New home network

[bubbahana]

Hello everyone!
I will be building a new house soon and need help with what to do for a network. There will be about ten rooms that I would like to have multiple gigabit ports in. I was looking at the Netgear JGs524 but I am not sure what all hardware I will need. I also would like to have wireless networking throughout the house. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance!

 

[starcad]

So help me God, this is a true story. Last week while working the floor I took a call for a guy ( nameless of course ) that told me his problem was his Internet had suddenly stopped working. I went through the usual techie procedure of checking billing to make sure he wasn't hard disconnected and then went to check the status of the modem ( if I could see it online ) It was there, however it was in block and I needed to fix the records. Usually just flip a the switch and power cycle the router/modem. Fixed the records and varified the modem again and went back to talk to the costumer and -

Me: "Sir, could you please remove the power from your modem and router."
Customer: "Well, that is going to be a little hard to do as it is drywalled into the house and I would have to break down the drywall to get to it".

So, on the new house, Please do us techies a favor and place the modem and router/s in an area that is accessible.

To end the story I did a soft reset of the modem from my end and was lucky enough to bring him back online. Just luck I guess.

 

[shamoo]

till it shorts and burns down his house...

 

[bubbahana]

Well I have set up a couple small wireless networks and I am a firefighter so I don't plan on either of those scenarios happening. Does anyone have any suggestions for this network?

 

[starcad]

My biggest suggestion is to make sure you set everything up in an area that you can control. What I mean is that your main computer, router, and modem are all in the same area within arms reach, in a convient room. That way if you have to power cycle the router and modem along with the computer you don't have to run down three flights of stairs or up to the attic. You could also locate your shared printer, scanner, etc. in the same place. This could all be centeraly located in the house which would shorten the distance between the computers using wireless connections.

Sounds to me, though, that you have a good plan started just need to work out the fine details.

 

[blue68f100]

You will need to run Cat 5e to all rooms from where you plan on setting up your equipment. Since you will need more than 4 ports you will need a switch to expand your system. I would go with a 8 port router (10/100) then add a 8 port switch(10/100/1000). Connecting all 100baseT to the router and only the hardware needing the gigabit to the switch. Printers, wireless and most pc do not need the gigabit speed. Even most NAS do not need the gigabit speed.

DO NOT Buy a router with pre-11n or MIMO. Save your money. Every thing out there is on v1 spec. None will run the v2 at this time.

Since you will be needing wireless, use AP's. Depending on your house layout you may need only one. AP are more versitial than routers. Are not tied down with all the wires. Can be setup for roaming with the right mfg.

If you are planing on streaming video, run a cat5e specificly for that run, don't rely on wireless.

It's cheaper during a build to add as many runs as you need. You don't need to terminate untill you are ready to use.

If you plan on having your equipment in special room or location, make sure you have adiquate cooling. NAS , switches, pc's, printers .... all generate heat.

 

[Madwand]

I'd use such a project as an excuse to get a "good" switch. (What would it cost compared to the house, all the effort involved, etc., why not get something more reliable and remotely manageable, do it right the first time, etc..).

Now, there's nearly no limit on what you can spend in quest of "really good", but you should be able to get something demonstrably "better" above the bottom price level.

E.g. HP Procurve 1800-24G (J9028A) ~$360.
(Pricegrabber has a typo in the model number)
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=24833063/sort_type=price/ut=ce7e5222e6e80e79

Even the Netgear GS724T ~ $225 after $75 mail-in rebate from certain vendors would be a step up with not much more cost.

http://www.pcnation.com/rebates/NetgearQ4.pdf
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=2497164/sort_type=price/ut=ce7e522217c04d4f

Note also that all switches at this level generate some heat and have audible fans for cooling.

I believe that HP has a better reputation in this area than Netgear, but please note that I have no experience with these switches, so my suggestions need to be taken with caution.

 

[blue68f100]

I believe Dlink has better switches than Netgear. They give you free customer support (phone) for 1 yr, where netgear is only 3 mo. Netgear makes a good product, just there tech support is ????? I was helping debug some firmware on a router (FVS338), once they got it to a certain point, they don't want to work with me anymore. The firmware is about 95% at this time with a couple of major items that needs addressing. It's far better than the 1.6 they have posted on there site.

I picked up a DGS-1216T switch off of ebay. It's some where in between a full manage switch and un-managed. Seams to be a solid product.

One thing you will notice is if you go more than 8 ports they start adding cooling fans to them. So they are no longer quite. Some generate a fair amount of heat, 50+watts and noise.

Netgear is very vague on weather there products support QoS fully and Large packets. Read the specs closely, will only apply to the latest HW.

 

[jjw]

What no suggestions for Cat6... My story is that my ex-boss (several years back) built his house and did the low voltage wiring himself. If I remember right he ran conduit throughout the house not only to shield the cabling from EMI but for upgradabilty, it is easy to pull new wire if it's in conduit.

As for the wifi, consider some of the more integrated solutions, ceiling mounted antenna. If done right, it will look better than having a linksys sitting on a bookshelf. This means running power and network to the right location.

As noted above you don't have to terminate every connection. I would consider making several drops per room, in different locations, this way if the desk is put in a different corner you don't have to run the patch cable across the room.

I'm a little jealous, in my area you'd have to be a CFO embezzling 7 figures to build a new house. (my house was built in 1950, and has metal lath plaster walls --> bad for wifi)

 

[Madwand]

Netgear is very vague on weather there products support QoS fully and Large packets. Read the specs closely, will only apply to the latest HW.

This is one of the advantages of managed switches -- these are typically firmware-upgradable, and after a certain point, the firmware supports jumbo frames (and perhaps other features). (Of course sometimes there might be a HW issue as well, and with older hardware, there may be no such firmware, and fixing all firmware issues requires that the company cares to do so.)

 

[Iceblue]

(my house was built in 1950, and has metal lath plaster walls --> bad for wifi)

Well, that depends... at least you wouldn't have to worry much about using encryption to keep the bored teenager next door from leaching your ethernet bandwidth! :lol: