Home Server Planning

[Jtalk4456]

TL:DR I don't know what I'm doing...

So I've got my A+ and I'm slowly self studying CCNA, but I'm better at learning when i experience things vs read them. So this tax return, I'm overhauling my home setup including, but not limited to, having a home server.

this is the current setup for my internet.

cable goes all the way through the roof over to the opposite side of the house to get to the modem and router provided by the isp

I have a wireless tv and ps4 in the middle of the house, along with cell phones. other than that everything is hardwired in the bedroom.

what I want to do is have a rackmount server in the garage. I want the modem in there so the cable doesn't have to stretch through the roof/second floor area

then I want to run 1 ethernet down to the basement drop ceiling and where the living room is, have a switch there to bring one cable up to the home entertainment area and hardwire the ps4, tv, and a new wireless router, and have the other cable continue to the bedroom outlet and connect my pc and printer. 

I'm not deep enough in my networking studies to be fully confident here, so I'm looking for advice on several fronts here

1. with regards to the switching, is taking the one wire down and using a switch the best method, or is there any difference to string two ethernets all the way down there and up without using a switch in the drop ceiling?

Also if the two cord method is preferred, do i need to keep them separate 

2. in the home entertainment area, I'll be putting the wireless router there since the living room is close to center of the house. Most routers I've seen have several Ethernet ports, so I'm thinking I won't need a switch there, meaning I should only need a switch in the bedroom area and one for the drop ceiling depending on the answer to the first question.

For the computer area I'd need a max of 4 ports. I have a $20 tplink one now that is a 4 port, should I upgrade to a nicer switch? 

3. For the wireless router, keeping in mind 3-4 ports needed in the back, do you guys have any preferences? Signal strength, I'm going for a AC-1600 or higher, But brand wise, I haven't worked with them in a while. I used to be of the mindset that netgear was better than linksys, but i've heard some talk that they're good at different things. And I'm open to other brands if enough people suggest it and give me info about them. I have a family, but at the current ages of the kids, the router will be dead before I begin worrying about internet security with them. I do want to start using a vpn if that has any bearing to choosing the router.

4. On to the server itself:

I won't be running any programs off this, though I may tinker around as I learn, and one area I want to play with is virtualization, but again just tinkering. That's not my main concern for the moment. So From what I know, I'm just needing a simple storage server, minimal ram, lots of storage, cpu shouldn't need to be too fast. Correct me if i'm wrong about any of this please XD. Ideally I want a raid 5 setup made of 3x 2-3 tb drives, depending on cost at the time of purchase, giving me a total of roughly 4-6 tb, which is more than enough for me. 

So given that, would i be better off finding a used server and upgrading storage if needed or buying a new server? I know a decent amount about picking consumer parts, but i know diddly squat about picking rackmount server parts, so I'm at a loss here. (if anyone knows a good guide to choosing server parts, please let me know!) In either case, what should I be looking for when searching for this? And in general any suggestions for parts, where to buy, etc. I'm on the East coast of USE, but no microcenters or frye's near me. I did find this place (http://www.atdcomputers.com/) and they have a networking section, but again I have no clue what I'm looking at or how the pricing should be.

@TopHatProductions115 I know you do networking, but beyond that I'm not sure who to tag for this one

[Bananasplit_00]

to me it looks like you could drop a cable down from the bedroom to the basement, throw a nice wireless AP in there and intercept the cable comming in to the garage and just put a switch there for the server? idk not great at this stuff and dont have any of those fancy certs  just going of what computer class and experience has given me

[Jtalk4456]

38 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

to me it looks like you could drop a cable down from the bedroom to the basement, throw a nice wireless AP in there and intercept the cable comming in to the garage and just put a switch there for the server? idk not great at this stuff and dont have any of those fancy certs  just going of what computer class and experience has given me

i mean i could intercept the cable coming in and take it down, but doesn't the r-6 cable have more data loss over distance than an ethernet? IDK I might be talking out of my methane hole

[Bananasplit_00]

3 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

i mean i could intercept the cable coming in and take it down, but doesn't the r-6 cable have more data loss over distance than an ethernet? IDK I might be talking out of my methane hole

ah my bad, throught you had ethernet all the way here, not really sure what to do then but your plan didnt sound too bad

[Jtalk4456]

10 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

ah my bad, throught you had ethernet all the way here, not really sure what to do then but your plan didnt sound too bad

i have a typical rg-6 coaxial coming in the house. Didn't realize i said r6 instead of rg-6

 

[AngryBeaver]

1 hour ago, Jtalk4456 said:

-snip-

From what I am seeing and from what I am reading of what you want...

I would relocate the modem/router to the area around your server in the garage. If you get a good enough router then signal should still be pretty good for home coverage, but if not you could use a repeater or wired AP in the living room.   Anyways I would pick out the areas where you want physical connections. The router should have 4 lan ports, so run one cable to the living room (if needed) and place a cheap gigabit switch for physical connections. Then run a cable to the basement and place another switch to run to other devices as needed.

 

Having the connection run to the other side of the house from the ISP is going to make things much more difficult than they need to be. So I would have it terminate at the modem in the garage.

 

Lol my drawing is very crude.

[Jtalk4456]

3 minutes ago, AngryBeaver said:

From what I am seeing and from what I am reading of what you want...

I would relocate the modem/router to the area around your server in the garage. If you get a good enough router then signal should still be pretty good for home coverage, but if not you could use a repeater or wired AP in the living room.   Anyways I would pick out the areas where you want physical connections. The router should have 4 lan ports, so run one cable to the living room (if needed) and place a cheap gigabit switch for physical connections. Then run a cable to the basement and place another switch to run to other devices as needed.

 

Having the connection run to the other side of the house from the ISP is going to make things much more difficult than they need to be. So I would have it terminate at the modem in the garage.

 

Lol my drawing is very crude.

well the modem would definitely be in the garage, but since there's gonna be several devices to connect to in the living room, i figured might as well have the wifi router there and use the lan ports for the hardwire connections vs having a switch there and having a router somewhere else not centralized. Also to clarify there's no devices in the basement, it's a very nice finished basement that we use as a large kids zone. I just mention it cuz it has a drop ceiling so it's easier to wire through than the attic apartment

[AngryBeaver]

9 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

well the modem would definitely be in the garage, but since there's gonna be several devices to connect to in the living room, i figured might as well have the wifi router there and use the lan ports for the hardwire connections vs having a switch there and having a router somewhere else not centralized. Also to clarify there's no devices in the basement, it's a very nice finished basement that we use as a large kids zone. I just mention it cuz it has a drop ceiling so it's easier to wire through than the attic apartment

Oh thought you mentioned wanting to put a server in there.

[Jtalk4456]

33 minutes ago, AngryBeaver said:

Oh thought you mentioned wanting to put a server in there.

i do want a server but i want the server in the garage. The wifi router can be later on in the chain as long as the modem is there before the server right?

ok so i did a rough workup in packet tracer, though it isn't the best for home setups

it didn't have a cable modem with 2 ports, so I had to toss a router in there to show the path properly

Switch 3 is preceded by that cable going to a wall outlet in my bedroom, and the same for switch 0 in the living room

Also I don't know how the phone will work in this scenario as it hooks directly to the modem but that's in the garage. good time to get into my own voip i guess?

Also why the frick was I able to add a IOT humidifier to this???? If I think about it long enough it makes sense to have a controlled humidifier but still, that's just not needed in packet tracer XD

[Jtalk4456]

ok i searched youtube for server setup/part selection/planning videos. I found a few promising ones and downloaded them, but most were from years ago! We need some more recent videos on this!

[GuruOfNothing]

I don't have any of the IT certs but I have run a CRAP-TON of data wiring as well as having installed cable internet for awhile. RG6 is a bad convention for data but that is what that kind of internet uses. Best bet is to get off that as close to the pole as possible. So, relocate your modem to the garage and CAT5e (at least) to all the other places you want data. Being as wifi is a fickle bedpartner, I go with multiple AP's when possible. I would run a cable from your modem to your living room and install an AP. You will have a few data ports to grab for any devices you can hard wire to the network. If you need more you can always add a cheapo switch to the mix. Then run another wire to the bedroom or ANY other locations you might possibly want a hardwired internet connection. If you find you need more range for wireless, run a wire to a distant location and put in another AP with same SSID on different channel.

 

When the time comes that you add a server, you just build your network closet in the location that your modem is in and connect it all up from there. My 2 cents on wired vs. wireless - When at all possible, run the wire and hard connect your devices. Reasons are plentiful but #1 and #2 are that wired is so much faster and more dependable and also you are not in any competition with all the IoT junk that is flooding the wireless spectrum. Hardwired network just works and it works good. Stick with good, not average.

 

The picture is the overhead of a closet I installed my home netowrk in. I have a computer dedicated to Plex server, a Raspberry Pi for home automation controller, an NVR for video recording/monitoring and an HP Proliant enterprise level server for... whatever I decide to do with it. This is all hobby gear for me but I like wired networks and clean installs.

 

 

[Salv8 (sam)]

7 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

packet tracer

you really shouldn't be using packet tracer for designing any networks, it's designed use is to teach people how to configure network devices and how a network functions

you should more be using something like GNS3 since it's designed to be a network designer from the ground up and has way more options then packet tracer and also even works with supported virtualization software to allow virtual machines access to this virtual network environment to test if the config works with the actual software that is going to be used in the actual environment (which is really cool!)

and also supports multiple network vendors (not just Cisco) allowing for more customization and their are guides online on how to make your own network devices if the ones there aren't the ones you need

[Jtalk4456]

4 hours ago, GuruOfNothing said:

-snip-

Yeah that is what I was planning to do. 

I considered the pi automation system but I have a ways to go before I am ready for that. I'm not worried about video monitoring either. One thing I do want is to have all pictures backed up from my phone as soon as I hit the wifi

 

21 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

you really shouldn't be using packet tracer for designing any networks, it's designed use is to teach people how to configure network devices and how a network functions

you should more be using something like GNS3 since it's designed to be a network designer from the ground up and has way more options then packet tracer and also even works with supported virtualization software to allow virtual machines access to this virtual network environment to test if the config works with the actual software that is going to be used in the actual environment (which is really cool!)

and also supports multiple network vendors (not just Cisco) allowing for more customization and their are guides online on how to make your own network devices if the ones there aren't the ones you need

I have gns3, but for the moment I am more familiar with packet tracer. Thanks for the info though

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

I have gns3, but for the moment I am more familiar with packet tracer. Thanks for the info though

For the conceptual design phase it honestly doesn't matter what you use, pen and paper is fine and so is MS paint. I tend to use Visio because anything I free hand is unreadable garbage lol.

[Salv8 (sam)]

6 hours ago, leadeater said:

because anything I free hand is unreadable garbage lol

i believe chickens are sentient because they can read my writing and are able to comprehend it with an intelligence...

yet i can't...

[Jtalk4456]

6 hours ago, leadeater said:

For the conceptual design phase it honestly doesn't matter what you use, pen and paper is fine and so is MS paint. I tend to use Visio because anything I free hand is unreadable garbage lol.

i've never used visio, what does it do?

[leadeater]

15 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

i've never used visio, what does it do?

It's an application for drawing diagrams and the like, highly detailed and actually not at all hard to use. Plenty of other similar software, any one of these are what is used to create the diagrams you see on websites etc.

 

You can use it for all sorts of things like logic diagrams to room/building layouts to network diagrams. It just does a good job of managing objects and relationships/links between them and illustrating that.

 

 

 

[Jtalk4456]

9 minutes ago, leadeater said:

It's an application for drawing diagrams and the like, highly detailed and actually not at all hard to use. Plenty of other similar software, any one of these are what is used to create the diagrams you see on websites etc.

 

You can use it for all sorts of things like logic diagrams to room/building layouts to network diagrams. It just does a good job of managing objects and relationships/links between them and illustrating that.

 

 

 

ooh i like! pricing info is hard to find for visio, but it appears I can use it online through my work's o365 account, so yay