Hello,
I am in process of building a house and need some advice on home networking.
I've been following the Leviton Structured Media Panel solutions, but their networking products don't seem quite price competitive.
I want a gigabit backbone for my house, and I am strongly leaning towards a cat 6a install (because the price between 6a and 6e is so small - at least on wiring)
I know I need a router for just south of my cable modem. They are usually 4 ports, however I need a total of 18 ports that will be in use at any one time in the house. For that I need a switch. But as someone who is hopelessly ignorant of networking, I have no clue what I need and why I need it. I CAN figure out how to install it once I have it, but have no idea what to choose (or why to choose it in the first place!). Once I have the switch, I want wireless access upstairs (for iPad, smartphones, guests, etc.). I currently have a linksys wireless G router right now. I would like to move up to wireless N. I know all I have to do is turn off DHCP and I have an instant access point, but it still leaves me with no guest support and no wireless N.
All of this needs to fit in the structural media panel (except for the wireless, which will be upstairs). However, all the 24 port switches I have been seeing are for mounting on a rack, which doesn't help me. I was thinking of (2) 12 ports to balance across the routers ports, but this gets more expensive and with no additional bang.
In summary, I am looking for advice on router, switch and access point type as well as what I should stay away from. I don't need a managed switch, nor do I need support for VLANs (at least I don't think I do). Most of the ports will be taken with HDTV, blu-ray, A/V internet usages. There will probably only be about 6-8 ports that will actually have computers.
BTW, the budget is whatever it takes to do it right.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
Matt
I am in process of building a house and need some advice on home networking.
I've been following the Leviton Structured Media Panel solutions, but their networking products don't seem quite price competitive.
I want a gigabit backbone for my house, and I am strongly leaning towards a cat 6a install (because the price between 6a and 6e is so small - at least on wiring)
I know I need a router for just south of my cable modem. They are usually 4 ports, however I need a total of 18 ports that will be in use at any one time in the house. For that I need a switch. But as someone who is hopelessly ignorant of networking, I have no clue what I need and why I need it. I CAN figure out how to install it once I have it, but have no idea what to choose (or why to choose it in the first place!). Once I have the switch, I want wireless access upstairs (for iPad, smartphones, guests, etc.). I currently have a linksys wireless G router right now. I would like to move up to wireless N. I know all I have to do is turn off DHCP and I have an instant access point, but it still leaves me with no guest support and no wireless N.
All of this needs to fit in the structural media panel (except for the wireless, which will be upstairs). However, all the 24 port switches I have been seeing are for mounting on a rack, which doesn't help me. I was thinking of (2) 12 ports to balance across the routers ports, but this gets more expensive and with no additional bang.
In summary, I am looking for advice on router, switch and access point type as well as what I should stay away from. I don't need a managed switch, nor do I need support for VLANs (at least I don't think I do). Most of the ports will be taken with HDTV, blu-ray, A/V internet usages. There will probably only be about 6-8 ports that will actually have computers.
BTW, the budget is whatever it takes to do it right.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
Matt