i cracked open the vent in the basement, and sealed it
4. same thing as the one above except for my dads room

and in my room, i have another router that just splits it into two lines for my desktop and lappy

so if you want, you could do that
 
vroom_skies

vroom_skies

VIP Member
True.

Thanks for the idea.

I think I have decided to get cat6 after reading some articles. I have a few questions regaurding that.

-Does cat6 use the same end connector. What is it RJ45 or something of the like.
-And I heard someone say that it is harder to make cat6 cable. How could that be if it used the same end/ connector?

Thanks,

Bob
 
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way2evil

Member
i believe it will fit into the same plug. cat6 is harder to terminate because there is more wires inside it to connect to the end. you will not notice a difference in cat6 unless you decide to make your network a gigabit network. then you have to buy a gigabit switch wich is pricy
 
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