Best way to set up my network please

[sp2011]

Hi all - I have just moved house and would appreciate the best way to set up my network.

Here is the situation :

There are two rooms involved, Living room and Office.

In the living room, there will be a WD Live Streaming box that needs a wired ethernet connection for both movie streaming from my main PC and also to stream Netflix over the net

In the office there will be my main PC (which also serves movies from one of it's HDD's) and also a development Linux box.

The kit I will be using will be a BT Homehub and a 10/100 5 port switch.

My Internet connection is BT Infinity FTTC with a good (70Mb) connection.

So, The BT Line is about to be installed and I have the option of the engineer either putting the master socket in the living room (where it currently is) or moving it to the office.

My initial thought was as follows :

BT Homehub/Master socket in living room. WDTV box connected directly to HomeHub. Run an outdoor Cat 5e cable from Living Room to Office and then connect one end to HomeHub and One end to 5 port switch and then connect my main PC and the Linux box to the switch.

But the other option is as follows :

BT Homehub/Master socket in office. 5 port switch connected to Homehub and Main PC/Linux box connected to 5 port switch. Run an outdoor Cat 5e cable from Office to living room with one end connected to Homehub (or switch) and the other connected to the WDTV box.

So, with those options - where should I have the master socket for the BT Line installed (which determines which option to go for).

It should be noted that whilst watching movies on the WDTV I am not generally using the PC (can't be in the Living Room and Office at same time LOL) BUT the PC can, quite often, be downloading stuff or uploading via FTP.

Help

 

[Emerald]

functionality wise it is the same; however, if something happens to that outside cable, ithink having the router in the office is the better choice.

 

[sp2011]

functionality wise it is the same; however, if something happens to that outside cable, ithink having the router in the office is the better choice.

I thought as much Emerald - Actually you could be right - I have wireless IP cameras in the house that connect to some cam software on the PC in the office. This software activates on motion detection and FTP's the videos to a remote server.

If I have the hub in the lounge then all someone has to do to disable the system is cut the outside network cable.

However, the only thing that worried me is that, at the moment, the copper wire from the telegraph pole runs straight to the house at the front wall, runs down a little and straight into the lounge. If BT extend this to the office (which is at the back of the house), then a) all someone needs to do is cut that wire I guess and b) will this extension have a possible effect on my broadband speeds ?

 

[john-b691]

Doubt it makes much difference either way. A couple extra feet of coax tv wire will make not reduce the signal level. I am going to bet you will be better off with your first option because the installer will be lazy. It is unlikely he will run a new run from the pole. He will likely pull back the cable a bit and splice it and then run it along the house to the back....which you will then just run a ethernet cable along side going back.

No real way to fix the intentional cutting of a cable other than to have a wireless backup. Many alarms systems come with cell phone backup if they lose the main connection to the monitoring office.