Question New home network with mesh wifi sanity check? Ethernet backhaul related question

[phozfiend]

Hello!

We are moving to a new home (yay!) - it’s lovely, renovated and bigger than our current place. In our current smaller home, we’re currently just managing with with a single modem provided by the ISP (with decent built in wifi), but our heaviest traffic is still managed on a wired gigabit setup (TV, HTPC, Console).

Since the new house is larger and our kids are getting old enough to want/use their own devices, I assumed I’d have to go fully wireless with a mesh network at the new house. Thankfully though, the contractors had the foresight to wire a network jack to each floor. Since it seems to be an option for most mesh network setups, I would love to use the ethernet backhaul function to keep the network more robust. That said, the mesh systems in a reasonable budget all seem to only have three (or four) RJ45 jacks, so no way to plug in the modem and the 4 floors (I’d need 5 jacks). Here’s the idea I’ve come up with. It uses all three jacks on the first mesh node, while still hardwiring our heaviest spot (the media station/TV).

https://imgur.com/v0rFHMz

View: https://i.imgur.com/v0rFHMz.jpeg

The lines are physical cable connections (ignore the arrows), and the grey pills are the ethernet jacks on each floor. Please excuse the likely incorrect shapes, I was on my phone and am not a network engineer!

Does this make some degree of sense? I could pick up a 3 unit mesh system that would cover the ISP input, main floor with backhaul and my basement office (fully wireless, unfortunately). I could then add two more mesh nodes later if needed for the 2nd floor and attic loft. The two unmanaged switches would would be directing backhaul traffic and traffic at the media center. It's the fomer scenario (backhaul traffic) that I'm less familiar with, as the latter (media center traffic) is what we have working now.

Thanks!

 

[Ralston18]

Remember that if a room/location has only one wired network jack/wall outlet then you could also connect an additional switch to that jack and provide wired connections to mulitple devices in that immediate area.

Switches can be purchased with 4 and even more ports as necessary and required.

And it may be easier than you think to run a couple more ethernet cables to other locations and install additional jacks. I suggest doing some "reading" on DYI home network installs. Just to help you consider options.

= = = =

As for the diagram - it's fine.

Never let form get in the way of function....

 

[bniknafs9]

Hi
i'm not an expert .
But a mesh set-up is only something they use in North America , western europe and maybe japan where people have natural low-latencies.
if your kids are gonna play games with Mesh they're gonna lose all their games , since FPS is dependent on their latencies .
if you are not pre-occupied with static IP's and internet of things IoT . then simple switches would do .
why not run an optical newtwork instead ? they are thinner than lan cables no need to upgrade to next level CAT 6 or 7 or 8 , and you only have to pay for fusion.

like i
i connected one of my two ONT's to this LAN socket i installed myself :

it all goes upstairs to this dirty box at our rooftop with a simple unmanaged , D-link gigabit switch ,

then all the way back downstairs almost 5 floors , to this POE switch which is for our IP cams ,

you see even this old POE switch has two rooms for installing , optic cable module (for optical based home networks)


and i share my access to internet using simple switches to the NVR we have :

or for internet access itself , i have this VDSL i'm using as a router for the 1st floor :

Or this one , a wifi repeater i'm using as an access point to give my father in the basement , internet access .

simple switches would do ,
mes h is something they set up in the United Kingdom to monitor their wives , their kids and perhaps their dogs too .

 

[phozfiend]

Remember that if a room/location has only one wired network jack/wall outlet then you could also connect an additional switch to that jack and provide wired connections to mulitple devices in that immediate area.

Switches can be purchased with 4 and even more ports as necessary and required.

Gotcha - effectively what I've described I'm doing now in our current house and what I've described and shown in the diagram for our next house. Glad to see I'm on the right track there. Do you foresee any issues with the ethernet backhaul switch being unmanaged?

And it may be easier than you think to run a couple more ethernet cables to other locations and install additional jacks. I suggest doing some "reading" on DYI home network installs. Just to help you consider options.

Totally agree, but happy wife happy life and all that. Running cables and punching new holes in otherwise pristine brand new walls will not be a popular proposal. If her work call quality drops, maybe that conversation will happen then.

As for the diagram - it's fine.

Never let form get in the way of function....

Can't tell if sarcasm? It should be objectively functional though, right? As as for form over function, trust me, you're preaching to the choir on that one given what I do for a living.

Thanks!!

 

[nigelivey]

Why on earth would you hang your NAS off a mesh node when it could be hardwired to a switch?

 

[phozfiend]

Why on earth would you hang your NAS off a mesh node when it could be hardwired to a switch?

The answer to this is both tedious and frustrating, but if I can relocate it to a wired position I will.

 

[bniknafs9]

it's not tedious , nor frustrating since your cables are running and wall sockets are installed already . all you need are cheap * [Moderator edit to remove unnecessary characterization] gigabit switches to spread the internet across your house .

 

[Ralston18]

@phozfiend

No - not sarcasm. The diagram served its intended purpose.

Frankly, my network diagram "layout" is a basic Excel spreadsheet using boxed cells and some " ------>"'s pointing at other cells. Or " ~~~~~ >" for wireless.

My Linksys router provides various network "summaries" and diagrams. I take screenshots and print those out as well. Nothing fancy.

And there are some free tools online that will do discovery (find devices) and provide network diagrams in various formats. Something you can look into if you are so inclined.

= = = =

Indeed, some inexpensive, unmanaged switches could work very well.

I would start with one known working switch and move it about over a few days time to test each working area. Keep/make notes on your diagram as you proceed.

There may be "Eureka" moment.

Then add other switches or cable runs (understand that there are trade-offs and restrictrions but there may be ways to work those out) to later on complete the full network. May need to tinker and revise a bit so keep things temporary until everyone is happy.

Once the full network is up and running, then clean up the wiring (cable management) etc. trying to mainain accessibilty and aesthetics. Document and even photograph all for future references.