Running Cable Through house and Patch Panel

[Danny91]

Hi all i am looking to re-wire my excising network as i just don't feel its good enough and needs tinkering with. Also i will be getting fibre within the next 3 month's so wanted a good way to deliver it to every room in the house.

 

This is what my network looks like currently.

 

 

That is what my network looks like currently.

 

This is what i am proposing to do

 

 

The cables will be run underfloorboards / through walls and in trunking. I will not be using faceplates that you put into the wall but will rather be using ones that sit ontop of. These ones 

 

Router will be EdgeRouter Lite and the N55U will be used for wireless only.

For a switch i'm looking to go with the HP 1810-24 v2. For the Cable it will be Cat6 Solid Copper Core in LSZH 305m drum.

 

I was looking for feedback suggestions or any problems i may run into, thanks

[gramzon]

Have a look at this: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-wire-your-house-with-cat5-or-cat6-ethernet-cable-480020760

[Vitalius]

I was looking for feedback suggestions or any problems i may run into, thanks

I think it looks like a good plan. 

I'm doing this very same thing right now at my own house. I recommend buying your router/patch panel from Monoprice.com if you haven't bought them already. They are known for low prices and high quality from what I've read and that's all I've ever experienced with them. The patch panel+router I bought works great as well. 

[Danny91]

Cool thanks for the replys

 

I checked out the lifehacker thing and i have most of the things and the ones i dont i had already planned to order so that makes me feel confident im not overlooking something silly

 

I dont believe i can buy from monoprice.com? I live in the UK So i was looking at these ones http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/12173-lms-data-ppan-24-c6-bb/ which works out as $26 USD.

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

I normaly just get my patchpanels off Ebay.  Rember for that type of patch panel you will need a Kone (punch down) tool to push the cables in.  For that I normaly use the BT Krone tool, havent had any issues with those.

Other issues with patchpanels can be just stupid things like compatability. sometimes you will find that one brand of RJ45 wont make such a good connection with a different brand of Patch panel.  (allthough i have never come accross this myself, its known)

 

But probably best your buy say the connectors and patch panel from the same company so that its easy to send stuff back if you need to.  I just like to take risks on ebay being as they are normaly cheep

 

Can I ask the reason for running cat6.  Cat5e is fine. It does the 1Gbps speeds and will burst over if need be with out any issues.  I cant imagine your using 1G+ NIC's.   So your probably better of saving a little money and going for the cat5.  Normaly for cat5 I either run  EXCEL   or Draka,   EXCEL preferably but its hard to get hold of as its normlaly whole sale.   I would stay with the solid core,  It works better with the krone panels.   Just as a side note if your worried about bunching lots of cables togeather ca5e is still fine

 

Im guessing your going to need  RJ45 connectors.  So if you havent got any yet I would recomend getting the CCS branded ones.  Again the best brand i have come accroos so far.  Also if you havent allready got one, you will need a Crimp tool.  I swear by these : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005KMHZGU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1     I use them every day at work connecting clients on them, I dont even test the cable afterwards as im confident they will give me a good crimp. So worth getting a pair if you havent got any allready.

I know they are from the US.  But they only take about 1 and a half to 2 weeks to get to the UK.  Worth it rather than wasting RJ45's on bad crimps.  + no tax on the uk border as they are under the specifed value

 

Also,  Velcoro at the patch panel end and some cable ties to keep your cable runs neet is allways a good move.

 

For the switch, I cant give much advice on that as i have never used a HP switch before. only Cisco or Netgear,  But the one you specified has  22 10/100 ports and only  4 Gig ports 2 of those being SFP only.  (in which case if your hart is set on this switch then stick with ca5e completly)

If not go for a Gig switch so your future proofed a little. Im guessing your using your sever to move files about, in which case get the gig speeds and you will be pleased with the transfer rate

 

Whats your reasoning for getting a managed switch.  would it not be better to just go for a "smart" switch with their web panel.    Unless your in a production enviroment (ie datacenter level)  you dont realy need a fully managed switch.

Personaly I use the Netgaer GS724T, Its a good switch and deals well with high network usage. (I can send multiple 1Gig DOS attacks to different PC's over the network with out any issues)  Looking at the prices between the two  they are around the same price.  so on this point allone considering the higher spec of the netgear switch I would get the netgear one

Cisco would be overkill for this so thats not worth considering.     The netgear switch is also silent (if that helps in any way)

 

Also another point on the switch,  IF your ISP is delivering "fiber"  to your location then remember, that HP switch only has 100Mbps ports.  So for example if you where paying for 150Mbps down you would only ever experiance 98Mbps down because of your port limitations.  You will need to make sure that your ports are 1Gbps all the way for you to experiance the higher speeds.

 

Excuse me if there was anything that was mabe expalined realy basicly, but i dont know what you do and dont know so i wanted to make sure i covered everything          Feal free to ask me any questions, I run cable all day for Enterprise stuff sooo  now's the time to quiz me on anything you might be concerned or unsure about.      I hope this helps is some way.

 

 

Link to the Negear swith on ebuyer:     £23 off atm  (£110.78)  Amazon its priced at  £125.00                              http://www.ebuyer.com/612265-netgear-prosafe-gs724t-24-port-gigabit-smart-switch-gs724t-400eus?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products&gclid=CMu8h8HJ378CFfOhtAodv1cAYg

[skywake]

So the first image is what you have, and I'm assuming those are Ethernet cables running through the walls to those devices. Right? And the second image is how you want to change it. So what's the advantage here? I don't get it. Can't you just drop a cheap switch behind some cabinets? In what way is what you have right now "not enough"?

 

Because I have what I assume is the same as your current setup. I do wish that I had run two or even four cables instead of one to some locations but really it's only a minor thing. It just means that in my TV cabinet I have to have a cheap five port switch if I want everything to be connected. I also kinda wish I had a 16 port switch in the middle rather than an 8 port one because I have no ports left spare. However I haven't changed it because I haven't needed to. 

 

It's not like I ever have my TV, console, media player and whatever all hammering the network at more than 1Gbps combined. Hell, they're mostly limited to 100Mbps NICs anyways, they couldn't even if they wanted to. It's rare that even one device on any part of my network wants to use more than a fraction of 1Gbps. If they do they're almost surely not sharing the same cable anyways!

[Danny91]

I normaly just get my patchpanels off Ebay.  Rember for that type of patch panel you will need a Kone (punch down) tool to push the cables in.  For that I normaly use the BT Krone tool, havent had any issues with those.

Other issues with patchpanels can be just stupid things like compatability. sometimes you will find that one brand of RJ45 wont make such a good connection with a different brand of Patch panel.  (allthough i have never come accross this myself, its known)

 

But probably best your buy say the connectors and patch panel from the same company so that its easy to send stuff back if you need to.  I just like to take risks on ebay being as they are normaly cheep

 

Can I ask the reason for running cat6.  Cat5e is fine. It does the 1Gbps speeds and will burst over if need be with out any issues.  I cant imagine your using 1G+ NIC's.   So your probably better of saving a little money and going for the cat5.  Normaly for cat5 I either run  EXCEL   or Draka,   EXCEL preferably but its hard to get hold of as its normlaly whole sale.   I would stay with the solid core,  It works better with the krone panels.   Just as a side note if your worried about bunching lots of cables togeather ca5e is still fine

 

Im guessing your going to need  RJ45 connectors.  So if you havent got any yet I would recomend getting the CCS branded ones.  Again the best brand i have come accroos so far.  Also if you havent allready got one, you will need a Crimp tool.  I swear by these : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005KMHZGU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1     I use them every day at work connecting clients on them, I dont even test the cable afterwards as im confident they will give me a good crimp. So worth getting a pair if you havent got any allready.

I know they are from the US.  But they only take about 1 and a half to 2 weeks to get to the UK.  Worth it rather than wasting RJ45's on bad crimps.  + no tax on the uk border as they are under the specifed value 

 

 

Thanks for the advice Ive planned to buy one of these punch down tools to go with the patch panel and the sockets ill be getting http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/12362-broadbandbuyer-tool-punch/ i believe its the correct one and should work fine?

 

Ive decided to run Cat6 as while i'm not running any more that 1Gb nic's at the moment i might plan to in the future and the cable is not the most expensive part of the build also cat6 should do 10Gb at less than 40M or something like that? Which none of these runs will be over. The running cat6 now while i was drilling through walls and had floorboard's up was move of a ensure that it can cope in the future rather than for now.

 

 

By connectors do you mean RJ45? I Don't plan to terminate any of the cable with RJ45 I will be running straight from a patch panel to wall sockets, then the cables for inside the patch panel to connect the panel and the switch and to connect the wall sockets to devices will be bought premade stranded cable. I didn't really see much point in making them when you can buy them premade for £1 http://www.netstoredirect.com/rj45-network-cables/234482-cat6-snagless-booted-lsoh-utp-rj45-patch-leads.html these types.

 

 

Also,  Velcoro at the patch panel end and some cable ties to keep your cable runs neet is allways a good move.

 

Do you mean something like this? http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/17107-id-scratch-ids-rfbk/ If so ill add it to the list of things to get Can use it to neaten up the patch panel your right Ive also ordered a cheap label maker so i can label the cables as i am running them so i know exactly what they are.

 

 

For the switch, I cant give much advice on that as i have never used a HP switch before. only Cisco or Netgear,  But the one you specified has  22 10/100 ports and only  4 Gig ports 2 of those being SFP only.  (in which case if your hart is set on this switch then stick with ca5e completly)

If not go for a Gig switch so your future proofed a little. Im guessing your using your sever to move files about, in which case get the gig speeds and you will be pleased with the transfer rate

 

Sorry i must have linked you the wrong switch the one i meant is this one http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/16249-hp-j9803a/ which has 24 Gig ports and 2 SFP ports.

 

 

Whats your reasoning for getting a managed switch.  would it not be better to just go for a "smart" switch with their web panel.    Unless your in a production enviroment (ie datacenter level)  you dont realy need a fully managed switch.

Personaly I use the Netgaer GS724T, Its a good switch and deals well with high network usage. (I can send multiple 1Gig DOS attacks to different PC's over the network with out any issues)  Looking at the prices between the two  they are around the same price.  so on this point allone considering the higher spec of the netgear switch I would get the netgear one

Cisco would be overkill for this so thats not worth considering.     The netgear switch is also silent (if that helps in any way)

 

The reasoning behind managed is that eventually i want to be able to use port trunking for my server (See my post in the storage section about the server http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/21948-ltt-10tb-storage-show-off-topic/page-40#entry2392499  I currently rank #25  ), currently 1Gb is fine  however in the future i see that changing and with windows 8 supporting load balancing over multiple NIC's for SAMBA file shares i decided while buying the equipment i would go with a managed switch so i could do this in a couple of months time. 

 

I am also a tinkerer and studying networking so part of it is for a learning experience and for playing with in the future, Vlans Ext. Its one of the reasons i decided to go with http://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-lite for a router rather than a standard one as a'lot of it has to be done in the CLI however it has a'lot of features and will do 1Gb/s with NAT and firewall's enabled.

 

I hope this makes my intentions clearer.

 

 

 

So the first image is what you have, and I'm assuming those are Ethernet cables running through the walls to those devices. Right? And the second image is how you want to change it. So what's the advantage here? I don't get it. Can't you just drop a cheap switch behind some cabinets? In what way is what you have right now "not enough"?

 

All the backbone cables are cheap and nasty ones i got from ebay when i didn't know any better.

 

I want to change it because at the moment everything seems to run into my bedroom, using cheap cables and is generally not well layied out. I thought about re-running the cheap cables with solid cables then decided if i was going to do it i ma swell run cables to each room and terminate at a central point. 

 

It's not like I ever have my TV, console, media player and whatever all hammering the network at more than 1Gbps combined. Hell, they're mostly limited to 100Mbps NICs anyways, they couldn't even if they wanted to. It's rare that even one device on any part of my network wants to use more than a fraction of 1Gbps. If they do they're almost surely not sharing the same cable anyways!

 

I do throw quite large files over the network daily, this is one reason i wanted to get a better switch than a normal home one so that it can cope with the computers maxing out the 1Gb on multiple at the same time and not affect anyone else on the network.

 

See my post in the storage section about the server http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/21948-ltt-10tb-storage-show-off-topic/page-40#entry2392499  I currently rank #25

 

 

 

Thanks for the help so far hope these replys clarify things a bit more

[skywake]

Fair enough moving all the gear to a new location but still it seems like some serious overkill. I mean you have six rooms to service and you're running 28 cables. 28 cables when the main source of data is a file server with a single Gigabit NIC. I mean sure, run multiple lines to your file server especially if you're looking at doing Link Aggregation. However if it was me I'd probably have a little bit of restraint and not create the extra work. Think about what gear you already have in each room, what gear you are likely to have before 10Gbps becomes a thing and what a possible a "heavy load" scenario for your network might look like. Then work out what you'd need to manage that.

 

For example with your setup I'd probably go with:
Bedroom 1: 0

Bedroom 2: 2

Bedroom 3: 2
Dining Room: 1
Living Room: 2

Hall: 1

 

and now you don't have to get a new switch either. Reuse what you can and don't create unnecessary work. It'll save you a fair bit of coin.

[KTFO|SGTmoody]

 

Thanks for the advice Ive planned to buy one of these punch down tools to go with the patch panel and the sockets ill be getting http://www.broadband...yer-tool-punch/ i believe its the correct one and should work fine?

Yeh  thats more or less the pair I have, it should be fine.

 

 

Ive decided to run Cat6 as while i'm not running any more that 1Gb nic's at the moment i might plan to in the future and the cable is not the most expensive part of the build also cat6 should do 10Gb at less than 40M or something like that? Which none of these runs will be over. The running cat6 now while i was drilling through walls and had floorboard's up was move of a ensure that it can cope in the future rather than for now.

 

That's a fair point.   in which case you might as well lay the cat6.  It does up to 55M with no interference  and something like 33 with interference.  for 10G    Cat6A  does 100m 10G   The exact numbers are on Wikipedia.

 

 

By connectors do you mean RJ45? I Don't plan to terminate any of the cable with RJ45 I will be running straight from a patch panel to wall sockets, then the cables for inside the patch panel to connect the panel and the switch and to connect the wall sockets to devices will be bought premade stranded cable. I didn't really see much point in making them when you can buy them premade for £1 http://www.netstored...atch-leads.html these types.

Ah I havn't looked at all the pictures for those mounts i just assumed you had to crimp the other ends to connect them up.

Yeh the pre made cables are fine.  Just watch out for how cheaply you get them and they are not labeled Cat6e, those are normally made out of some kind of silver and 0% copper so they suck....   And Cat6e isn't a standard.

 

 

 

Do you mean something like this? http://www.broadband...ratch-ids-rfbk/ If so ill add it to the list of things to get Can use it to neaten up the patch panel your right Ive also ordered a cheap label maker so i can label the cables as i am running them so i know exactly what they are.

Yes.  The lable maker is a good idea.    If your looking for the best way to wire up a patch panel, if you search youtube for Cablesupply they have one or two videos on how to dress a patch panel properly.

 

 

The reasoning behind managed is that eventually i want to be able to use port trunking for my server (See my post in the storage section about the server http://linustechtips...40#entry2392499  I currently rank #25  ), currently 1Gb is fine  however in the future i see that changing and with windows 8 supporting load balancing over multiple NIC's for SAMBA file shares i decided while buying the equipment i would go with a managed switch so i could do this in a couple of months time. 

 

I am also a tinkerer and studying networking so part of it is for a learning experience and for playing with in the future, Vlans Ext. Its one of the reasons i decided to go with http://www.ubnt.com/...edgerouter-lite for a router rather than a standard one as a'lot of it has to be done in the CLI however it has a'lot of features and will do 1Gb/s with NAT and firewall's enabled.

 

I hope this makes my intentions clearer.

 

It does,   Although I have never heard of win8 supporting link Aggregation before as its noramlay the NIC's that have to support the technology for it to work.

 

 

Remember to leave slack at each end just in-case you punch it in round the wrong way by mistake.

[Danny91]

Cool thanks for all your guys help. I hope to start doing the project soon

 

It does,   Although I have never heard of win8 supporting link Aggregation before as its noramlay the NIC's that have to support the technology for it to work.

 

 

The nics have to support teaming yes. But in previous windows if it was just one computer to one computer connection file transfer over windows file share it would not go any faster than 1Gb/s (with gigabit nics) as its only one session so only gets one nic. However windows 8 and server 2012 changed this by making multiple connections for the single file transfer so they can be spread out and aggregated. Its called SMB Multi channel

 

 

 

Fair enough moving all the gear to a new location but still it seems like some serious overkill. I mean you have six rooms to service and you're running 28 cables. 28 cables when the main source of data is a file server with a single Gigabit NIC. I mean sure, run multiple lines to your file server especially if you're looking at doing Link Aggregation. However if it was me I'd probably have a little bit of restraint and not create the extra work. Think about what gear you already have in each room, what gear you are likely to have before 10Gbps becomes a thing and what a possible a "heavy load" scenario for your network might look like. Then work out what you'd need to manage that.

 

For example with your setup I'd probably go with:
Bedroom 1: 0

Bedroom 2: 2

Bedroom 3: 2
Dining Room: 1
Living Room: 2

Hall: 1

 

and now you don't have to get a new switch either. Reuse what you can and don't create unnecessary work. It'll save you a fair bit of coin.

 

Running the 28 cables was because 100m would have not been enough cable and the next size up i could buy was 305m while i was drilling through walls and pulling floor board up for 1 cable i decided i maswel run a bunch.

 

Unfortunately the examples you listed wouldnt be feasable.

 

Bedroom 1: While no cable is needed at the moment the talk of adding a rPi or something for streaming is being talked about so would rather run one while i have the floor boards up and where you run 1 you should run more that one (thats what all the sites say about runing cables anyway?

 

Bedroom 2: My room currently and has 3 things connected already, Running 2 would mean one would have to be disconnected or i would have to put a switch in the room which i would rather not do. I also want room to expand and my computer might eventualy do teaming with the server thus would require 2 its self. This is the shortest cable run from the box too so running 8 is not much cable and i could even leave 4 of them un- terminated inside the trunking in the room for the future.

 

Bedroom 3: Is where the server currently lives and thus uses 1 port already and might need another in the future, this would then leave me no room to expand. I would rather run more ports than needed currently.

 

Dining room: More than one port is needed as it stands right now so running 1 would be strange? The PC needs one and the access point needs one?

 

Living room: honeslty i agree that 2 might be enough however this is where the main HTPC is and if i wanted to int the future send video via cat 6 from this room to others it will need atleast 3

 

Hall: 1 would be ok most likely i agree.

 

Thanks for the help however i feel that the example you used would leave me wanting to expand within months rather than years \:

 

 

The new router i would be getting if i did the project or not as it interests me in what its capable of the switch is something i would upgrade to most likely as i needed all the extra connections to actually be connected. Or if i decided to just go for it because i wanted to do the teaming as my current switch does not support it .

[skywake]

Running the 28 cables was because 100m would have not been enough cable and the next size up i could buy was 305m while i was drilling through walls and pulling floor board up for 1 cable i decided i maswel run a bunch.

 

Unfortunately the examples you listed wouldnt be feasable.

 

Thanks for the help however i feel that the example you used would leave me wanting to expand within months rather than years \:

 

Fair call on the switch, I wouldn't mind getting a nicer switch myself even though I have absolutely no need for Link Aggregation, port monitoring, cool QoS settings and so on. Although I still think you can get a better setup overall if you cut back on the unnecessary cableage and instead put the money/effort in a different direction. A revised example:

 

Bedroom 1: 2 (if it's because you have way too much cable? definitely expand into more rooms)

Bedroom 2: 4 (fair enough if you have a lot of gear, go bigger! but 8 it still ridiculous and pointless)

Bedroom 3: 2 (it's already more than you use for your server. Also I'm willing to bet that 10Gbps will make sense before 4x 1Gbps LAG does)

Dining Room: 2 (I said 1 because the AP you're using is an old router which has 4x ports, that said... running 2, meh, I guess)

Living Room: 2 (you only need 1 right now and it'll mostly be video streaming. 2 gives you expansion without a switch)

Hall: 1 (That said I ran one point to where my modem was and that's fine but I've since run the phone over that run. Now I don't have a network port there. It's not a big deal because it's a dead-end but still)

Other Locations: 1 or 2 each (TBH I'm fine with the fact I only did 1 point to each location, switches work. However I kinda wish I'd run cables to more locations. Suggestions: Kitchen bench, behind cabinet etc)

[Danny91]

Hi Skywake i appreciate the replys and you have given me lots to think about. I feel your right and some rooms could do with less. Thanks

[Swoosh]

Apologies if I go over things that have already been said, just skimmed the topic so might have missed some stuff.

 

Boy it looks like one hell of a setup for a home environment. Ill chip in my 2 pennies worth though.

 

Switch is a good choice, you can't really go wrong with HP network kit (I manage the network of an Academy which is running full HP networking infrastructure and they really are bullet proof).

 

Patch Panel, honestly I wouldn't skimp on this, buy a good decent brand one, some of the cheaper ones like to hold onto your patch cables for dear life and never let go, excel panels are great.

 

Cable, some good quality Cat6 cable will serve you well, I understand some peoples arguments for installing Cat5e, but honestly, if you want to future proof, its Cat6 all the way. 10Gig ethernet will become affordable at some point. Use solid core cables with a low AWG for the runs through the walls.

 

RJ45 Keystones, You should be fine with what you have, easy enough to replace if they turn out to be garbage, I have to ask though since you are buying panels which are not flush mounted, are you planning on running trunking down all your walls to the ports? Might look a bit unruly if you do.

 

Before you pull your cables through, label them up, that will save you a headache when you come around to patching them in.

 

Also if you buy a few lengths / reels of cable you can pull through multiple runs at once, makes it a little easier.

 

Just speaking from my experience of cabling CAT6. Take it as you wish