Home Network Setup

[TVillasenor]

I am trying to setup my network to the best of my ability, and being hesitant to spend a lot of money on this I would like some advice from others that have done things that are similar.

I work for an ISP in my area and I have gone to school for Network Administrator, so I know a little about requirements and stuff.

I am living with two other people and we are all gamers. I also work from home, so I need my internet connection. I am trying to setup my network to make sure I am getting the best speed out of my service provider. We all have PC's and a PS4 or two. I am planning on running ethernet cables in the attic and putting Ethernet Wall Ports in every room to get the best connection. I currently have a Netgear C7000 Modem Router Combo and the speed is going to be 500mb/s. I plan on purchasing CAT6 ethernet cables for everything but I don't know if my Modem Router Combo. I am considering purchasing a separate Modem and Router to help with the traffic but I don't really know which ones are good and bad. I am eyeing the Razer router but am still looking for a Cable Modem. I would rather setup the wiring myself but I have no idea how to. One worry is having that many devices connected via Ethernet, and making sure it does not take down my speed too much.

My question is, will doing this take down the quality of the speed for everything else and what kinds of equipment should I buy in order to make sure everything runs a the best it can. Essentially, what is the best way to set everything up to make sure I am getting the most out of my network.

P.S. If anyone has any tips for wiring, please message me. I really don't know what I'm doing and I don't want to hire someone because I know how I want things, I just don't know how to set it up.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Networking

[Falcon1986]

17 hours ago, TVillasenor said:

I am planning on running ethernet cables in the attic and putting Ethernet Wall Ports in every room to get the best connection.

Wiring in as many devices over ethernet is recommended for best reliability and consistent speed.

 

17 hours ago, TVillasenor said:

I am considering purchasing a separate Modem and Router to help with the traffic but I don't really know which ones are good and bad. I am eyeing the Razer router but am still looking for a Cable Modem.

You don't necessarily have to, unless you need more features than what your current gateway device can provide. You'll definitely need a network switch with ports to support all of devices you wish to connect which will be linked to the gateway/router. Look into layer 3 switches.

 

18 hours ago, TVillasenor said:

I would rather setup the wiring myself but I have no idea how to.

PC --> Switch --> Gateway/Router --> Internet

 

18 hours ago, TVillasenor said:

One worry is having that many devices connected via Ethernet, and making sure it does not take down my speed too much.

If each of you is gobbling up bandwidth downloading stuff, you'll notice a hit to overall speed. However, 500Mbps is a lot for online games, a bit of streaming, etc. But you'll only know once everyone starts to stress the network.

 

18 hours ago, TVillasenor said:

I really don't know what I'm doing and I don't want to hire someone because I know how I want things, I just don't know how to set it up.

Why not ask the colleagues at the ISP that you work for?

[Donut417]

19 hours ago, TVillasenor said:

still looking for a Cable Modem.

Look in to a Docsis 3.1 modem. Its pretty much the best you can get currently. 

 

19 hours ago, TVillasenor said:

One worry is having that many devices connected via Ethernet, and making sure it does not take down my speed too much.

Just going to mention because you stated work from home. Video calls and shit require upload, and the Cable companies have crappy upload. 50 Mbps being about on the upper end of what most cable providers can do. So just keep that in mind. My ISP Comcast provides me only 10 Mbps, other plans of there's will have 20 Mbps with the Gigabit Plan being 35-45 Mbps, I heard in some areas they added a 5th upstream channel, so some people are seeing slightly faster speeds but thats few and far between. 

 

Router wise I have been more than happy with my Synology RT2600 AC, but its a WiFi 5 router, WiFi 6 is now the current standard. Of course you may or may not have any WiFi 6 devices currently. The key in my opinion, is wiring up everything that can be wired and that leaves WiFi for the WiFi only devices.