New Home Construction - Wiring

[hawkins12]

Hello, I was hoping to get some advice on a new home construction. I'll provide the detail and my thoughts below:

Currently, all wiring from outside of house will be brought in to a "technology hub" in the basement. From there, wiring to rest of the house will begin. This is a 3800-3900 sq ft house. Here is my thought process:

1). Where the signal comes into the technology hub in the basement, I was going to place the modem, router (I have Nighthawk AC1750),and a switch in the basement. The networking would go from technology hub, to modem, to router, to switch. From the switch, I was hoping to have CAT 6 or CAT6a (future proofing) cables run to 4 rooms throughout the house. Note that the technology hub will be in the basement which is directly underneath the family room and close to a "gathering area" between the kitchen and the family room.

2) Networking wires will run from switch to the Study, Family Room (where main tv will be), and a bonus room (where another tv and gaming, home theater will be).

3) There will also be a wire ran to the ceiling in the central location of the 2nd floor. Here, I planned on mounting a Ubiquiti Access Point (UAP-AC-PRO-US) to provide blanket wifi coverage to the house. Being that this is AC signal, I figured between this and the router in the basement, the entire house would be covered by WiFi.

4) I am not putting network cords in bedrooms on 2nd floor for now. We are having a two inch conduit run from technology hub in basement to the attic where we can install wiring (much easier) later as needed.

5) In areas where multiple network connections may be needed, I planned on obtaining secondary switches at each location as necessary to split the connection as needed. For example, I'll have one network cable run to the Study and in the study but a "sub-switch" which will split between a computer, printer, etc. Similarly, in the bonus room, install a "sub-switch" that can split the signal from the outlet to the TV, Xbox, Sound System (Probably getting SONOS), Roku or similar device, etc.

The thoughts are -- the builder is going to charge me $100 per network cable run (or more if CAT6). I think it'd be much cheaper to set up a "sub switch" in each room and still give me the same result.

Please let me know of flaws or thoughts in thinking. I appreciate your help and time!

 

[bill001g]

Maybe have the builder run only conduit to from the main location to all the rooms. You can then run the cable and terminate them yourself. You likely can get 1000ft box of cable and all the jacks for less than a couple of runs.

 

[hawkins12]

So I get 5 runs included with the home (total data - includes coaxial). I want to make sure I get floor one squared away (Study, Kitchen, Family Room, etc) and witht he conduit i have running from basement to attic and I can square away floor 2 myself.

Do you have any comments on whether the networking structure with multiple switches/access point/router is appropriate and will work? Any complications?

 

[bill001g]

You general design is fine. You can put switches in the remote rooms for more ports.

 

[hawkins12]

Thanks for this. In anyone's experience, howwell do the Ubiquiti Access Point (UAP-AC-PRO-US) typically work. Do you think this will provide sufficent coverage for the first floor and second floor (house is about 65 ft wide, fairly open floor plan and access point is at the middle of the 2nd floor hall). House is typical drywall

 

[bill001g]

Those are quality devices but there is no way to actually know how good the coverage is without actually trying it. Part of the problem is interfering signals from your neighbors. You could have perfect coverage in your house but also too much signal from the neighbors.

 

[hawkins12]

Thanks Bill. Appreciate the responses. Luckily neighbors should be far enough away that it won't be an issue. Do you forsee any issues if I set up a NAS in the basement next to the tech hub? I am assuming, given everything will be plugged into and filtered through the same router, that connecting devices to the NAS will not be a significant issue?

 

[bill001g]

All your connection will be gigabit. As long as you do not go nuts transferring files to the nas it will be fine. Even if you do other devices connected to the router that are going to the internet will not be impacted...unless of course they share a cable with the devices talking to the nas and you are using up a gibit of bandwidth.

 

[hawkins12]

So the router I have (Nighthawk AC1750) has 4 ports. I only planned on one network cord coming from router to the switch. Everything will be routed through the switch in the basement (outside of wifi devices which get a better signal from the basement router vs. the access point). I just want to make sure the entire home network is connected in the case that I get sonos for the entire house and want to pull music from the NAS. Also, I'd like to start doing mirror images of network computers to the NAS as well (as allowable).

 

[bill001g]

in general you will not be able to easily exceed the capacity of a gigabit cable. I would plug the nas into its own port on the router. It is just one of those things you have to know is a limitation in case you start seeing performance issues.

 

[Ralston18]

And be sure to talk with the builder about:

1) marking and documenting the cable runs on both ends: patch panel, wall jacks.

2) testing and verifying/certifying that each Ethernet cable run is fully functional (all four pairs). And not just physically connected.

3) leaving enough excess cable (service loop) on both ends should re-termination become necessary.

4) ensuring that the cable runs are done correctly and not placed where they may be vulnerable to electrical interference etc..

Some builders are a bit cavalier about network wiring and do not provide much more thought to it than telephone or coax cabling.

All jacks need to be the same standard and properly punched down.

Plan a walk through with the builder to inspect and verify everything. Watch for kinks, harsh bends, twists, overly tight nails, staples, etc.

May work for awhile and then the nightmares begin....

 

[hawkins12]

Thanks for your response. So 1) The builder uses an electronic company (Secure America) for the wiring of the cables. I feel comfortable that someone experienced will be installing the cables and 2) part of the home building process includes a pre-drywall walk through/inspection. I'll definitely be taking your points into mind when i do this.

 

[jeff-j]

For the UniFi AP you are planning on putting in the ceiling, are you planning on using PoE to power the AP, either with a PoE injector or a PoE switch? If I were you I would use the UniFi APs for all the coverage with the APs and UniFi's software you can create a mesh wifi network. This technology hub in the basement, is this going to be some type of metal case where everything is terminating or a open wall rack?

 

[hawkins12]

For the UniFi AP you are planning on putting in the ceiling, are you planning on using PoE to power the AP, either with a PoE injector or a PoE switch? If I were you I would use the UniFi APs for all the coverage with the APs and UniFi's software you can create a mesh wifi network. This technology hub in the basement, is this going to be some type of metal case where everything is terminating or a open wall rack?

I honestly didn't think about powering the AP. As far as I understand, the tech company is only running a CAT5e (or upgraded) to the Access Point location. I guess I blindly assumed it was powered through this. Generally, how are the AP's powered? What is most ideal? I am guessing I'll need to get a PoE switch to help power it.

Also, do you mind elaborating on the UniFi AP's for full house coverage. My thought was between the router in the basement and the AP in the second floor hall, I'll have a mesh in the house where fast WiFi coverage can be achieved anywhere within the house.

Also all wires will be terminating on an open shelf. The "technology hub" is only to house the wires coming into house from the outside lines and the cable will run from that hub to the modem which will be sitting on a shelf outside of the hub. Everything else will be on the shelf as well (ie. switches, router, etc).

 

[jeff-j]

I did some more checking on those you are going to need a PoE switch that supports PoE+, the AP you have listed requires PoE+, which mean it requires more wattage. I would say for at least the AP run to do CAT6.

There are two ways to power an AP, the first is an power adapter, this will require a power outlet near the AP. The other way is with PoE which uses just one wire for data and power. Much cleaner installation with PoE. Now with PoE there are two ways to power devices, the first is with a PoE switch, the second is with an PoE injector.

If you are just doing one AP I would say just get a PoE injector, this can be placed in the basement with all the other equipment. It would go Switch -->PoE Injector --> AP.

By keeping the APs the same brand you can manage them both under the same software, the devices will transition better between the 2 APs. Not saying devices won't transition between the nighthawk and UniFi but some might have issues. To have a good working mesh network it is better to have the APs be the same brand. Plus with UniFi you can broadcast multiple SSIDs and I believe do some bandwidth throttling as well.

 

[hawkins12]

I did some more checking on those you are going to need a PoE switch that supports PoE+, the AP you have listed requires PoE+, which mean it requires more wattage. I would say for at least the AP run to do CAT6.

There are two ways to power an AP, the first is an power adapter, this will require a power outlet near the AP. The other way is with PoE which uses just one wire for data and power. Much cleaner installation with PoE. Now with PoE there are two ways to power devices, the first is with a PoE switch, the second is with an PoE injector.

If you are just doing one AP I would say just get a PoE injector, this can be placed in the basement with all the other equipment. It would go Switch -->PoE Injector --> AP.

By keeping the APs the same brand you can manage them both under the same software, the devices will transition better between the 2 APs. Not saying devices won't transition between the nighthawk and UniFi but some might have issues. To have a good working mesh network it is better to have the APs be the same brand. Plus with UniFi you can broadcast multiple SSIDs and I believe do some bandwidth throttling as well.

Thanks for this. This is excellent information. I know a little about networking but your responses have been extremely helpful. Under your model, it seems it might be wise to put an access point on each floor for best coverage and turn the wireless off on the router in the basement? Would I even need a router in this case or should it be Modem --> Switch --> AP's and I can set up the WiFi security, etc. through the access points?

 

[jeff-j]

You will still need a router between the modem and the switch. The APs I believe you can program them individually or you can use UniFi controller for Windows. I would recommend using the controller, then you program the controller and that programs the APs for you.

 

[hawkins12]

You will still need a router between the modem and the switch. The APs I believe you can program them individually or you can use UniFi controller for Windows. I would recommend using the controller, then you program the controller and that programs the APs for you.

Ok makes sense. I think for now, I'll only use one Access Point and see the coverage that provides. The Ubiq. Pro states that it covers 400 ft (grant it, that is likely straight line distance with no walls, etc) but given how open the house is, I am going to see how the coverage works between that and the basement router. As we finish the basement, I'll likely add another access point there. I think it'll be relatively easy to add a new access point as necessary to the first floor if I determine I need one.

Thanks for your help. Very much appreciated!