New Home Networking: What Questions Should I Ask Myself?

[northtexas55693]

I am building a new home right now and I am near the phase where I need to consider wiring.
I want to hardwire the house since wireless networking is not feasible due to home layout and thick 8"+ concrete walls/floors.

I know enough about home networking to be dangerous, but not enough to know things in absolute certainty.

In my mind the idea with home networking is as follows:

Know your run lengths
Know your intended needs at the connections at the ends of the runs
Choose a cable that fits your run lengths and connection needs.
Run the cables
Fit the plugs
Connect devices
Enjoy home network

I have what I think is the answer to all of those questions but I feel like I am simplifying too much and may be missing important points of consideration.

Is there something I am missing?
Should I be asking more questions about the intended network?

 

[Onus]

Where will your Internet connection enter the home? Will you be using a [small] rack in a closet somewhere? Will you want room for a NAS box there, or other centrally-shared peripherals (e.g. printer, fax, scanner/copier, or will they be located somewhere else? Especially if it will indeed be a closet, make sure that location has a suitable power outlet, and you may want room for a UPS.

 

[northtexas55693]

Internet enters home in the electrical room. There will be as many power outlets there as need be.
I do plan on using a small rack mounted on the wall studs to hold a 16 or more switch with PoE capabilities, modem, wifi router, etc.

The electrical room would have space for NAS and a printer and might be located there. I am happy with portable HDD's and SSD's and the small printer that we have so that may or may not come to fruition.

The home will have the biggest and best UPS ever. Solar panels and a huge battery array so I am set there.

 

[Onus]

Cool beans! I'm sure you know to make sure the batteries are in an area that gets adequate ventilation to prevent [explosive] hydrogen build-up.

 

[northtexas55693]

They will have their own ventilation system yes.

Is there any special consideration I should give to mixing hardwired computers, printers, NAS, game consoles, TV's, and PoE security cameras on one system?

Also most of my runs will be in the 100 to 150 foot range, with a couple being close to 200 feet. Any special considerations there?

 

[kira70591]

Consider your lengths and if possible go with all home runs to your head end. Run all Cat6 as it is cheap enough now where there is no reason not too. Terminate into patch panel in your head end and then patch through to your switch. If you become worried that a length may be too long, you could install a switch in a midway point and terminate those cables in the same room to patch through to the switch. You could then patch those two switches together with either a fiber run if the switches have the supporting ports or with another cat6 run. If you have a "normal" size house within reason, you should be able to home run Cat6 cable to a head end.

You could implement QoS and Vlans, but if you do not have a ridiculous amount of connecting equipment then you will probably be fine. I would highly recommend the Netgear ProSafe lineup. A 24 port PoE switch is not that expensive and you will be able to natively rack mount it while only using 1u of space.

Also, with those cable lengths, you should be completely fine to make home runs straight from the station side.

 

[Onus]

If you have a cluster of systems at point "A" and another cluster of systems at point "B," you might consider using a fiber run between them. If not, you're still well within the 100 meter limit for Ethernet runs.
As to all your different systems, you might want to put all the security devices in their own subnet, but that's an IP issue, not wiring.
For the wiring, if you use conduit it will be easier to pull additional lines later if you need them.

 

[northtexas55693]

Had to look up head end. This is the point of all connections (I.E. the patch/switch board) - don't know what you mean by home run though. Is this the single line run from the switch to the wall outlet?

Cat 6 will be used since 6a is too expensive and 5e is too slow/old.

While I would like to run fiber, I want PoE security cameras (since they don't need standalone power outlets)
-Don't yet know if a PoE security camera gets enough power over Ethernet cable on a 200 foot run. (Will find that out and plan accordingly)

Haven't researched it yet, but I would imagine you cant mix fiber cables for computers/TV's/game consoles/etc. with Ethernet for cameras on a single switch/patch board since if I understand correctly, switch/patch boards need be ordered for cable specificity (I.E. Cat 6 boards)

I will be using conduit in the walls since they will be filled with spray foam. Lines will be run in the attic so no conduit there.

 

[kira70591]

I apologize, from your posts it seemed like you knew most of the lingo. Yeah, head end is the central point where all of your connections are patched through (your main equipment room if you will). Home runs are straight lines directly from the station side to the head end, there is no deviation, splicing, or going through a secondary room.

Cat6 will handle 1Gb connections out to the station side so you are good there unless you want certain devices with 10Gb capability then you should really run Cat6a. At that point you would need 10Gb switching equipment so the cost will be driven up.

You would not run fiber to your station ends unless you had the correct interface on the station side. The fiber run would be between equipment such as multiple switches to maximize the throughput between them. Many switches come with SFP ports that you can get a module to insert into and then run a pre terminated fiber patch to the other device.

You should have no problem powering something with PoE within the standard cabling length especially at your distances.

I would use bridal rings or cable holders up in the attic so that you do not have cables sprawled along the joists where you could accidentally step on them at a later date.

 

[Onus]

Another option for your security cameras, if power is needed, could be Powerline networking. Especially out to remote light poles on the property, this could cut down on the wiring you need to do.

 

[northtexas55693]

Thanks for the lingo run down. I've posted with lingo I've learned in research and some innate knowledge. Learned something new today.

Since I plan on going plane jane as far as home runs go (1 line from switch to wall outlet) and since I am under the 300 foot mark on all runs I don't think I will need fiber for switch 2 switch interfaces or anything else like that.

Using conduit will allow for future upgrades if I decide I don't like the networks performance and when better cheaper cables come out.

Cable holders will be employed in the attic. I put a 2x6 board flat on the joists to allow for cable runs and cable tie downs. Should be good there.

Thanks for all the wisdom. I'll research more (especially about switches and patches) and come back with more questions.

Yall have a good one.

 

[kira70591]

Also, please remember to use velcro. Zipties can cut into the cabling and ruin the run. Velco is also much easier to modify in the future. If you have the money, I might recommend running 2 or 3 runs to certain areas such as where your computer is located or to where you may have a home entertainment system. When you start adding too many switches to a system, issues can start occurring. Are you also running Cat6 for your phone runs? If you were planning to do that, I would just use Cat5/Cat5e. If you are going to use IP phones then you had might as well run Cat6 as you may want to place something else there later that may require data.

We have had great experiences so far with Netgear GS728TP-100NAS model switches. If you can fit one into your budget it should last you for years and you will be able to rack mount it. It will also allow you to expand later should you wish as it has more ports than what you require.

As for Cat6 patch cables, I would just get ICC cables. They are on the cheaper side and the boots can be a pain but I have had great luck with them so far and have really not had any performance issues. They perform as expected.

For the station side I would highly recommend Leviton QuickPort Cat6 Jacks.

http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-61110-RW6-eXtreme-QuickPort-Connector/dp/B000RATBWQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428077036&sr=8-1&keywords=leviton+quickport+cat+6

They may be pricey but they last and do the job. As for patch panels, you could go Leviton again, or you could go with a cheaper ICC patch panel. You can definitely tell the quality difference between the two in terms of rigidity while punching down the wire, but I have not noticed a performance decrease with the ICC panels. Just brace the front of the panel with your hand or something while punching if you use the ICC panels.

There are definitely cheaper options out there; however, you get what you put into it. You could always run the cable now and terminate later at the station side with the more expensive keystones as need the jacks to help save some money now but I would recommend terminating everything that you want now as you would be able to validate the cable run. It is much more hard and expensive to go back and replace a cable once everything is roughed in and you find that a cable run is defunct.