Help me build a home network (please!)

[monokakata]

You have 3 switches, each uplinked to the next, then it appears an uplink there to another device.

Got it. Good one, and I guess I am slow today.

I already had a few 5-port Netgears, so when I expanded the network I used them. Thus the uplinks.

The right link goes down to the router.

 

[paduck]

You should read some articles on structured wiring. Here is a good one. Not 100% current, but it is very, very good.

http://www.swhowto.com/

It pretty much covers everything. Good luck!

 

[stubeeef]

Another stupid question...sorry but I am full of them!

If I connect a printer to the gigabit ethernet port of an Extreme or Time Capsule. And that printer is only 10/100 not gigabit, does that drag down the entire system? OR just the communication with the printer?

Don't worry, more dumb ones to come! Stay tuned.....

Here is another one...
Since I don't want to do this twice, money is not too much an option (as long as I do this DIY) > should I pull and use Cat6a vs Cat6 cable? Can't find if they use the same connectors and it is just better cable.

Just found a claim from Cables4sure that Cat6a is backward compatible to Cat 5e and Cat 6. So it is somewhat future proof imho.

pricing some wires, looks like I could do things "my way" in Cat6 for $137 or in Cat6a for $313; a $176 premium. Any opinions???

 

[steviem]

Just the port that the printer is on so the comms with just that printer. We have older PCs with just 100mbps NICs on our Gigabit lan and my PC still gets Gigabit ethernet. Also, our Printers are 10/100 too and they don't affect the speeds for anything else on the network.

I don't know much about Cat 6a though, I'm afraid...

 

[stubeeef]

thanks, I was thinking that the printer would not drag down the entire network as long as it was on it's own cable from the router and nothing else behind it.

Alright, now recommend a NAS. Seems Netgears ReadyNAS products look Mac friendly enough.

I want to stream video to 3 or 4 places in the house. as well as be a backup box.

I know NOTHING about Raid.

Thanks for all the help and ideas.

 

[Ap0k5]

The ReadyNAS boxes are pretty good for storage. You can setup a number of RAID configurations depending on what you require, some common ones below:

Striping (R0) - Marginal improvement in read & write performance (depending on setup/usage), no data protection if one disk dies the RAID dies, you do get the full disk capacity though (4 1TB drives would give you 4TB of usable storage)

Mirroring (R1) - Better read speeds, data still exists if the mirrored pair breaks, you only get half the capacity of the drives (4 1TB drives would give you 2TB of usable storage in RAID1)

Distributed Parity (R5) - Better read performance, full data protection - if one drive fails you can replace the drive and rebuild the disk so no data loss, capacity is cut by 1 drive due to parity bit storage (4 1TB drives would give you 3TB of usable storage)

I'd suggest reading a few websites about RAID levels though, so you get the full details and can pick which would best suit your situation.

Streaming video will require a NAS box that has embedded streaming software or you'd need to use a standalone machine to stream the videos. AFAIK there would be file access problems if you're trying to play the same video file on more than one machine at a time through quicktime etc...

 

[paduck]

thanks, I was thinking that the printer would not drag down the entire network as long as it was on it's own cable from the router and nothing else behind it.

Alright, now recommend a NAS. Seems Netgears ReadyNAS products look Mac friendly enough.

I want to stream video to 3 or 4 places in the house. as well as be a backup box.

I know NOTHING about Raid.

Thanks for all the help and ideas.

There's a lot of NASs out there that would be good for you. ReadyNAS, Synology, Thecus, and Sans Digital all have their advocates. Remember that if you have an Airport Express Base Station or TimeCapsule you can just plug in a USB drive and get a NAS that way.

Couple thoughts:

1. You can have both a 100Base-T router and a Gig-E router. And it might be more effective. Remember, many of your devices might be at just 100BaseT. Why not have a 100BaseT wireless router with four ports connected to your Internet router (remember, the Internet is probably your slow bottleneck). Then you can put your 100BaseT items on there (VOIP, printer, AppleTV, legacy computer hardware, etc). Have a Gig-E router/hub hanging off it. Have all the Gig-E stuff together. You can get 7+ ports that way and have all the Gig-E stuff separated out. Might be cheaper than a larger Gig-E wireless hub.

2. As noted above, if you have an Airport Express Basestation or TimeCapsule, you can hang USB drives off it rather than a NAS, but get the same functionality.

3. Basic RAID is simple. You don't need RAID1, it only places you at enhanced risk. RAID1 and RAID5 are about availability, not backup - if one of the drives goes down, you are still in business. RAID1 is probably simpler. You basically have two drives that mirror each other (if you have 2 500MB drives, then you have 500MB of storage available). RAID5 means you have three or more drives that function as one drive (with an available data space as something smaller than the sum of the three), but any one of those drives can go down and you still have your data.

4. Don't mistake RAID for backup. You can use RAID as a backup source and you get redundant backup. If your RAID corrupted, your data is gone. Make sure you have a real backup solution (which might be that you take data from your main computer and do a Time Machine backup to your RAID volume). The point is to have the data in two separate places. IE - don't make the server that is hosting your video also be your backup server.

5. As mentioned above, a UPS is probably a good idea. And good protection from power surges.

Good luck!

 

[stubeeef]

Thanks paduck.

If I daisy chain 3 usb drives off a time capsule, would that work? Call one Movies, another Music, and third Pictures?

I could have the 3 combine to less than 1TB and use the timecapsule to back those up?

 

[paduck]

Thanks paduck.

If I daisy chain 3 usb drives off a time capsule, would that work? Call one Movies, another Music, and third Pictures?

I could have the 3 combine to less than 1TB and use the timecapsule to back those up?

Yes, I think you could do this. You might want to look at hanging something like this off your TC or AEBS:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YTTRAG

Instead of three separate USB drives, you could have one enclosure with three drives. If your use the JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) each one would show up as a separate volume. A lot simpler to manage. If the sum of the disks is less than 1TB, you could back them up to a TC. Alternately, having a fourth large disk in there would allow you to backup within the same enclosure. Not necessarily ideal, but if you had a 1.5TB or 2TB disk in the fourth slot, that would give you a lot of backup space (you could call drive four "Backup".

You could also get a smaller 2-bay version and put a pair of large drives in. Mirror them with RAID1 and make that your Time Machine backup drive (remember, you can put a multi-port USB hub onto an AEBS or TC). That way the backup is in a separate device than all your other data, providing protection against that device being your single point of failure.

 

[stubeeef]

it gets to be a little like

Isle or window?
Smoking or Non Smoking?
First Class or Coach?
One Way or Round Trip?
Excursion or Non Stop?
With a meal or without?
Regular or Vegetarian?

I guess I really need to plan this out. But of course that is what I am doing and why I am asking these questions.
I am looking for an "elegant" solution to what can be come something inelegant.

 

[paduck]

I guess I really need to plan this out. But of course that is what I am doing and why I am asking these questions.
I am looking for an "elegant" solution to what can be come something inelegant.

Exactly. You can piece together something pretty easily, but with some thought you can get an elegant solution that is much more streamlined and efficient.

Get the wiring done first and then look at what to do next.

 

[stubeeef]

I think I am going to go overboard a bit and use Cat6a wiring. I know that is way overkill, but I really only want to do this once. I am 48yrs old and don't want to have to kick up from gigabit when I am 65. Although wireless will probably surpass it all in a couple of months!

I am thinking I will use a 16 port gigabit unmanaged switch so that I can use some security cameras a bit later.

I am going to route everything to the basement, and then install a cabinet with an UPS battery backup.

I will have to do some work, at least one run will approach 100'.

Thanks for the info

 

[paduck]

I think I am going to go overboard a bit and use Cat6a wiring. I know that is way overkill, but I really only want to do this once. I am 48yrs old and don't want to have to kick up from gigabit when I am 65. Although wireless will probably surpass it all in a couple of months!

Not i 18 months, but one day. Still, wired will be rock solid reliable and have a sustained bandwidth near the spec - something wireless isn't going to give you. And no one will hijack your signal.

I think you'll be fine sticking with cat-5e. It can handle Gig-E. You run cable with the two cat-5e lines and two video lines to each wall outlet and you are going to be fine.

I am thinking I will use a 16 port gigabit unmanaged switch so that I can use some security cameras a bit later.

This should do you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122139

The video cameras aren't going to require that speed. But everything in one hub does make things efficient.

I am going to route everything to the basement, and then install a cabinet with an UPS battery backup.

Good idea.

I will have to do some work, at least one run will approach 100'.

That's a long run - what is it - basement to attic, across the house and back down? Ethernet should handle it. I think the limit before you get problems i 250'.

Good luck. I'm jealous! Consider getting the work done by a professional. They are more expensive than doing it yourself, but they are a lot quicker and don't make mistakes that you have to troubleshoot. Plus, you are talking about going through walls...

 

[gajraaj]

Beyond network

This is a great thread and I have been reading it with a lot of interest. I was wondering if there is any update?

Also, I am planning to setup a similar network, but I am exploring the benefits of this effort and what it could be used for.

What are you planning to do with this/?

 

[belvdr]

That's a long run - what is it - basement to attic, across the house and back down? Ethernet should handle it. I think the limit before you get problems i 250'.

It's not that long for copper. I have gotten gigabit speeds at 407 feet using CAT5e. This was a temporary setup and would not recommend to do this in a live environment.

The theoretical limit is 100 meters (328 feet) for Ethernet over copper. Using fiber, you can get up to 120km (74.5 miles) unamplified.

 

[SHIFTLife]

For what it's worth, I'd save my money and run Cat5E instead of Cat 6. There's really no need for Cat6 in a home network, even if you want to do Gigabit. Cat5E will carry gigabit speeds with no difference over Cat6. Cat6 is a good starting point if you want to start with gigabit and move beyond in the future to technologies like 10GbE, which is overkill in every sense of the word for a home install.

I'm running a gigabit-to-the-desktop network at work with Cat5E carrying the Ethernet, and we've seen no problems over the past few years.

 

[cube]

I would buy 1Gb equipment but already lay out 10GbE cable.

 

[jgrove]

I ran, external grade 5e cable, outside the house, 5e cable inside. my cable modem has one gigabit output this goes to a NetGear SRXN3205 router, from there 1 uplink to an 8 port managed NetGear Gigabit switch, from there to some of the rooms in the house and ReadyNAS and MacPro (LAG) a PC.

The remaining outputs from the SRXN go to a EVA9150 and PS3 and one of bedroom.

pheew what a load of work!

Cheers

Forget Cat6 just not worth it, for a house, use 5e and save yourself some money. Gigabit is plenty quick enough, and untill the ISP's provide much higher upstreams and downstreams i really cannot see it being an issue.

 

[paduck]

I got tired of running a wireless signal from my desktop Mac (the 802.11g was the bottleneck moving files to my AppleTV). So I ran about 60 feet of Cat5e cable through the attic out to the router on the floor below. I was fortunate there were some pre-existing holes in the wall and I just piggy-backed on them. I had to drill a couple holes as well, but not too big a deal. Having never punched down an RJ45 connector, I was a little wary, but everything went find on the first try. I'm using the ethernet connection now. Despite no apparent need, I would run wires to all the rooms in my house if I had a pipe to run into the basement!

One question, does anyone know how to test the maximum speed of a connection? I am sure I can hit in the vicinity of 100Mbps, but not so sure about Gig-E. That will only help me if I add a Gig-E NAS, but I just wanted to test the punch-down job I did on the cable!