Home Network: One Large Switch or smaller Switches at endpoints?
2 hours ago, Kealil said:
1. Have a large central switch with individual cables to each room as needed.
This is the "right" option. This is why each floor in an office building has a wiring closet, and then each wiring closet is connected to each other via fiber.
2 hours ago, Kealil said:2. Have a Medium sized switch at the core, run single cables to the various rooms and then split from there with smaller switches as needed.
This is a bad idea depending how big your house is.
Consider redundancy. You should be wiring each room with at least two ethernet cables. You can save-face from the over-engineering by using it to double the bandwidth, or redundant switches at either end.
In the event that one cable dies, you can switch to the other without ripping stuff out of the walls.
If you have a single-floor, then I'd suggest wiring two ethernet cables to each room, and then if you need more devices in the room, use a switch or convert one to a WiFi AP at that point.
If you have two floors, run cables in parallel, one to the upper floor and one to the lower floor, in each room (Eg one through the attic, one through the basement/floor.)
You don't necessarily need the redundancy, but if you're installing it in a way so that you don't see the cables afterword's (eg inside the walls,) you may want to make it possible to remove the cables without ripping the walls apart. Keep in mind that WIRED ETHERNET has a lifespan of around 20 years, and what tends to happen is that the physical connector at the end breaks, or the cable gets kinked and it's toast.
So up to you.
Again, the "correct" solution is 2 cables per room (in an office this would be like 1 computer and 1 phone, but it could also be like 1 computer and 1 tv at a home), but if you don't see yourself needing the redundancy, just use an ethernet switch in the room. Keep in mind that you are sharing the bandwidth at the switch points, so if you're just sharing internet, you'll be fine, but if you put a NAS anywhere in the home, that will then become a choke point for the room the NAS is in.
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